By Steve Newton
As a freelance writer for the Georgia Straight back in the heyday of the weekly paper, it was highly unusual that I would interview the same artist more than once in the same calendar year.
But I did two interviews with Gord Downie in 1995–one in January and another in July–because the Tragically Hip were touring maniacs that year, playing Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum in the winter before returning for a summer show at UBC’s Thunderbird Arena on an Another Roadside Attraction tour.
The January chat took place less than four months after the release of the group’s fourth full-length album, Day for Night. With song titles like “Scared”, “Thugs”, “Nautical Disaster”, and “Inevitability of Death”–and some pretty sombre cover art–I wondered if it was the Hip’s darkest album yet, but Downie wasn’t so sure.
Have a listen:
Donate to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research by clicking sunnybrook.ca/gord.