Tom Harrison Interview
I sat down with Tom Harrison yesterday for the April Road Podcast and chatted about the music business before and after the Internet, his vast vinyl collection and some of his favourite bands. He’s an interesting guy and, as a fellow music lover and musician, would have been happy to chat for hours about his thoughts and observations during his 35 year career in the music business. As music critic for The Province newspaper and working musician he’s interviewed a wide variety of big and small acts and opened for bands such as The Talking Heads when they played The Commodore.
I didn’t mention it during our conversation but we had chatted many years ago during his appearance on an afternoon CBC radio show in the early 90’s. I called in to discuss his definition of the ‘Canadian sound’ in modern music and disagreed with the term as I thought most Canadian bands were just parroting American and British music artists. He’s an ardent supporter of Canadian music and made a good case for his argument but we agreed to disagree. I respected his views and could tell he was passionate about Canadian music and artists and is probably responsible for a number of bands success within Canada and beyond.
During the interview Tom mentioned a fantastic band that I’d never heard called Fleet Foxes from Washington State. I looked them up and listened to a sampling of their music on MySpace. If you’re into non-traditional, non-mainstream eclectic, baroque harmonic pop combo, do yourself a favor and give them a listen. I tried to purchase their album in MP3 format from their label Sub Pop Records, based in Seattle. After going through the shopping cart process, entering my name, address, postal code etc., I was notified that they’re not able to sell download MP3 files to Canadians but could send them via the postal system. WTF? So much for Independent records crushing the big labels, huh? I no longer buy CD’s (my music system is comprised of a 8 wireless MP3 players throughout the house connected to a 1TB NAS) so I’ll have to email the label and find out how to download their albums. Whatta pain in the ass.
Visit the AprilRoad.com podcast page or click the play button below to listen to my conversation with Tom Harrison.
