Tom Cochrane

Canada has it's share of icons in the music industry. Not very often, do you find one as prolific as Tom Cochrane.  From his rising success with Red Rider in the late 70's, to his current work in a more singer/songwriter mode he turns out exceptional music time and time again. Along with a career than has spanned 3 decades, Tom has also found the time to be aware of the world around him, and to take action in causes that he feels strongly about. Many trips to impoverished nations, appearing at Live8 and an ongoing relationship with World Vision, Tom really has walked a Ragged Ass Road to success.  Read on!!

DB: I want to start off with some pretty important stuff. You were involved in the Live8 and Make Poverty istory. I caught you on TV, and you showed strong conviction in this cause. How was the Live8 experience as a whole for you? Tom: It was an important event , it was about issues that I had been involved in for quite sometime (since the late 80's) and about MPH which I had gone to Ottawa last winter with Stephen Lewis and Mary Walsh to lobby for a higher GNI contribution towards world poverty and the relief of dept for HIPPIC endorsed third world nations among other things ..... the event , LIVE 8 that is , was a bit of a whirl wind for us , we did a show the night before in Peterborough and the night before that in Lloydminster Sask/Alberta and left pretty much right after for Moosejaw Sask. for a show that night ... incredible audience for that early in the morning and it was an honour and perhaps appropriate that we opened the show DB: I was caught by surprise by the meaning of Life is a Highway. Many people I know, thought of it as a party road trip type of tune. It goes much deeper. Tom: It is a party song in a sense if you consider that a party is a celebration , with Highway it's a celebration of life and doing what you can when you can and really don't sweat the rest because you can't control everything ... that's how the world gets changed ... with good will in good faith translating into good actions... good faith in the John Paul Sartre sense ... doing what's right.... the Buddhist's would say "joyful participation in the sorrows of the world" DB: Over the years you have made 3 trips as part of World Vision, to Africa. Will there be any more trips in the future? Do you have one stand out story from those trips that will never leave you? Tom: 6 trips .. we just came back from Sri Lanka as well where we had a look at some of the work being done after the Tsunami , it was a commitment we had made during the Canada For Asia benefit and we were quite satisfied that a lot was getting done.... people, donors, need to see good results ...yes , I will go on more trips with World Vision in the future. DB: I am going to go WAY back here. 1979, White Hot. I was exposed to this tune at about 9 years of age, when my parents bought me some K- Tel type compilation album. The 3 tunes I remember from that album are White Hot, Dream Police (Cheap Trick) and Tired of Towing the Line. I think that was my first real dose of rock music. Before that, it had been Beach Boys, Elvis, Neil Diamond etc. Whatever the parents were making us listen to. Those seemed like some interesting (to say the least) and turbulent years. Also the years that really got your name out there. What are your fondest memories of this time period (Red Rider)? Tom: Hmmmmm , I guess hearing White Hot on the radio for the first time on the drive in our step van out to Vancouver , arriving in Chilliwack the day the US beat Russia in Olympic hockey and playing a gig in Chilliwack and it was 70 degrees out!! in February... man the west coast filled our hearts and mind with dreams and possibilities back then...we went at it pretty hard and I look back and I am quite surprised I survived.... yea alot of those tours opening for the likes of The Kinks and J.Geils Band were great experiences , they were historic great bands... a thorough education DB: I read long ago in an interview, that at the end of Re Rider, there was a "scuffle" between yourself, your bass player and manager. Is there truth to the legend? Tom: The only comment I will make is that Jeff Jones and Graham Lagdon are wonderful people ... we were finishing a brutal leg of a Canadian tour in Sydney absolutely filling halls and small arenas and Bruce Allen had us on some ridiculous salary , a couple of hundred dollars a week, and cutting corners like crazy keeping us in in cheap shithole hotels ... I had had enough, we all had, by the time we got to the east coast DB: It seems the split from Bruce Allen, and forging on as, Tom Cochrane, took you down a path that has led you to being the composer, performer and guy you are today. Was it a difficult choice to walk the path on your own at that time? Tom: I would not have stayed in music if I had remained with Bruce Allen. I don't think Bruce had a clue what Lunatic Fringe was even about for instance! DB: Seeing I am from the Vancouver are, I need to ask this. How did you meet your wife (Kathleene) here in Vancouver? Was it luck, chance...? When did you two meet? Tom: Some wonderful things did come out of my relationship with Bruce Allen though , most importantly my relationship with Kathy. I saw Kathy a year earlier when we opened for April Wine then after a year of telephone conversations, (Kathy worked for Bruce) we finally met. The rest, as they say, is history. DB: I have been listening to a ton of Tom Cochrane lately. X Ray Sierra being the most listened to, as that will be the album I am reviewing on the site. I LOVED Ragged Ass Road. To me, it was a gutsy album. Not high end polish production, not really a big radio album. But heartfelt, and on the sleeve. What took you that direction on Ragged Ass? Tom: Thanks Darrin , Toe is one of my nicknames by the way, .. in a word Life ... I mean with the good comes the bad we had some incredible times with Mad Mad World for 3 or 4 years it was a dream come true ... I mean to release a record that you are proud of artistically but that is also a huge commercial success.. heady stuff..but the road can take its toll, my home life kinda unraveled for a while. Call it my John Lennon lost weekend period.... haha DB: One thing that amazes me, is the depth of your songwriting, lyrically. I think of a string of songs such as: Victory Day, No Regrets, Big League and Boy Inside the Man. The subject matter, when you really analyze the tunes is heart wrenchingly deep. Do you find it difficult to get that heartfelt in a song, live them, play them, perform them over and over? It seems these songs come from a pretty private place. Tom: Thanks again Darrin.. if you're a songwriter that's what it's about, that and observing , I mean alot of what I write is third person narrative ... stories I see and people I see or read about, that I can tell and relate to and learn from their stories DB: What is next for Tom Cochrane. Are you in the studio, thinking of the studio? Tour Dates? Tom: Yea I'm about 70% through this new record and I think some of the best stuff I've done in years will be on it.... but I'm wearing all the hats .. writing, performing and engineering and producing as well so it's taking awhile ... Kenny's played some stuff as has Jeff as well as Bill Bell , with Troy Feener on drums so it's sort of an abbreviated TC and RR album of sorts..... we have been averaging 30 to 50 shows a year for at least five years now DB: On a lighter note, well strangely lighter note, you pilot light planes. But, you have also been in 2 light plane crashes. What happened? Are you still flying? Tom: Lighter? haha..... crashing planes is lighter , tell that the to the TSB ... I sold my plane last spring , it was like having a 3500 pound race horse to maintain... but I enjoyed it immensely while I had it ... I flew last month with Bubbles from the TPB and the CAF in Cold Lake ... what an incredible rush and an honour to fly in an F-18 with those guys ... Thank you 4th Wing DB: This is very belated, but congrats on being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. That must have been a special evening. Tom: Thank you ... it was ... I was humbled and surprised by some of the gracious respect I got from the likes of Sam Roberts, Nickelback and Alanis Morrisette to name a few, truly classy people. DB: Could you take the time, to perhaps tell the people reading this, what being a Canadian artist means to you? And what has kept you here in Canada? Tom: I am a cultural nationalist , I have always been that way even when it was considered not wise to do so when we started out.... to get a head in the states and Britain that is ... I believe that we helped forge the way for artists that followed that have had their success mainly in Canada ... Tragically Hip and Blue Rodeo to name just two and I believe that their music has been more distinctive and true because of it not less so... with that said as RR and then with Mad Mad World I had my fair share of success internationally and in the US with fairly little compromise... be true to yourself and things work out one way or another ... the Canadian ethos brother. DB: Last question. Who are your favorite Canadian musicians/bands of all time? Pick as many as you like. - The Band - Leonard Cohen - Gordon Lightfoot - Bruce Cockburn - Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Arcade Fire - Daniel Lanois - Joni Mitchell - Kenny Greer - Kevin Bright - Tragically Hip - Ken "Spider" Sinneave - Kim Mitchell and Max Webster - Hank Snow - Broken Social Scene - Blue Rodeo -The Guess Who -Sam Roberts -Oscar Peterson -Lenny Bro - Rush -Triumph DB: Tom, thank you again, for taking the time to do this interview with me. Keep us posted when you release a new CD or head this way for a show!! Tom: My pleasure Darrin good luck and much success in 2006