By Steve Newton
Today I found yet another reason to be thankful that I saved the roughly 220 audio cassettes I used to record my interviews with musicians since 1982.
I was digitizing my 2003 phone interview with Tom Cochrane, and when that conversation ended there were still a couple of minutes left on Side B of the Sony HF 60 tape. I let it play through and heard myself talking to some guy, and it only took me a few seconds to realize that it was my 1998 interview with Vancouver record producer Bruce Fairbairn, the famed knob-twiddler whose golden ears had helped bands like Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Van Halen, and Loverboy sell millions and millions of albums.
I’d often wondered where that interview had gotten to, not realizing that–five years after meeting Fairbairn at his Armoury Studios and hanging around with him for hours to get the scoop on his career–I’d used the same tape to record American blues artists Walter Trout and Guy Davis, Canadian pop-rocker Craig Northey, and the aforementioned Cochrane.
I really wished I hadn’t recorded over the Fairbairn interview, because he was a fascinating fellow, and the lengthy article I wrote on him turned out quite well. At least he thought so. After it was published he made a point of calling me up and thanking me for it, and saying how much he liked it. That never happens. Seriously. Not to me, anyway.
Sadly, six months after that rare, confidence-boosting call, Fairbairn died in his sleep of unknown causes at the age of 49.
So I was really surprised and happy to have stumbled on the remnants of our conversation today. Here’s a brief snippet where I ask him which bands he wished he could work with that he hadn’t yet.
Have a listen: