ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A HEART I CAN FOLLOW
ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A HEART I CAN FOLLOW
5 min 05 sec read
This week I realized I had better hire a publicist for my record!
I took the VIA train into Toronto for some meetings last Friday.
I’ve been very taken by the way Iskwe and Sarah Slean have been hitting the media lately, so I sort of back-tracked and in led me to Beth Cavanagh who has just started her own PR firm. Looks like she’s the lady for the job.
Face to face - that’s how things used to be done. And honestly, it’s still the best way.
Earlier this year, after a night out at the Leafs game with Chris Hadfield, we stayed up talking about my project and the likelihood of humans finding their way to another planet in the future. I fear my note-taking looked like I had had one too many Scotches, but hey, at least I took notes.
Only because you’ve signed up for this Insider’s Club will I share what that note-taking looked like!
I am actually very much enjoying journalling out of the social media spotlight.
[INSERT George Michael singing FREEDOM ’90 HERE!]
As a result of that night, Chris passed on an interview to me:
http://www.chch.com/space-travels-canadian-origins/
The interview outlined the work Robert Godwin of Burlington who has written a book which reveals that a Canadian predicted rocket travel many many years before others.
I don’t ever do this, but I asked Chris for Rob’s information to see if he’d be willing to speak to me.
We met for coffee, and as I often do in the company of people who are iconic, I just sit and listen. I did that with Bowie a lot. I just took it in. And it turns out Rob Godwin had a record label in the 80’s, has written loads of books about rock legends like Led Zeppelin and Kate Bush, is an expert on prog-rock and also has a very in-depth knowledge of space and the experience of astronauts like Buzz Aldrin who he came to know quite well.
I loved sitting with Rob and just asking questions like…what is the connection between classic rock and space?
So Rob has become a bit of a mentor to me on this project. His daughter Emily is 27 and she loves Kate Bush and Tony Levin and all the rest of them.
Rob has a publishing company so I’ve been speaking to him a bit about how to release a graphic novel featuring Karen’s illustrations and some of my ideas for the story.
See what happens when you follow your heart?
I feel like if my 20s were about networking, striving for fame, look for validation while making music, my 40s are about following my heart, making sure everything is interesting to me.
Something else I’m finally working on is a vinyl version of this album.
And a release date has finally been set. May the 4th.
As I work through the business side of everything, I am also hard at work on the personal front. I reached out to Allen MacInnis this week - who directed the Joni play I did last year. Turns out artistic directors are pretty frickin’ great listeners.
He put into perspective for me that part of what I’ve struggled with this year, was losing Greg Lowe before I could really have a friendship with him. So I continue to kind of deconstruct it in social media, write about it here, talk about it with my therapist. It’s not easy to lose someone so quickly, and then try to put the pieces together of what the hell that was. A whirlwind of musical collaboration, an almost-friendship…just gone. You don’t get to say thank-you. You don’t get to share final mixes. I’m left with these performances. Which he did knowing he was gonna be gone.
Every summer Greg Lowe would go to Lake of The Woods, spend lots of time on his boat with his wife. And I remember in February - Frank and I joking to him, that we better get Greg on these songs before he leaves for the lake. He wrote back and said, “Yeah, if you want me to play on something, get it to me as soon as possible.”
But the fact is he was dying, and he knew it, and wanted to keep it private.
There is no part of me that feels that i was owed that information. It only makes more special what he gave to this record.
So for all the bullshit of this year, the personal turmoil, the ups and downs, there is this gift that reminds me, I can give that to someone else. Or you can give it to someone you know who needs it. Music, a performance, a song, a word, an overdue letter, a work of art.
Happy holidays to all of you. May you do in 2018 what makes sense only to your own heart.