Joel Plaskett is admittedly a little tired. For his followup to 2009’s ambitious triple album ‘Three,’ Plaskett has decided to take it up yet another notch — recording and releasing one song a week, for 10 weeks. Now, nearly done the process, he’s exhausted but says it’s been worth it.
“It’s relentless but it’s really fun and it’s worth it,” Plaskett tells Spinner. “It’s cool because you get to spend more time on each song, individually, but because there’s a deadline you never have the luxury of stepping away from it for more than five minutes.
“It’s a little more intense than I thought it would be but it’s been a really neat process and it’s making a different record than I’ve ever made; even a different record than I thought I’d make.”
Having little time to second guess his work is proving to be a double-edged sword for Plaskett. But for him and his band, the Emergency, their weekly Monday deadline (the songs debut on CBC Radio and are subsequently put on iTunes the following day) is helping them hone in their instincts.
“You always want to put your best foot forward but, frankly, I don’t know as an artist if you always know what your best foot is,” explains Plaskett. “If you’re acting on instinct and if your instincts get honed through time, and hopefully through talent, you trust them. I also know that, given time, I will overthink things and I can toil over the mixes. But there’s a deadline [now] and I can’t go any further so it may not be the definitive version but it’s the only version, so here it is!”
‘Scrappy Happiness,’ the album featuring these radio tracks, will be released on March 27, and Plaskett hopes that by then people don’t write it off as “that’s so January!”
“It’s still a faster turn out than most and my diehard fan base is really enjoying it,” he says. “It’s been a real learning curve in terms of how to pace time.”
Plaskett explains that the title is also reflective of the overall pieced-together recording aspect and that the idea of imperfection is something that not only applies to this record but in life, in general.
“The things that make you happy are usually imperfect, and in this past year I’ve had time to step back, reflect and just try to the best of my ability to enjoy things for what they are even if they feel a little bit messed up” he says. “It’s just an uphill battle and you’ll live your life unhappy if you think things need to be perfect.”
by Melody Lau