Apr. 29, 2009 - Issue #706: Nevermore
Lorrie Matheson: If you want blood
Lorrie Matheson's got it on his latest album
Calgary's Lorrie Matheson didn't set out to write a concept album, or a themed record, but after setting down nine of the new songs he had written for his latest release, cheekily titled In Vein, he realized that each of them dealt with an aspect of blood. Not blood and guts by any means, but blood as in connective fluid, the thing that holds families together—bloodlines and lifeblood.
"I didn't actually pick a theme, it just sort of revealed itself I guess," he says. "While we were listening to final mixes I just kind of went, 'Oh, man, there's blood in every one of these songs.' It might be reaching a little bit to say that there's blood in every song but there's aspects of the heart, aspects of the soul, your guts, there's a lot of songs about substances which get transferred through your body by your blood. I didn't set out to make a record about blood—after the fact I realized that that would totally fit."
Matheson's ideas about the substances that get transferred through your blood are perhaps in opposition to rock 'n' roll's general position on alcohol and drugs—which are, after all, venerated to a significant degree by many musicians. Matheson isn't preaching, however, he's simply telling stories about the people he knows and about himself, questioning the choices he's made and the choices he sees other people making.
"I work in a bar part time and I see a lot of people that treat it without thinking about it. I think if you pause to look at these things—drugs or booze, even cigarettes or, for that matter, junk food—all of these things you can get that make a person feel good or that they get addicted to in one way shape or form, people tend to toss it off and not really think about the consequences," he says. "When somebody dies from a drug overdose or just from leading a life of abuse it's a shame really—it could have been avoided. It's funny to see these very intelligent and otherwise really together people basically killing themselves when they know it's not good for them and they choose to do it anyway. It's a hard one for me to wrap my head around sometimes."
And if a collection of songs about some of life's most challenging aspects seems like a bit of a downer, well it is. But Matheson is a consummate songwriter, able to turn something so ugly into a poignant and moving experience for the listener. Above all, he says, his music is a cathartic outlet not only for him but hopefully for whoever listens to it as well.
"For me, personally, I've never been able to write a joyous anthemic type of song," he admits. "Music should be a cathartic experience no matter how you look at it. You go to a punk rock show and the band's kicking and you're banging your head and jumping up and down and having a good time, that's cathartic, as well as a really dark depressing lyric about life in general makes you feel good that somebody feels the way you do. Sometimes a lot of that stuff is very solitary and you think you're the only person that's going through it." V
Fri, May 1 (8 pm)
Lorrie Matheson
With Mark Davis
Blue Chair Café, $15
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