Entertainment Features

Wide Mouth Mason Returns to Hamilton

By David DeRocco

There was moment in 2001 when Shaun Verreault, lead vocalist and guitarist for Saskatoon-based rock band WIDE MOUTH MASON, found himself backstage chatting with Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, as his band prepared to open for the rock legends in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at Toronto’s SkyDome.

“We were talking to Charlie about these houses he owned that he never stayed at,” said Verreault, recalling a few highlights from Wide Mouth Mason’s 20-plus years as one of Canada’s most mercurial three-piece rock bands. “They he started looking at my shirt going, ‘that’s a nice shirt, I’d look good in that shirt.’ I wasn’t sure if he was messing with me. I was like, ‘he wants me to take off my shirt, I’m a touring musician with eight shirts, he has houses he’s never lived in.’ I was right on the verge of giving it to him, when Keith Richards walked over like Jack Sparrow, reached up and just pinched my cheeks, like my little Ukrainian baba used to do. And he went, ‘eh mate, smile. You can still smile, look at me.’ When I told Craig Northey from The Odds, who we were writing with at the time, he said, ‘I can still smile, that’s a good one.’ That became our song “Smile.”

The Stones encounter is just one of the tales from an endless road that has seen Wide Mouth Mason travelling the world, opening for legends including AC/DC, and carving out a loyal fan base with their undefinable hybrid of radio-friendly rock, pop and blues. With catchy songs like the aforementioned “Smile,” along with 90s Canadian rock staples like “Midnight Rain,” “Why,” “Sugarcane” and “My Old Self,” and their propensity to experiment with various genres and styles, Wide Mouth Mason continues to draw fans well into their third decade as a band. In anticipation of their upcoming headline performance at Hamilton’s annual “It’s Your Festival,” Verreault took some time to chat with GOBE WEEKLY about recording new music, song-writing wisdom from Gord Downie, and the lessons learned from watching rock legends give their all.

GOBE: It’s been 21 years since the official Warner release of NAZARENE. When you think of that time in your career, what were the overriding emotions you remember?

SHAUN: When you’re doing something for the first time, everything is fresh and new. You’re like, wow, we’re playing Toronto for the first. We’re headlining a club for the first time. I think what happens with musicians over a long period of time is you run out of firsts, and you have to find ways to make 30 firsts and 40 firsts more interesting. The way you do that is by gaining perspective on doing what you’re doing. The other way you can stay excited and access that same thing you felt on your first record is to kind of constantly reinvent yourself.

GOBE: Is that reinventing yourself as a musicians, a songwriter, a performer, or all those things?

SHAUN: We’ve been involved in the process of that for a while. We’ve recorded about 15 or 16 songs for a new record. And we’re recording even more, writing way more than we need to, kind of picking the stuff that hangs together. And I’ve stumbled on to a new way to play lap steel guitar that I’m developing, where I use three slides at a time. And it feels like I’m a 12-year-old in my bedroom because I’m doing that. It’s like started from scratch with an awareness of having learned guitar once already. Every time I learn a new chord or learn how to do something in tune it’s like I’m that same kid in the same bedroom discovering something

GOBE: So flash forward to 2018. What’s keeps a wily veteran of the music industry up at night, or when you think about Wide Mouth Mason’s place in the lexicon of Canadian bands.

SHAUN: I’ve sort of personally come to a place where all I really can control and manage is my own reaction to stuff. The biz side of it really feels foreign. Saf (Safwan Javed, percussion, backing vocals) is a music lawyer, so he’s kind of in touch with the ins and outs of it on a daily basis on a way I don’t think I am. My brain is very removed from where we are in the hierarchy and what things we’ll do commercially. For me it’s all about the creative side of it. Am I pushing myself to be a better lyricist. Am I writing melodies that I can’t get out of my head. Is the energy when we play together infectious. As far as our place in it, my brain is ‘now’ focused, what am I doing now. All I really focus on is the music.

GOBE: What other lessons have you learned to help you focus on writing new music.

SHAUN: I remember when we recorded at the Hip’s studio. We had an opportunity to play some shows together and knew each other a bit to know Gord Downie. We’re standing in the room where all his books and stuff that he would just pull form and write lyrics from. I was like ‘hey Gord, how do you manage to speak like the every man and then be the most poetic, esoteric, floating-in-space kind of lyricist. How do you make those things work together the way you do. He said, ‘well I just look at the lyric I wrote and I think, is it giving me what I need. And if the answer is yes than I use it.’ (laughing). What a Gord Downie answer. You both completely answered it and didn’t at all, but I get it. That’s as far as you need to think as a creative person.

GOBE: Musically the band has always been about maneuvering through different styles and genres, testing the waters with each album. Has that kept it fun.

SHAUN: It has, yeah. A thing that started to happen a lot more these days, and maybe it’s by necessity, is people are involved in a lot of different projects. Here’s the band thing they do, and here’s the solo thing they do, and then they’re part of a collective. When we were coming up it was like a gang oriented thing – you don’t really do things outside of the band or people will think the band broke up. I always felt like if this is going to be my main avenue of doing things, I’ve always loved the Princes and Bowies and even Stevie Ray Vaughn who everyone thinks as just a blue musician. We’ve always been a live-based band, and you want to have a range of different kinds of songs to play. Some that are succinct 3 minute statements and others that are a spring board to improvisation and jams. Maybe to our detriment. We’re a brand as well as a band, so maybe some people get confused.

GOBE: Getting ready for the interview, I put together a playlist of some of your classic tunes. And all it reminded me of was, when I consider my memories of the band, just how undefinable the music was, the energy of the music and the musicianship.

SHAUN: Thanks man. I feel like everyone’s music collection is just that. Anyone who is passionate about music kind of goes all over the place. I think our listening tastes are like that. Especially for all our 20s an d30s. we were on the road every day of the year. That becomes your life, your existence daily, so you want to go on a bit of a journey during a set. Blues is like the 10 middle letters of our alphabet. I don’t think we’d be happy doing 12-bar blues all night, but we’re happy to access that and put it next to our love of The Police or our love of Hendrix and psychedelic exploration.

GOBE: Is Gordie Johnson still recording and touring with you?

SHAUN: Gordie hasn’t been touring with us for a while. He’s really trying to be around his family in Texas. For a minute there he was touring with Grady, touring with Big Sugar, touring with us. I think he’s made a concerted effort to be around home.

GOBE: Have you learned any road lessons that makes it easier to handle the rigors of touring these days?

SHAUN: I think 20 years ago there was a lot of stuff that we saw as essential. We’ve learned overtime it wasn’t’. If we had a one off date in 1998 in Newfoundland, we would fly pallets full of gear there the days before and have someone arrive to get it. We got a call once that Slash had just pulled out of the AC/DC tour and if we could be in Florida we could open up for three shows or maybe even add another week. And all our gear was on a train. So we had to just take all the guitars and amps we had at home. We wound up doing eight weeks of touring with them. After this many years of playing as a band, if you can’t just show up and use what’s there you’re in trouble. It’s sort of the reverse of the prima donna thing. The less you have to rely on the better.

GOBE: What stands out for in terms of accomplishments or experiences you’ve had as a result of your career with Wide Mouth Mason. What are the things that when you think of them you say, wow that really happened.

SHAUN: I think any of the experience we had where we got to meet and play with our heroes have been the pinch-me moments. One of the first moments that comes to mind is when we were backstage opening for The Rolling Stones. The thing that really stands out is, when we were doing these shows, Mick was really violently ill with the flu. It was hidden before-band, he had people tending to him. Then he walked on stage and became larger-than-life Mick Jagger. I saw so many nights on other tours where they would carry Angus Young off the stage, two people covering him in blankets because he was shivering after giving it all. These weren’t New York shows, they were somewhere in North Dakota or somewhere. He played like to him it was the most important thing in the world. He gave his everything. The people who still grind it out, who still push the limits, that’s really inspiring to see.

GOBE: What will fans be inspired to see when Wide Mouth Mason roles into Gage Park June 30th.

SHAUN: It’s going to be a mix of old and new. I think last year when it was the 20 year anniversary of the first record, we delved back into it and started playing some songs we hadn’t played in a while. And some stuff from No Bad Days, the record we did with Gordie. A mix from our entire career and some brand new stuff, at least a couple songs we’ve never played in front of people before. The new stuff has gone in a really greasy, blues rock direction. So a mix of rock influences, pop influences and a lot of blues rock vibe!

For more information on It's Your Festival, visit:  https://itsyourfestival.ca/entertainment/headliners/