{"id":2980,"date":"2019-03-04T17:07:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T21:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2023-07-07T16:02:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T19:02:59","slug":"tomato-tomato-on-canary-in-a-coal-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=2980","title":{"rendered":"Tomato\/Tomato on Canary In A Coal Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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john & lisa mclaggan tomato\/tomato <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

About a month ago, during the In the Dead of Winter Festival, <\/a>I had the privilege to see the dynamic folk\/country duo Tomato\/Tomato<\/a> at the Bluegrass Brunch, and it was a most delightful and spirited way to start the day! Tomato\/Tomato are based in Saint John, New Brunswick. Husband and wife team John and Lisa McLaggan are for sure one of the most charming musical duos in the Maritimes. They have toured across Canada, to both Australia and the United Kingdom, have been nominated for multiple East Coast Music Awards, and won \u201cGroup Recording of the Year\u201d and \u201cSOCAN Song of the Year\u201d at the Music\/Musique New Brunswick Awards in 2017. Their new album, Canary in a Coal Mine<\/strong><\/em>, was just released on March 1st, 2019<\/strong>, and between March 8th and 21st<\/strong> they are headed back to Australia <\/strong>for a number of shows there. I had a wonderful time chatting with John and Lisa at the Mayflower Curling Club <\/strong>in Halifax. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are super excited about [the release of our new album],\u201d Lisa tells me, \u201cIt was recorded at The Bomb Shelter Studio <\/a>in East Nashville, and it was recorded to sixteen track tape, so that was really cool. We\u2019re more excited about this project than anything that we have released before!\u201d When I ask why she quickly responds, \u201cBecause it\u2019s better,\u201d and laughs heartily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, I do believe that,\u201d John agrees, \u201cThis is the first time that we had somebody else record [an album of ours]. We\u2019d always done all our own recording at home. So, this really allowed us to go down and just be artists and not have to worry about, \u201coh, is that microphone placed in the right spot?\u201d ..It also allowed us to get different musicians and different perspectives and to have the perspective of the engineer. So, that was really helpful. It was a much quicker process because of that. It was nine days of recording and mixing and then it was done. I think when you record to tape you just have to make decisions early on, because there isn\u2019t an opportunity to sit and edit, and edit, and tweak, which I think was a really good thing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The choosing of the Bomb Shelter Studio was serendipitous and allowed John and Lisa to reconnect with an old friend in the artistic hub of Nashville.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were reflecting on our favourite records, and trying to figure out what made them so special- in terms of production- so we started researching where our favourite albums had been recorded and produced,\u201d explains Lisa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hard thing to separate,\u201d says John, \u201cbecause you might go back and listen to some albums that you love, but when you listen to the production separately, you might not love that. It\u2019s tricky. For me, the one album I kept coming back to was the Alabama Shakes, their first album, Boys & Girls<\/em>. From the minute that I heard it, I just thought that sounded like what analog should sound like, and so that studio was always at the top of my list. We weren\u2019t set on going to Nashville, that\u2019s what everyone kind of does, we just wanted to find a great studio. If it\u2019s in Portland, or wherever, we just want to find the right fit. So, we reached out to a friend of ours, we used to live in Miami, and we played a lot of jazz gigs with this fellow, he\u2019s an amazing bass player, he was from Nashville originally, and he had moved back to Nashville. So we sent him an email and just inquired, \u2018what are some great studios that you know of that aren\u2019t a million dollars and will actually be invested in our project.\u2019 And, as it turns out, when he wrote back he said, \u2018Well, I\u2019m biased. I work at this great studio called the Bomb Shelter,\u2019 and that\u2019s where that [Alabama Shakes] album was recorded! And we were just like, \u201cWOW!\u201d At that moment, it was just like, \u201cWe\u2019re done. That\u2019s where we\u2019re going.\u201d Lisa adds, \u201cHe said,  \u2018Come down, guys! When do you want to come?\u2019 And we were like, \u2018January?\u2019, she laughs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was crazy,\u201d says John. \u201cWe had no idea he was working there. What are the odds?\u2026 The other thing that is different about this album is that I spent a lot more time writing it. For the last albums [the songs] were written for the album, I wrote ten songs or so and that\u2019s what went on the album. Maybe I wrote eleven and didn\u2019t use one. This time I wrote close to forty songs, and then we recorded ten originals and two covers. So, that was a different kind of process that allowed me to take more chances as a writer, because I didn\u2019t have to have everything work out. I\u2019m not a fast writer. It takes me about a week by the time I mull it over and try different things. So, I write about a song a week. Just keep going. We always say, \u2018just keep making pancakes.\u2019 You’re going to burn a few. \u2026 And then we try them out. \u201cGotta Get Up\u201d was a totally different tune for awhile, and sometimes it\u2019s like, \u2018I know this tune can be something, but [right now] it\u2019s not, but you then you think, \u2018[I] just need to put down the acoustic, grab a resonator, and change the key, and have [Lisa] sing it, and change the tempo\u2026\u2019 and sometimes that\u2019s all it needs.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of where I come in to the process,\u201d says Lisa, \u201cHe has this finished product- the skeleton is done: the melody, the chords and the lyrics, and then he brings it to me. Sometimes I\u2019m just harmonizing with him when he first shows it to me, and sometimes, like in the case of \u201cGotta Get Up\u201d I\u2019m like, \u2018I think I should be singing the song. Why don\u2019t we try this?’ I start envisioning the arrangements a bit more. And saying, \u2018Ooh, if we had a hit here, if we repeated this\u2026\u2019 and that\u2019s the part of music that makes me the most excited! It\u2019s the stuff that\u2019s not written down, that\u2019s off the page. So it\u2019s really a good way for me to contribute to the arrangements of the songs.\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d John agrees. \u201cand take ownership of them as well.\u201d \u201cI have this cake analogy,\u201d adds Lisa, \u201cwhere I think of it as John bakes this amazing cake, he\u2019s measured everything perfectly, it\u2019s like perfectly golden and comes out of the oven and I\u2019m like, \u2018Okay! I\u2019m going to decorate it!\u2019 and I start getting all the frosting, and the decorations and stuff, and he does a lot of the decorating too, but that\u2019s just sort of my role, I guess.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re different personalities that way,\u201d says John, \u201cI\u2019m a reader. I read a lot. We played jazz for years, and I only wrote instrumental music. I wrote Big Band music, and all kinds of different things, never lyrics. That\u2019s more of a recent thing. But, once I started doing it it felt like a great fit because I\u2019ve always been into literature. It just seemed like a natural combination of two things that I really love. I love words. The song \u201cAlgorithm,\u201d if you actually go through it, you\u2019ll find a bunch of math words. They\u2019re not necessarily used in the traditional sense, or they might be slanting off a different meaning of them. but i really enjoy getting into a vocabulary world for a song. So, if it\u2019s going to be about algorithms then I\u2019m looking up as many different math words as I can and trying to incorporate those. It\u2019s a way to keep it interesting for me, too. You can easily slide into a rut of using the same vocabulary over and over again, even if the song meaning is different. Like we do when we speak. I try to tweak the personalities of the songs a little bit.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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lisa & john mclaggan <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The McLaggans both have degrees in Jazz Performance, and while they have been performing together for years their evolution from jazz to folk\/country is more recent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were playing jazz gigs as a duo,\u201d Lisa explains, \u201cWe had met in school for jazz, so that\u2019s all we had ever done. But, around the house, we were singing folk music and we were harmonizing, and there was a specific day that we were just hanging out and singing and harmonizing, and I actually had a shaker in the house, a cabasa, and John had his guitar because we had one very random ask for us to play at the zoo in Saint John, but it was to lead a parade of children during Christmas in July or something-\u201c \u201cThere was a llama,\u201d adds John, amid laughter. \u201cWhen we were playing as a jazz duo John played saxophone and I played piano and sang, and we can\u2019t lead a parade with a piano, so John was like, \u2018Well, I played some guitar in High School, I could surely find some chords to play these Christmas songs. We\u2019ll just make it happen!\u201d So the guitar was out, it was out of the case, it was in the house. I was pregnant with our daughter at the time, and we were strumming some tunes, I had the shaker and I was like, \u2018You know. We sound good together! We should totally do this!\u2019 And John was like, \u2018No,\u2019\u201d Lisa laughs, \u201cHe was like, \u2018You\u2019re crazy.\u2019\u201d \u201cWell, I was just learning to play guitar,\u201d says John, \u201cAt this point, I wasn\u2019t a singer. So, it was a lot to take on. It was a lot to wrap my head around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long after, they had a local jazz gig at a bar in Saint John and they asked the owner if they could do some folk covers along with their usual jazz set. \u201cHe didn\u2019t care,\u201d laughs Lisa, \u201che was like, \u2018Sure, reset. Do whatever you want.\u2019\u201d They performed four or five cover songs, Lisa had her cabasa, and John was \u201cso nervous [he] could barely sing.\u201d \u201cWe had no aspirations to do anything with it, it was just a fun thing to do,\u201d he says. That changed when they saw the band Old Crow Medicine Show live in Fredericton, with Shakey Graves as an Opening Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe night that we saw Shakey Graves and Old Crow was a shift,\u201d says Lisa. \u201cIt was very inspiring, and that\u2019s when we went in more of a country direction. Shakey Graves does a lot of multitasking when he plays, so that was inspiring for me to see as a percussionist. He had both feet going, and he plays the guitar and he sings, and it\u2019s all at the same time. I was really into it and I got home and was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to do this too!\u2019\u201d She laughs, \u201cI already had a tambourine that I had been playing- that I hit with one foot with a kick drum pedal- but other than that, I didn\u2019t have anything else. So, I originally I didn\u2019t have a kick drum, and I played an old suitcase, an old hardshell Samsonite suitcase, that I hooked a kick drum pedal up to, so I played that.\u201d \u201cWe were just playing Farmer\u2019s Markets,\u201d says John, \u201cYeah. Open case in Saint John. For tips,\u201d adds Lisa. \u201cThen we did [CBC] Searchlight,\u201d says John, \u201cand we ended up winning for New Brunswick, and we started getting some calls from festivals, and then were like, \u2018What\u2019s the ECMAs about?\u2019 We were very new when it came to that part of the industry. We kept saying yes. and taking opportunities, and we just ran with it.\u201d Their first album was nominated for Music\/Musique New Brunswick and East Coast Music Awards. \u201cWe were completely blown away by that support from the industry,\u201d says Lisa, \u201cand, as it turns out, this kind of music is a lot more fun for us than jazz!\u201d She laughs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about their choice of moniker Lisa explains that when they were doing jazz gigs their name was “The John and Lisa Duo”. \u201cWhich is, like, the worst name ever,\u201d Lisa says, amid laughter, \u201cSo, knowing that it was super lame, we decided to start thinking about another name. It\u2019s like naming a child, it\u2019s a big commitment. So, we had a list of names. We were sitting around with friends in our buddy\u2019s basement and we were like, \u2018What do you guys think about this or that\u2019 and our buddy said, \u2018I dunno, guys. It\u2019s Tomato\/Tomato, you know, whatever.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018It IS Tomato\/Tomato!\u201d She laughs again, \u201cThat\u2019s actually perfect! We latched on to it when he said it. It became the name that day. We never looked back.\u201d \u201cIt becomes more suitable as the years go on,\u201d says John. \u201cJust with our personalities,\u201d says Lisa, \u201cIt just matches it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writing of \u201cKite Song\u201d was inspired by a trip to a coffee shop in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. \u201cWe were sitting there and a gentleman walked in, and you could just tell he was a character,\u201d says John. “He had super frazzled hair,\u201d adds Lisa. \u201cGrey hair, shooting straight up. He was wearing a peacoat buttoned all the way up, he had a red scarf on, tied, jeans rolled up- I can picture him perfectly- deck shoes\u2026 he sat in the corner, laid the paper out and was talking to himself. He was a local character.\u201d \u201cThe people who worked there knew him by name. They were like, \u2018Oh, hey, So and So!\u2019 And he helped himself. I remember him opening up the cooler and just grabbing a drink,\u201d says Lisa. \u201cIt was just one of those great moments. And the venue, the coffee shop, was very interesting. I mention a Cha Cha record in the song, and there was a Cha Cha record playing up on the wall, actually, like up above him, on a shelf. And the girl behind the counter had interesting dyed hair, and almost everything in the song is directly out of that moment in time. So, we went back to the hotel and I was frantically writing it all down in my journal. Then, we were talking about it, and I was like, \u2018That guy was really interesting.\u2019 and I said, \u2018If it wasn\u2019t for you, I would totally be that guy in the coffee shop talking to himself and reading the newspaper.\u2019 And she was laughing at that, and I was like, \u2018Well, don\u2019t get too cocky because that would also be you if it wasn\u2019t for me, you would also be that person.\u2019” They both laugh. \u201cTrue story,\u201d says Lisa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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lisa and john mclaggan <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGotta Get Up,\u201d on the other hand sees the duo delve into more overtly political territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s another thing about this album is that it digs a little deeper, it\u2019s a little more raw and it\u2019s a little more personal,\u201d says Lisa. \u201cOur other albums were more safe, lyrically, and so I feel like it\u2019s almost like how we tell kids, \u2018you\u2019re just as bad as the bully if you don\u2019t stick up for someone being bullied.\u2019 It\u2019s almost like that\u2019s what\u2019s happened to us, musically. We just can\u2019t be quiet anymore. It\u2019s just time. We just can\u2019t not say how we feel anymore.\u201d \u201cIn so many ways the election of Donald Trump was just a bridge too far,\u201d says John, \u201cThe song \u201cGotta Get Up\u201d was written after the riots in Charlottesville. We just had this feeling that everything was all coming down. All the stuff that we thought was gone, or maybe not gone entirely, but we thought was mostly gone was not gone at all. And that was a terrifying realization, and a very disappointing one. I think that song was born out of that moment. It tied in for us, because we used to live in the States, we lived in Iowa, and we know how those little midwest Walmart towns work, so it hit close to home.\u201d \u201cI have family in States,\u201d says Lisa, \u201cand a lot of people ask me, \u2018how does your family feel about all of this stuff going on\u2019 and my family is just as mortified as the rest of the world. What is going on is not representative of the entire country.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t tend to put in a lot of stuff that is completely unrelated to my life,\u201d says John of the song’s lyrics, \u201cFor example, if you\u2019re writing in a country or folk genre it\u2019s very tempting to write about the Southern US, it\u2019s very common to sort of drop those names. But in \u201cGotta Get Up\u201d there\u2019s very specific references to places in the US. But they\u2019re all connections we have. It talks about a road in Nebraska, and we\u2019ve driven that road. It was important to me to feel like I was writing from an authentic place. I think the song is written from the perspective of someone who was living in a small town like we were in Iowa, and was maybe very religious, and grew up with the church being a big part of their life, and then watching it all be co-opted for political means and watching it change for them. Religion and Politics are so closely intertwined in that part of the States, so just seeing these terrible things being said in the name of your religion, that maybe you really grew up with, and that helped guide your life, and, all of a sudden, you\u2019re sitting in church and the preacher is saying something and you\u2019re thinking, \u2018That doesn\u2019t seem right to me.\u2019 How that would feel. That\u2019s where that one is coming from. What do you do when someone changes your faith on you?\u2026 There are a lot of churches in the US that have very extreme beliefs, and there\u2019s got to be someone in that congregation who is horrified. But, these are your aunts and your uncles and the people you\u2019ve grown up with your whole life. What do you do? I think it\u2019s really important that both sides try to take the time to see the other side\u2019s perspective, because it\u2019s not happening right now\u2026 The problem is that everything is pitched as a ten. Everything Donald Trump does is a ten. But, it\u2019s probably not a ten. He gets pretty high marks for stupidity, but maybe it\u2019s a seven. Maybe, if you thought about it for a second, you could be like, ‘okay, I don\u2019t agree, but maybe I can see where these people are coming from?\u2019 You could start that as a discussing point. When everyone is at a ten, there\u2019s no conversation.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s nowhere to go but eleven,\u201d says Lisa. \u201cIf there\u2019s no conversation, there\u2019s no progress,\u201d says John, \u201cConversation is really at a minimum right now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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john & lisa mclaggan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Canary In a Coal Mine<\/em> also sees John and Lisa reimagine A-ha\u2019s 1985 Billboard Chart topper \u201cTake On Me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do that song,\u201d says John,\u201d It goes back to our jazz\/instrumental days. Because, there\u2019s this really sweet halftime groove in the chorus that\u2019s really random and unique and I\u2019ve always really loved that. So, for a decade, I\u2019ve been wanting to cover that song and this just ended up being the right time to do it. We tried it in a few different ways. We had a faster version, actually. That was a little more, like, Outlaw Country, but it was too much because the song gets really intense at times, vocally, and it was just too much,\u201d he laughs, \u201cSo then we just took it the other way.\u201d \u201cAs a singer it was really fun because it allowed me to sing in a softer way, and I really liked it,\u201d says Lisa, who has studied jazz, opera, and music education, \u201cI\u2019m a singer first. I like playing washboard and percussion and all that stuff, that\u2019s really fun, but I could put all of it down and just sing ballads and be very happy. So, as a singer that song is really fun because there\u2019s a couple moments in there where everything is very light, and I really enjoy getting to do that and it\u2019s very rare that I get to.\u201d \u201cIt ended up being a fun problem to solve in the chorus because it\u2019s really rangy,\u201d said John, \u201cit starts really low, so I take over the melody in the chorus for a minute, and then we sing in unison, and then Lisa goes up and I go down, so then she she\u2019s in melody, and I\u2019m back into harmony, and it was just some fun problem solving.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s fun to kind of slow it down and dig into the lyric a little bit,\u201d says Lisa. \u201cIt sounded really sweet on the album too,\u201d adds John, \u201cBecause it\u2019s a full band thing, so we have pedal steel playing all that, and some really cool guitar parts intertwined with that. It turned out really cool.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s one of my favourites,\u201d says Lisa. \u201cIt\u2019s a really sweet track.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As different as they are, Lisa says that what she and John have in common is their self-proclaimed nerdiness and their enjoyment of the details in music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are so nerdy and there\u2019s nothing that we have been doing that hasn\u2019t been thought about and analyzed, and thought about a few more times, and changed, and figured out. We are very deliberate in what we are doing,\u201d says Lisa. \u201cWe talk so much about pronunciation,\u201d says John. \u201cWe are super nerdy. \u2018It\u2019s not \u201ceeh\u2019 it\u2019s \u2018eeh,\u2019\u201d he says, giving me an example, and laughing. Both sounds are nearly identical, but not quite. \u201cIt\u2019s getting your harmony to really buzz with a person, especially as a duo when you don\u2019t have a third harmony part there,\u201d Lisa explains, \u201cA lot of it, and this is very nerdy of me, but it\u2019s true, it comes down to your vowel placement and locking that in. So, we\u2019ve done a lot of work together, we\u2019ve really worked hard to align every vowel sound and get it to buzz in the right way.\u201d \u201cIt does feel a bit like a Saturday Night Live<\/em> sketch when you\u2019re doing it,\u201d says John. \u201cOr, we will say things like \u2018Just put a little more \u201cih\u201d into it.\u2019 The word is \u2018wait,\u2019 for example, but I think you need a little more e in the word and then it\u2019ll buzz. But words are- he\u2019s a wordsmith with lyrics, and then I\u2019m in it as a singer- words are crazy. My favourite example is the word \u201cWhy\u201d because it\u2019s one syllable, there\u2019s only three letters, but there\u2019s three vowel sounds in that word. You have to say ooh then you have to say ahh then you have to say e. So if you\u2019re singing the word Wahhhhh-y and I\u2019m singing the word, \u201cWhyyyyyyyy\u201d it\u2019s not going to lock. Even if we are singing perfectly in tune, it won\u2019t buzz because every vowel sound has a level of brightness and darkness which affects the intonation of the note.\u201d This is why siblings often can sing in such flawless harmony, because they tend to naturally sing with the same vowel sounds. I’m learning so much.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a writer, John has a tendency to be reclusive. He doesn\u2019t like technology, and types up the lyrics to their songs on a green vintage Olympia typewriter. \u201cIf he could be totally off the grid, he would be,\u201d says Lisa. \u201cThere was a moment in time when we lived in Nova Scotia where John wanted to live on this like, it wasn\u2019t an island, but there was a causeway that you could only cross at certain times of day because of the tide. He was really wanting to purchase some land over there.\u201d \u201cIt would have been a compromise!\u201d John laughs, \u201cIt\u2019s almost an island! I\u2019ve always wanted to live on an island. It\u2019s only an island some of the time!\u201d Lisa stresses her \u201cneed for other humans\u201d and is more beholden to technology since she manages Tomato\/Tomato\u2019s Newsletter and does their Social Media, an area in which she especially excels. \u201cIt is ALL Lisa. I know I\u2019m on there, but I\u2019ve never actually seen our Instagram page,\u201d says John. \u201cSometimes I\u2019m like, \u2018You haven\u2019t shown up on our Instagram stories for awhile.\u2019 It\u2019s a lot of me talking, and I really want it to be representative of the band, so I sometimes am like, \u2018Come, stand over here with me, we\u2019re going to talk about this new single release, and then I’ll say all this stuff… and he just stands there!\u201d They both laugh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can follow Tomato\/Tomato on Facebook<\/a>. Twitter<\/a>. Instagram (@tomatotomato.sj). YouTube<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can Stream Canary In A Coal Mine HERE<\/a> or buy a physical copy (on CD or vinyl) HERE<\/a>.   <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To check out their Australia Touring Schedule: CLICK HERE<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a month ago, during the In the Dead of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4672],"tags":[3580,3579,3318,3581,3577,3578,3384,3575],"class_list":["post-2980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","tag-a-ha","tag-alabama-shakes","tag-australia","tag-canary-in-a-coal-mine","tag-john-mclaggan","tag-mayflower-curling-club","tag-new-brunswick","tag-tomato-tomato"],"yoast_head":"\nTomato\/Tomato on Canary In A Coal Mine - The Way I See It Theatre & Music Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=2980\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tomato\/Tomato on Canary In A Coal Mine - 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