Interview: Woolly Leaves, opening for Apostle of Hustle @ The Grad Club, Feb. 3
At press time, this show was cancelled due to illness. Tickets can be refunded at The Grad
Club or exchanged for the Feb. 10 Apostle of Hustle concert at The Grad Club with openers Woolly
Leaves and Chris Brown.
Even rock stars need a little peace and quiet now and then—but it’s odd that three members of
Canadian rock ’n’ roll juggernaut the Constantines decided to dial it way down at the same time.
During their break after touring Tournament of Hearts, guitarist Steve Lambke released sweet, occasionally twangy, folk as Baby Eagle, lead singer Bry Webb began playing with the Paramedics and keyboardist/guitarist Will Kidman outhushed them all with Woolly Leaves.
The aptly named Quiet Waters is an almost uncomfortably intimate affair where you can hear Kidman’s every breath and sniffle, with his quavering voice and wellcrafted lyrics front and centre. A half-hour study of understatement, the smallest embellishments speak for entire songs: the rough tinkle of the guitar on “San Luis Rey,” or the nearly whispered female vocals on “People and the Planets,” a piece so pared-down that the brief climbing melody of a guitar at the end enters
as a revelation.
But for Kidman, Woolly Leaves is a return to his roots rather than a step in a softer new direction.
Kidman learned guitar and began writing songs as a teenager in Ayr, Ont., and later played in a succession of Cambridge bands. He joined the Constantines in 2002 after opening for them as Woolly
Leaves in 2001.
“When I was younger, my lyrics were terrible,” Kidman said. “But my guitar playing is fucking awesome! I just heard a tape of my band when I was 19 a couple weeks ago, for the first time in a long time, and I could play guitar way better than I can now. Way etter. But at the same time … the
vocals were terrible, and the lyrics were even worse … .
“I only ever just listened torecords when I was a kid and got excited and started bands. And I’m still doing that, so there’s no real, like, way—I never learned how to be a musician, I just kind of figured
it out. And I think I’ll always figure it out, and I’m still figuring it out.”
Quiet Waters is still a long way from the crooked pop of 2002’s Dew Dab, when Woolly Leaves was a drums-and-guitar duo. “Now that I get to play really loud music a lot and do it really well with the band, I don’t necessarily have really the burning desire to incorporate that all the time into some of my solo songs,” Kidman said.
“I just kind of preferred a quiet, really late-night type of sound.” Kidman, in the middle of ordering a clubhouse sandwich after waking up around 1:30, is soft-spoken, self-deprecating and offhandedly hilarious. His habit of turning sentences into questions and constant insecurity about how clearly he’s expressing himself seems at odds with the definite images of his lyrics, but maybe he’s uncomfortable with anything less carefully drawn than “Bitter winds and TV screens are bouncin’ off the icy street / Beauty and economy are shakin’ for affection.”
Recorded in bursts on a digital 8-track when he had time to work on the record, Kidman is considering a more focused approach to the next Woolly Leaves release. “These days I’m trying to sit down and spend a lot more time in front of the piano … but when I made that record … whenever I had an idea I’d just do it,” he said. “… I’m trying to learn to play piano, basically. I realize that if you practice, that helps getting better. It’s not magic, like I once thought it was. But whenever you’ve got an idea, you just kinda pay attention to it.
“But I can’t always be inspired. It’s kind of impossible. I just figured that out last week.” Kidman completed his first solo tour in November with Julie Doiron and Shotgun and Jaybird, which included a stop at The Artel. “I had a really awesome time. It was really quiet. It was lightweight.
And, uh, it was equally as fun [as touring with the Constantines] but a totally different kind of fun,
probably just because I was touring with different people—or traveling with different people,” he said.
“… I was trying to figure out how to play quiet songs in a rock club, and I don’t know if I really figured
it out, but it’s a total challenge. I don’t expect people to be quiet, especially when they don’t know
the songs. But some people bought the record, so maybe next time they’ll care to listen a little more?”
After performing on his own, Kidman returned to the Constantines with a fresh perspective on the band. The Constantines will road-test material or their next record on a tour in March.
“It actually totally did change things, and I think for the good … When you’re with your band yougot all the guys to bounce off of all the time, right? And without that it’s just like, not that I don’t usually take care of myself, but … . “I was just going to places I’d been to many times before and seeing things I’d never really seen before, by nature of the shows and stuff being smaller too. So it was great.” Monday night, the Constantines played the first show of a short stint opening for The Tragically Hip. “They were great, andsuper-nice, so it was a pretty fun experience.
“I was kinda raised to be a hockey player, so to play in hockey arenas feels like I kinda made it,
you know? It’s a good story for my mom to tell her friends.” Kidman recalled the Constantines’ attempt to pay tribute to The Hip’s hometown at an October 2004 Elixir show by covering “Fifty-Mission Cap.”
“I remember me and Steve [Lambke] being really into the idea. We were going to play ‘Fireworks’ as well that night, but after we stopped playing ‘Fifty-Mission Cap’ halfway through because it was so fuckin’ awful—or, half of us stopped, and me and Steve kept going—we decided we shouldn’t play ‘Fireworks.’ ” Kidman’s next record is unlikely to be full of Tragically Hip covers, but everything else is up in the air. “I’m kinda always thinking about everything, kinda dreaming about all the different ideas and parts that go into a song … When you get down to recording themis when I realize if those dreams are any good or not, ’cause lots of times, they’re not.
“Hence: my next record being all guitar solos. ’Cause once I get in there, I’m just going to think, ‘Oh fuck, what was I saying? This as a terrible idea.’ ”
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