Who doesn’t love Sarah Harmer? Canada’s favourite scrappy-yet-sweet songbird has had quite the year-finally releasing the long-awaited follow-up to her You Were Here solo debut, All of Our Names, back in March, and heading out on an endless tour for much of the year that garnered her rave reviews everywhere from the U.S. to the U.K.
She and her band of indie all-stars are finally getting a much-deserved rest, but Harmer will lend her voice for a good cause this holiday season at two upcoming gigs-the sold-out Holiday Jam benefit for kids’ education organization Success By Six at the Phoenix this Wednesday, and the annual Weeping Tile (Harmer’s old indie-rawk band, for those of you kids not old enough to remember their alt-rockin’ charms) reunion benefit concert in Kingston on December 13.
We’ll be heaping praise on her beautiful album in our year-end picks in January, but until then, here’s a recent chat with the busy singer-songwriter.
Tabassum Siddiqui: You’ve been touring all over Canada as well as the U.S. over the past year. Have you noticed the growing buzz about the Toronto music scene while on the road?
Sarah Harmer: Well, definitely I did at South by Southwest, especially for the indie rock like Broken Social Scene and Metric, and I’m sure lots of people like the Constantines and other bands…
I don’t really live in Toronto, so I kind of feel like I’m an observer of the city as well. But I mean, I spend a lot of time there and definitely love it, and I do feel connected to it for sure. And it seems that the scene has just had enough support in the last five or ten years to have people really come up and be creative… And in all different ends of it-not just musicians, but also people who start small record labels, people who write about it, people who go to shows… It definitely feels like it’s been nurtured, and there’s so many great bands. But it’s casual, too-it’s pretty supportive.
Who knows? Toronto-happenin’! It’s a great city, I love it. (sings) “I love T-or-onto…” But the air quality sucks-people should all have mandatory electric cars in the city or something like that, myself included-I feel sick when I drive my car into Toronto. Where I live it’s like marshland-it’s the most sweet air … Not that I want everybody to come and move out where I live… But I love Toronto-we’ve just gotta fix it up a little.
TS: You have a real connection to the countryside that seems to find its way into your music as well. What is it about rural life that strikes a chord with you?
SH: I grew up in the country, but I did live in Toronto for a year. I have family who lives there, so I spend a lot of time there… But yeah, I was always coming in on the GO Train when I was younger to visit my older sister in the city, and so I do feel comfortable in both places. And it’s not like I grew up super-remote or anything-it just happened that we had that land, but it was definitely within view of the city…
And that’s kind of how it is with me and Kingston these days, too. I love being able to tap into both. It’s amazing how after a couple of weeks of being in the country and not getting in a car or going into town too much, it’s amazing when I do come into Toronto. I’m like, ‘Look at all these human beings!’ (mock-gasps) I kind of find it shocking that people share such finite space, and I do feel that it’s luxurious that I choose to live where there’s lots of open air and places to walk where you don’t necessarily see a lot of people. But I love the city, too, for sure. I just probably won’t ever choose to live there, but who knows?
TS: Your tour schedule over the past year has been insane. How do you cope with being away from home for so long at a time?
SH: I feel pretty much used to the road, too-I’ve been touring for about ten years, and it’s hard to tear yourself away from being at home, but we assimilate pretty quickly. I just hate lugging my shit everywhere-like even now, when I got to the hotel, stuff was all strewn about. Now it’s like the classic ‘pack it all into the big black box and lug it around’ thing… (laughs) It’s hard sometimes to leave, but as soon as you do, you move on. And I love traveling, too; it feels good for the perspective, and it’s exciting on some hands, too.
TS: You’ve been outspoken about your opposition to the war in Iraq and other political issues. Have you gotten any flak in the States for your stance?
SH: No, I haven’t… I’m not super-overt about berating anybody onstage or commenting too much on things. I think I’ve implored people to vote, really kind of basic stuff like that. I waver for sure-sometimes I feel pretty strongly and I’m trying to not spend too much energy and walk lightly, and then if you look actually at what I’m doing-I dunno, it’s a balance between being wasteful and creating energy.
Creating positive energy on the road and making music and kinda contributing, pushing in that positive direction, and then reconciling all the takeout containers and diesel fumes, and all the energy it takes people to come to the shows… But it’s pretty necessary that people feel that what they do has consequences. And to at least believe that they can be responsible, or more responsible than they are being. I think that music can be empowering in that way. It’s small, but I think everybody can do little things.
TS: Now that you finally have some downtime, are you going to finish Songs With Clem, the album of standards you’re making with your dad?
SH: Yeah, it’s coming together; it’s going to be a pretty simple acoustic album. We’ve been recording stuff-six or seven original tunes, and maybe five covers, and my dad sings on a bunch of it. I’ve been working on it, just engineering and doing some acoustic stuff at my place and in Toronto a little bit, but I didn’t quite get it all wrapped up by the end of August, which was kind of my deadline to have it come out before the end of Christmas, so I’m gonna get back to it when I get home. Not sure what I’m gonna call it yet, but it is with Clem!
TS: I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but do you think Weeping Tile will ever get back together?
SH: Oh, I hope so… Luther (Wright) and I, we still feel spunky, we still wanna rock! (laughs) My sister Mary hasn’t really played out much in the last couple of years, so she’s been itching to pick up the bass again. So maybe we’ll put out that EP we’ve been wanting to do for some time… We’ll see.
The Holiday Jam at the Phoenix Concert Theatre Dec. 8 is sold out (yes, we are plenty upset about that one, too), but if you’re willing to make the drive to Kingston, you can catch Harmer at the 9th annual Weeping Tile and Friends benefit for the Salvation Army at AJ’s Hangar (93 Princess St., Kingston) Dec. 13. The show is all-ages, and tickets ($15) can be purchased at 613-531-5300 ext. 301.
