ALEXANDER GALLANT ENCHANTS WITH 'COME SLOWLY'
Alexander Gallant is a singer-songwriter from Halifax, Nova Scotia. In the tradition of A Singer With A Guitar, Alexander’s songs are simple, direct, and have one foot planted firmly on the ground. Alexander believes in song as that purest method of communication, and uses folk styling to deliver his musings on the profound, the absurd, and the blue.
Interview by Rebeccah Love
How would you describe your childhood, and the community that raised you? What type of art did you make way back then? Did music play a large role in your life during that time?
My childhood was pleasant. I recall being a pretty happy kid. I grew up in the north end of Dartmouth, NS. It has its rough edges but I was outside a lot. Playing with my friends and kids from the neighborhood. I was often at the lake, or the ocean, or visiting someone in the country. I was raised primarily by my mother. We're very close. She always encouraged whatever curiosity I had and made sure to throw a lot of different things at me until an interest would stick. I'm an only child but I have a few first cousins who became de facto siblings in my mind. I never felt lonely. I was also pretty happy to just play pretend by myself in my room with my action figures. I liked to draw comics. I had a few characters I invented who I would create storylines for. I also did some acting for a while. I think maybe I thought that's what I would be, for a time. I always took criticism and failure pretty hard and would quit things quickly. I never felt particularly good at any one thing. Music was always around me though. Both my mother and father are musicians. Mom wrote songs and would often play them for people at parties on the weekends. Dad was always in bands. I realized later in life the records they would play locked into my brain at some point. My father is a huge Beatles person and now I am too.
What kind of person were you as a teenager? What types of creative arts did you take part in? What stories did you like? What music did you listen to? What high school classes did you gravitate towards? Did you have any standout teachers or mentors along the way?
By 12 I started my own band and decided music was the thing. I wrote my first songs at that age. I realized it was the way to communicate and meet girls. Powerful tool. I met a friend in 7th grade and we ended up writing songs and playing together for nearly 20 years. I lost a coin toss and ended up being the bass player. So I had a strange mix of songs I'd end up putting on the first primitive mp3 players. Pop punk and emo and screamo but also motown and funk and soul songs. By 14 I became very moody and depressed, an unusual trajectory for a teenager I'm sure. I mostly listened to Radiohead at that point. I read a lot. I liked Palakniuk and Murikami and things like that until I got into my later teens and read some standard sad guy philosophy and modern classics. Kerouac, Burgess, other authors who made the stories for movies I liked. I've always felt like a bit of a late bloomer especially when it comes to art. Not having cooler older siblings and being sort of obstinate, I didn't read Bukowski or Vonnegut until my early 20s. So yeah I was a sad guy but I was still very social, I had an amazing group of friends. We were like an army platoon. Wonderful inseparable morons. I think I had probably every bad teacher in the province. I remember liking about 2 of them. I enjoyed History and Political Science. They were both taught by the same guy. I had a film and video course I liked as well. I did okay in English because I found it fairly easy, but again the sort of burnt out or bitter goofballs they had teaching us didn't help me very much. I had some musical instructors I learned some good life lessons from. But primarily my memory is that me and my friends learned things the hard way, stumbling blindly into the world.
What route did you take after graduating high school?
I knew I wanted to leave town by the end of highschool. I applied to only one school and that was UofT. I got in. My grandfather is the only one in the family with money, and he had set aside some for me to afford one year of university. I liked it for 2 months and then I hated it more than anything. I also got even more depressed then. But I made some lifelong friends sitting on the grass outside my dorm. I dropped out after a year but decided I needed to live in toronto for the next decade.
Can you comment on your young adult life? How would you describe that community? What did you most enjoy out of your early adulthood?
After I left school I decided to do what I thought I should be doing which was playing gigs. So I worked in coffee shops and played open mics and folk clubs in Toronto until I eventually started a band. In hindsight these first years of my 20s were the best ones, but I'm sure if you went back in time and asked me then I would not have said that. I still enjoyed drugs and alcohol and playing gigs wherever I could. I didn't care if I didn't have any money or a decent apartment. I had great friends and we would drink and watch films and talk about music and laugh. It was wonderful.
What music were you listening to in your early 20s?
In my early 20's I was still listening to a lot of Radiohead. I liked some contemporary indie acts like Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, and Wye Oak. I really loved The Tallest Man on Earth. I also consumed a huge amount of 60's british invasion rock n roll. I listened to The Kinks constantly. I remember someone telling me at a bar one night that "guitar music is over". I told him that was stupid and The Rolling Stones sound pretty good to me. I locked into my holy trinity of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Leonard Cohen around then. I was very inspired by The Brian Jonestown Massacre at the time. I had a 7-piece band. I believed we could do whatever we wanted as long as we loved rock songs enough. I was half right. I also got into Dave Van Ronk and Mississippi John Hurt around that time too, which took my brain in a whole other direction.
How would you describe the music scene in Nova Scotia?
There's a lot of good musicians in Nova Scotia. Everyone says that so it sounds trite but you can take my word for it because I'm a world class hater. So for that reason I guess the music scene here is good? I'm not sure. One the one had my friend Dylan Jewers who runs Big Turnip Records seems to be lifting the whole of culture here on his back. But that's not really enough. Things are expensive. Mid-sized venues don't really exist. It's harder to get people to leave their house. But music is certainly more a part of the culture here than elsewhere. Some people seem to be doing well. You can certainly play a lot of gigs in breweries if you want to. I guess you asked me to describe it. It's a small place with a big attitude. No one good can afford to tour here so that has left a power vacuum by which certain local artists rise to the top of a small heap and appear bigger than they are. That can lead to some jealousy. But again because it's so small, people are much wiser to stay friendly. If they ever chuck me onto the top of that heap, ask me again and I'll change my answer.
Can you tell me about your new music video Come Slowly? What was your process like, making it?
The video for Come Slowly is sort of like an 80s British crime movie mixed with some Monty Python or at least, sketch comedy style energy. We knew we wanted me tied up in a warehouse with some bizzare goons. Originally the plan was to have a card game but we couldn't secure this magician we wanted. Luckily me and my partner Nicole (who co-directs and shoots the videos we make) know Sarah Swire, who kind of big boy-d up and got us into working order on the day, saying things like "what if I climbed this?" or, "what if I get on his back?" or "what if we smoke cigarettes like this". Actually the whole cast was shouting out ideas and then we'd block them and shoot them. It was probably the most fun I've ever had, honestly. We laughed our heads off all day. It was beautiful. We've shot every video for this album on film, four total. And I'm just as proud of them as I am of the music. It's so easy to make a cheap music video these days so we're all just choking to death on green screen garbage. I want to make art with my friends every day of my life, that I can hold in my hands and be proud of. We're building a rogues gallery here and we hope to do many more things like this.
Which folk/indie musicians (alive or dead) are you listening to the most these days?
I could listen to Mississippi John Hurt every morning. I often do. I've been listening to Patrick Sky a lot lately. He produced Hurt's "Today!" record for Vanguard in the 60s and was a protege of Dave Van Ronks. I love these 60's folk guys who were all evaporated by the jet fuel Bob Dylan left behind when he ascended to the God Throne of music. I've been listening to Randy Newman every day also, it's driving my girlfriend insane. Other artists I could listen to every day, and often do? Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley. Paul McCarntey. I Consider Wings to be folk music.
What advice would you give to a young musician trying to make it in Canada's music landscape?
What advice....I'm the wrong person to ask this question. I just turned 33 and I have one decent record I've ever made. I think art is an affliction. I think some people have to do it because it's the only way they can communicate a thought. And I think they'll spend their lives embarrassed and horrified just for the chance to get up on stage and try to share that moment of communication. So I think my advice would be, if that doesn't sound like you; don't do it. If you can't feel shame, don't do it. This industry is full of sickos who don't know how to feel shame and we need significantly less of those. They should go work for the bank or the government. On the other hand if you're a young person and you're seeking advice from me of all people? Just play music with people if you can. It's magic. But don't just listen to Big Thief and Phoebe Bridgers, listen to other kinds of shit for god sake.
Do you think Canada is an artist-friendly country?
I have no idea. No? I guess they could be rounding up and killing artists and they aren't doing that. It's too big, this country. It would be friendlier to artists if it was easier to tour. Everything is too expensive. Have you bought eggs recently? Eggs and a pack of gum is 70 dollars. Some people seem to be doing okay I guess. Again, I have no idea. I feel like the country could be nicer to me personally. Canada, I've seen what you've done for others and I'd like you to know it should have been me instead.
Why is music important?
Music is the closest we have to actual magic. When it's good it feels like life is worth living and has purpose. There isn't anything else even remotely like that. Now that i'm in my 30's I've started to realize people begin this slow death where they no longer know how to be moved by things. People have to pay a million dollars to go stand on a mountain in machu picchu to be moved. I work in a record store, every week someone shows me a song that moves me and I feel good about being alive again for a bit. Maybe you can't afford vacation. Well good news, you don't have to. You can afford to stream my iconic debut album Waiting Tables Blues. Music baby! The great communica-tor /// Use two sticks to make it in da nature - The Buddah
What are you looking forward to?
I'm happy it's summer. I look forward to that all year, so I'm trying to enjoy it day by day. I'm 4 years sober on the 21st of July so I'm looking forward to that day. I'll probably let myself eat a thing of ice cream. I'm going to plan a new album release schedule and tour soon I think so I guess I'm looking forward to that too but I'll be perfectly honest, I hate making plans. I wish someone just told me where to go and when to play. Maybe someday they will. I'll look forward to that.
Listen to Alexander Gallant here:
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