Transcript
Speaker: I'm Jane Williams. This is the Red Eye Podcast. You can hear our live broadcast on Saturday mornings from 10 till noon at 100 .5 FM in the lower mainland. In today's episode, Earl Peach joins me to talk about his new book of song lyrics and prose, Questions to the Moon. If you've ever been at the vent or a rally where the Solidarity Notes labor choir is singing, you'll have seen Earl Peach. He's the one standing at the front and keeping everyone in time.
Speaker: Earl is the director of this and other Vancouver -based choral groups, including the Highs and Lows Choir. He also plays a bunch of instruments, performs with musical groups, and sings songs. In his new book, Questions to the Moon, he says songwriting is his strongest self -identification. The book is a collection of stories and lyrics just published by Lazarus Press. And Earl joins me today to talk about the book
Speaker: and the songs he writes. Hello, Earl. Hello. When did you first start writing songs? I think I wrote the first song that I recall at the age of nine. I think the words were, you may say hello, and I may say goodbye, and I may never say the reason why. Not a lengthy work then. No, it was but suitably mordant.
Speaker: How did you choose as many, many lyrics in the book? How did you choose the lyrics to include in the book? Well, it's being a process of compromise and winnowing because I have many more songs than this. And often I look at the collection that's there and think, oh, geez, I wish I had included this. But the ones that I came up with are sort of a representative sample of different areas of songwriting and different ideas that I've had.
Speaker: Did the song lyrics suggest the pro's pieces or vice versa?
Speaker: No, I think the song lyrics gave a pretty good sense of what I should speak about in terms of the biography. I find that there are a certain number of songs about X and so it's probably useful to speak about X. For example, there are a number of songs that were influenced by my experiences in the Downtown Eastside and so it was important to tell some stories about that. I would say the songs came first and the autobiography came second.
Speaker: Now, you mentioned the Downtown Eastside and it's clear from reading the book that the Carnegie Center has played a central role in your life. I'm going to ask you a big question here. What did you learn about politics and music working there?
Speaker: Oh, well, you know, there was a very interesting element to that, that being able to sing and to choose the space that you do that, to occupy the space that you're producing music in is a political act. And it's political in the sense that people have a sense of ownership of that. It allows them to enlarge their space in such a way as to include others within range of their voice.
Speaker: And so people at Carnegie, when they participated in the jams, were always very particular about who it was they wanted to play with, what songs they were going to do, how long they were going to be on the stage, whether they were going to be on the stage. So it was regarded as almost like a commodity. It was so precious to them.
Speaker: And then of course, they're the aspects of shared music and what that means in the context of the community. That was also very interesting. How did the jams work? So people would show up at the beginning of the jam and put their name in a hat and names would be drawn out. And as each name was drawn out, the person would be asked what time they would like to perform. And it's understood that they would be there for a 10 or 12 or 15 minute slot, depending on how many people were wanting to play.
Speaker: And for that time, they would choose what was being played, who was going to be playing with them, what instruments were going to be up there, whether somebody was singing long or whatever. So it would give them a measure of control over that space for that time. You also started up a brass band for the downtown, you said, though you handed it over at some point. How did that come about?
Speaker: It just, it seemed to me that it would be something really valuable for the Downtown Eastside to have. And so I started making inquiries. And first of all, I contacted a fellow from Northwest Music who said that they had about 10 instruments that they didn't need anymore. And so there was an initial donation of those.
Speaker: Somebody told me about a band that had existed in Alberta called the Tiger Hills Band and how that had broken up years before and all of those instruments had been sitting in somebody's garage for 40 years and incredibly they agreed to donate them and so these two pallets of brass instruments showed up at Carnegie all wrapped in huge swaths of plastic tape. So we unwrapped them and started looking at them and some of them were just
Speaker: Good for planters, you know, there was a big sousaphone that was really just no more and Some these instruments when they get really old to get something and called them inside them called red rot Which means that you can't play them it it will really to do a number on your lungs
Speaker: But we did get about 12 perfectly usable instruments out of those. And so some people in the downtown east started actually playing these. And I was learning as I was going. I'd never played a brass instrument in my life. I drove our neighbor downstairs crazy, unfortunately, with the trombone. And we kind of learned as we went. And eventually I had the brains to get somebody actually competent to run the whole thing.
Speaker: And it's still going. I've heard it perform actually at the Moon Festival in Renfrew Park. Yes, led by the amazing Mr. Brad Merehead. That's right. And it's a wonderful thing. I asked you to pick a couple of songs to share with us. Let's listen to one of them now.
Speaker: It's called After the War. How did you come to write this song? You know, it's interesting that some of the songs that I've written, of which I am most fond, I have discovered among the many sibilius files that I've fooled around with at one point or another, at some point I sat down and started writing this tune and then I completely forgot about it.
Speaker: and discovered it about maybe three or four years later and thought, oh, I really should finish this. And so I came along that way. But as often as not, I have no idea what the song is about when I start the story. So it begins with the words, after the war, my limbs were sore. I couldn't dance to the fiddle. My father lay down in his bed.
Speaker: and lay there for 13 years until he died. And once I saw that that had been written, it again just brought a whole bunch of associations and images in my mind and I carried it through. Let's listen to that now.
Speaker: After the war my limbs were sore I couldn't dance to the fiddle My father lay down in his bed and didn't rise For thirteen years till he died All the crops were studded and brown We couldn't drink from the wells We had to go down to the gorge and carry up Our pockets from the riverside
Speaker: And is that enough? Do you want some more? Do you remember what all the anger was for? We have lost the stars while keeping score. Can I convince you we don't meet again?
Speaker: The sun was born without any eyes We took the train to the city and waited in line With a thousand families grieving out the doors The doctor's eyes were tired and gray She said they poisoned the bombs And every day I see a hundred children broken like yours
Speaker: And is that enough? Do you want some more? Do you remember what all the anger was for? We have lost the stars while keeping score. Can I convince you?
Speaker: You will touch your bow to the fiddle string And our child will know how to dance and sing
Speaker: Now November rolls around We wear our coats in the kitchen We wallop a room and a band In the rest of the house to wintertime
Speaker: plays the violin he has the voice of an angel and sings with a group of traditional musicians from both sides and is that enough do you want some more
Speaker: We have lost the stars while keeping score Can I convince you we don't need another war? Can I convince you we don't want another war?
Speaker: And that was After the War by Eliterati. When you were talking about how you came to write this song, it occurred to me, do you start with the words or do you start with a tune or does it go together or is it different each time? It is different each time. It's much easier to start out with words and add music to them than to start out with music and add words.
Speaker: and I'm not even sure why and every once in a while a piece will come like whole cloth words and music all at the same time and no clue why but I have been known over time to have a snatch of a song occur to me in a dream and then wake up from it or more often waking up and having a piece of music immediately just jump into my head and demand to be written down
Speaker: And that's one of the things that it gives me a feeling of having some purpose, almost, in the sense that it feels almost like a communication from somewhere else. I know that's theoretically nonsense, but when I treat it that way, when I honor it that way, it feels satisfying to me.
Speaker: What do you hope people would do with the songs in the book? I mean, there are some scores at the end, but only a few. Yes. And I kind of hoped that the scores themselves would give an indication to people of how I work and how it looks for this music to be put down on paper, the instrumental sections in between.
Speaker: what it would be like playing it with other people because many of them I've done with my band Eliterati and also with Barbara, my partner, as a songtree. So I thought it was important for people to be able to have a look at at least some of those. I know you most of all as a leader of community choirs, but that doesn't figure much in the book.
Speaker: Well, it's true. And it's because the book is about a different side of myself, I guess. And it's one that people don't know as much about, but it's one that's very personal and important to me. So I guess it's a way of introducing myself to people in a different way. Now, the second song that you chose and the one that we're going to go out on is about your wife, Barbara. Tell me about this song.
Speaker: So this was written actually for Barbara's 73rd birthday, and it is quite autobiographical in the sense that it does describe our room, but then it turns it into kind of a metaphor for a ship that we're moving forward on through uncertain waters, through our lives, as is true of so many relationships. Thanks so much for joining me today, Earl. Well, thank you so much for having me. That's been a lot of fun.
Speaker: I've been speaking with Earl Peach. His new book of stories and lyrics is titled Questions to the Moon, and it's just been published by Lazarus Press. And on August 28th, there's going to be a picnic for all three of Earl's choirs and a book launch event in Beaconsfield Park, which is behind the Italian Cultural Center. And it's starting around 4 p .m.
Speaker: And now here is Song Tree with If Not Here, then Nowhere.
Speaker: When Barb awakens in the morning Shafts of sunlight come piercing through the glue A hundred rainbows are adorning Their glowing walls come our sacred room Outside our window all the birds cry Like navigators on the ships of Greece
Speaker: And in our own boat she and I lie All entwined where troubles can be seen This is the answer to the question That you left hanging in the air This is the meaning of it all If not here, then no
Speaker: Sometimes I wonder where the dawn is When the night falls and colors disappear It gets so hard to see beyond this Southern darkness around me and my dear And we will travel with our compass Single -minded, hearing through the dark
Speaker: May indecision never stop us. May we sail past every question mark. This is the answer to the question that you left hanging in the air. This is the meaning of it all, if not here.
Speaker: The Red Eye podcast is produced at the studios of Vancouver Co -op Radio. You can support us by supporting Co -op Radio. Go to coopradio .org and click on the donate button. Independent media relies on the support of people like you.
