Toronto has at various times been home to such renowned songwriters as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson and Gordon Lightfoot, and when Sexsmith arrived in 1987, the music scene was undergoing a renaissance. Blue Rodeo and the Cowboy Junkies were beginning to get serious attention; Sexsmith, who worked as a bike courier by day, gravitated to open mike nights at area clubs, where his fellow aspiring singers provided inspiration.
“It was real competitive for me,” he says. “You would hear a great song and go, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ I could go home and try to write a great song and play it next week. It was just a good learning experience. It was almost like the songs shone a light on my weaknesses as a songwriter.”
Gradually, he scaled back the complexity of his lyrics and honed the conversational style that still distinguishes his music. His Ray Davies and Beatles fixation melded with new influences such as Lightfoot, Harry Nilsson, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.
“A songwriter is someone who has his own point of view and his own melody and he is kind of like in his own world. That is the thread, I guess,” Sexsmith says. “I saw that I could have a song where the verse is like Leonard Cohen and the chorus is like the Beatles. I love country music, but I don’t want to pretend I didn’t hear Frank Zappa or Harry Nilsson or whatever.
“I am a hybrid. I think that is really the only kind of music there is anymore. All these influences coming from all over. It is just trying to find a way to take all these influences and make them relevant to yourself.”
At one songwriters show, a fellow musician noticed Sexsmith had neglected to take a number to secure his spot in the lineup, and offered to share his turn onstage with the newcomer. “I thought, ‘Wow, if I ever get anywhere, I gotta help this guy out,'” Sexsmith laughs.
As it turned out, his new friend didn’t need his help. Bobby Wiseman was keyboardist with Blue Rodeo (he later quit the band, around 1992) and offered to record a two-song demo for Sexsmith. They ended up cutting 11 tracks; after unsuccessfully shopping it to labels, they issued it in 1991 independently under the title Grand Opera Lane. (Sexsmith says recent plans to reissue it were “kind of squashed” by Interscope last year, but he still intends to make it available to fans at some point.)
The indie release landed him a deal with Interscope Music Publishing; he spent the next year writing and demoing tracks hoping to land covers on other people’s records. Those demos attracted the attention of Polydor, who offered a record deal. When Interscope honcho Jimmy Iovine got wind of the offer, he summoned Sexsmith to Los Angeles, had him audition in his office and offered him a deal on the spot. The sensitive, low-key troubadour suddenly found himself a labelmate of such acts as Dr. Dre, Helmet and Limp Bizkit.
“It was lonely to begin with. I was the only singer-songwriter on the label,” he says. “I always find [those artists] crazed and intense on the surface. It is almost like those scary movies, like the kids really like them, but I never really find any real danger in that music. It seems like a lot of sound and fury, and all that kind of stuff.”
Working with producers Froom and Blake, Sexsmith went to Dreamland Studios in upstate New York to craft his self-titled Interscope debut. The record’s deceptively complex sound kept the singer’s voice and guitar upfront, surrounded by a lattice of subtle, unexpected instrumentation that reveals its invention only on repeated listenings.
“Tchad doesn’t even want to hear the song until the studio, until you are in there. He’s kind of spontaneous,” Sexsmith says. “Mitchell is the song guy. He comes in and is very interested in the arrangement of the song. If there is a chord he thinks could be richer somehow, he will try to figure it out,” says Sexsmith. Froom’s expansive client roster has led to subsequent guest appearances on Sexsmith’s records by the likes of Sheryl Crow, Tracy Bonham, ex-Del Fuego Dan Zanes and Attractions drummer Pete Thomas.
Sexsmith and his producers were delighted with the results. The label was less than dazzled. “Interscope hated it. They didn’t want to put it out and I was trying to stand my ground. I really was proud of it,” Sexsmith says. Hoping to salvage something they deemed worthy of release, the label dangled the prospect of having Sexsmith work with fellow Canadian Daniel Lanois, well-known for his work with Dylan, Peter Gabriel, U2, Emmylou Harris and others.
