Gord Downie’s big brother Mike notes how “unguarded” the Hip singer sounds in our interviews

By Steve Newton

Last month I posted a blog about how psyched I was to learn that some of the audio from my interviews with Gord Downie was going to be used in an upcoming documentary series on the Tragically Hip.

The four-part doc–which will stream on Amazon Prime in October of 2024–is being helmed by Downie’s brother Mike, a director, writer, and producer whose numerous credits include the animated film The Secret Path and the documentaries Invasion of the Brain Snatchers and The COVID Cruise, both of which aired on the CBC-TV program The Nature of Things.

Mike Downie, who is also cofounder of the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund–which aims to build cultural understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples–is not an avid X (Twitter) user, but three days ago he kindly replied to the tweet I had sent out about my old interviews with Gord being used in his new project.

“So glad you took such good care of those cassettes Steve,” wrote Downie. “Gord seems so unguarded in your phone invus.”

The elder Downie was referring to my habit of saving almost all of the cassette tapes I used to record interviews with musicians since 1982. I used five of them to capture conversations with Gord between 1989 and 1996, and, like I said before, I’m psyched about hearing them in the finished film.

I’ve always been a fan of “unguarded” moments.

To learn more about the upcoming Tragically Hip documentary series on Amazon Prime go here.

Donate to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research by going here.