October 2023
“So it was January 2018 in Buenos Aires and there was this incredible heatwave happening and the emptying city felt like it was on fire...
...and I had assembled this little band with two musicians I really admired, Faka Flores and Jano Seitun, that my friend Pablo Grinjot had introduced me to a few years before, and I convinced them to rehearse with me for two very long days in a tiny cabin Pablo provided that had no air conditioning at 40 above celsius, and then go into an equally tiny studio in Palermo for a two and a half day session to lay about thirty songs down, or as many as we could, because there just wasn’t any money or time to spare beyond that. January is their version of July down there, when anyone that can afford it usually gets out of town for a beach holiday, so it was incredibly kind of them to stay with me under these difficult circumstances. I told them that although we were ‘demoing’ a new triple album loosely called YOU, we were playing for keepers, with no ‘fixing’ later, and going to capture a looser rock n roll approach that I felt had eluded me for a few albums in a row. It was important that my perfectionistic tyranny wouldn’t stand a chance because of these preset time and budget constraints. So they agreed, and they rocked it, and we got all thirty songs down in a magical way. That rehearsal time was the key though, and yeah, because of their commitment, speed, and stamina, it was a blissful few days man. Using a few more studios and pianos both in Canada and Buenos Aires after that, I managed to massage about half of those songs into my most perfect double album (YOU 2021) so far, and a few commercial singles after that, and now, five years later, because I’m stubborn and probably a bit crazy, I’ve taken the last five songs and worked them into this EP. So I somehow got about three different albums on the foundations of those two and a half days. These last five were recorded on that afternoon with the band in one room, and myself in another wrestling with this incredibly loud and moody 125 year old half-busted bastard of a piano while running vocals at the same time... a thing that sounded like a pirate ship in some old horror movie at times, but hey, here we are, we made it. Very old school. Very cool…”
“It was a strange phenomenon, working these songs that were from totally different chapters of my life. Songs I knew I’d eventually record, but probably never market or make too pretty, or explain, because they all shared a certain something that refused that. One or two of them were from a rock opera I tried to write during a dark time in my twenties. Another is a shout out to my old friend Moustaki written in my thirties. I’ve got a Montreal deal on there I started in my teens when I was still chasing Leonard around the Plateau. Another that came out when my mom passed 18 years ago... so, I mean, it must be fairly obvious that I’m really trying to compete with Taylor Swift on this one, wouldn’t you say? Heh. Yeah, for sure. Anyways, if these songs weren’t important somehow they would have run away on me years ago, and believe me, I tried shaking them off repeatedly. So we nailed a vibe on that afternoon, and adding Andrés Hayes’ magnificently soulful horns later on sealed the deal completely. That was definitely the secret glue in the end, and then of course mixing (them) with Zak until he was probably ready to kill me... ha.”
... “It sounds like the early 1970’s to me, and that’s not a bad thing to achieve, however accidentally, because that’s probably my favourite era in music. I mean, at times I felt like Bob Ezrin and Bob Johnston, Spector and David Briggs all came by for a preproduction party in my mind but likely because there wasn’t any production, you know what I mean? And no time to think either. We were under the gun with just barely enough time to spit out a few takes - just the way any of those guys would’ve wanted it. A little French chanson... German theatre too. Reed, Cave, Morrison, Brecht, Cohen… and of course the deep tango blues married with the New York City art rock of a certain time that I adore, yeah, thoughts all of that stuff crossed my mind because of the dramatic nature of the material, you know,... but after the fact because it had its own agenda and destiny just like all the other records before it and IT did what IT wanted to do in there as usual, right? Right. Scary! But it’s good to be scared, because otherwise, what are we even doing? And how are you supposed to get a shiver up your spine without that feeling? You can’t. But hey, I should never talk about the other side of my curtain. Don’t complain, never explain, right? It’s hard to believe that a number of people told me to scrap these scratchy piano tracks and do them again. I was one of them, and I’m glad I didn’t listen, because that shiver is the lightning blast of truth and life itself. The holiness. The manna.”
“Truth be told, I had to re-record YOU twice in it’s entirety, but it’s what we made with it that counts, and nobody needs to know how. Nobody needs to know any of these things I’m telling you because the songs could have been written this year or 50 years ago and who really cares? Who really cares that I was living out of cars and plastic bags for a while there, or had a complete breakdown that precipitated some major life changes? Who could see the pandemic coming? And how could I walk away from something like that? In this case a half-finished triple album that was paid for in years of tears, never mind a year of my wages? I couldn’t and wouldn’t, and if that’s what it took, then that’s what it took, you know? It’s all... regardless... (sighing) it’s about miracles... letting the destiny of things unfold and often (or always) at great personal cost, you know? Whether we’re talking about the life you’re living or the songs that come out of that life...that’s the ride, or sure seems to be mine anyway, and I don’t know of any other. There’s no separation there. Had I known that an attempt to record those 30 songs would have turned into an odyssey of this kind, Lord knows I would have run like Jonah towards a completely different shore! On a lighter note, I’m looking at the end of an era with these connected projects and can finally pour myself into the new stuff I’ve written and that’s exciting, because that was quite the decade. I was a different animal five years ago, and it’s all better now. I thank God for that. I think a lot of people I know are saying and feeling very similar things. I hope this next one (record) is easy sailing all the way. Maybe I need a synth and a drum pad. Ha.”
And with that, Indio smiles and stands while he shakes my hand, walks towards the cafe door and adds one more thing... “Your coffee is paid for pal, thanks for listening. Three new albums on my table right now and no idea who is going to pay for recording them as usual but I don’t see an end to this, should I? It’s just music man and I need to make it. It’s just the same old music you've never heard before, but will hopefully remember once you do, know what I mean? If your soul tells you that when you hear it - if it gives you the feeling you already know it, even for a moment, well then I got it right, and the angels were at hand.”
And off he goes, swallowed by the street and night, as invisible as the wind he seems to fly on from the Arctic to the Argentine. Indio Saravanja, Buenos Aires Afternoon, coming soon to a theatre near you.