Matthew Good never stops. He’s been recording new music and touring almost non-stop for the past 15 years — first as the leader of The Matthew Good Band and, following their messy breakup in 2001, as a solo artist.
Last week, Good spoke by phone with the Gazette from Toronto, where he is rehearsing with his new band for the upcoming tour.
On his latest album, Good, 40, explores new sounds and musical directions that include adding brass instruments to many of the songs.
“It’s based on a conversation Warne Livesey (Good’s longtime producer) and I had about 15 years ago,” Good says. “[We talked] about doing something in this direction, but a lot of things got in the way.”
It was during the last tour, for 2009’s Vancouver album, that Good started writing new songs. When he and Livesey sat down together, he told Livesey, “Now is the time to make the record that we’ve talked about.” That album became Lights of Endangered Species, the Vancouver musician’s fifth solo studio album. It was released this summer to extremely positive reviews. As usual, with a new album also comes a new tour.
Starting on Oct. 8, and hitting Halifax on Oct. 13 at The Forum Multi-Purpose Room, the tour will take Good across the country, playing 40 shows in 38 different venues. While the studio and touring musicians of his solo career change with each new release, this time he will have at least one familiar face with him, Matthew Good Band drummer, Ian Browne.
The two hadn’t spoken since the band broke up almost 10 years ago, but after meeting again at a memorial for a mutual friend, they started talking and eventually Good invited Browne and his wife over for dinner. When Good’s current drummer became unavailable to tour because of a new project, Browne was the first and only call Good made. “I basically just said to Ian, ‘Do you think you can do this still?’
“I usually just stick to the ones that I find are the strongest live. I try to get a good cross section of stuff. On this [tour], I really just went off of what we had done in the last couple years and just added in the new material. There’s not a lot of surprises on there.”
However, there are a few surprises on the list, including possible acoustic songs Good would like to record and perform, such as early Matthew Good Band songs “Prime Time,” “Deliverance,” “So Long Mrs. Smith,” “Fated” and “Generation X Wing,” as well as “Suburbia” and “Sort of a Protest Song” off of 1999’s Beautiful Midnight album.
Though he said these songs are just a wish list and depend on a number of factors, updates on his website indicate rehearsals are going well. When asked what we can expect from his Halifax show, Good said he will be playing a lot of material from his new album.
“I don’t have a laser light show or anything,” he said. “I’ve been blessed with really good lighting guys, so it won’t be terrible, but there won’t be any floating pink cows.”
On this Canadian tour, some of the stops may make people scratch their heads, such as Goderich and Bala, Ont., Fort Saskatchewan, AB, and Trail, BC. When asked why he makes an effort to visit some of these smaller cities that most Canadians couldn’t locate on a map, his answer was simple:
“Well, why not?” he says. “Most of them have state-of-the-art theatre facilities. They’re communities that are starved for music. I try to add dates that take us to exciting new worlds, where we can make contact with exciting new species. It’s the difference between having to drive four and a half hours to see me play somewhere else.”
So what’s next for Good after this tour ends in December? He’s got it all figured out. “I’ve got to go play the States in the new year, then back to Canada for festival shows and whatnot in the summer,” he says, “and then I’m probably going to go on an acoustic tour in September, if I feel like it. Then I’ll make another record.”
Matthew Good plays the Halifax Forum Multi Purpose room Oct. 13. If you’re lucky, and if he feels like it, you might just hear a few rare songs from his past.
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