Shawn Hewitt Bares His Heart

Shawn Hewitt has accomplished plenty in his short career, remarkably without the help of a single full-length album. He's shared stages with The Dears and TV On The Radio, won the Fan Choice Award at the 2004 NXNE Festival and, above all else, the Toronto-based singer/songwriter has become a true musician's musician, drawing kudos from friends, fans and followers alike.

Fast forward to the present and Hewitt has finally put out a proper album. Spare Hearts is a dense, carefully crafted effort that truly defies categorization, mixing indie, prog, soul and myriad other styles, all the while not really sounding like any of the above.

We recently caught up with Hewitt to discuss inspiration, influences and his thoughts on the winged mammals of southern Ontario.

ChartAttack: Let's cut to the chase: Why has it taken you so long to put out a full-length album?
Shawn Hewitt: I've always been a pretty huge perfectionist, so ultimately I wanted to have complete control over the production and songwriting process when my first full-length came. As an artist, your debut release will speak volumes about how you'll initially be received and the course your career will take, so I did everything in my power to ensure that the conditions were just right before I committed to anything.

You chose to record Spare Hearts with producer-to-the-stars Dave Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Los Campesinos!). How long was that in the offing?
My relationship with Dave goes back a few years and I had known for a while that he was my top choice of producers to record with. Around the time I was ready to kick things off, Dave was moving his studio to Trenton, Ont. so it was a bit of a start-stop proposition for the first little bit.

But once the move was complete, I was one of the first people to work with him in the new space, this beautiful old church that made for an amazing environment to record in. Dave actually mentioned early on that the studio had bats, which was a bit of a warning, but luckily they didn't interfere with the sessions.

Did it help to record outside of Toronto, in terms of your ability to concentrate on the recording process?
Absolutely. It was a combination of trains and cars and these great, long conversations spent in-transit that really helped to strengthen the connection of what we were trying to do.

It really helped to get out of my comfort zone back in Toronto and really record in isolation like that. The space was so serene and quiet, but also quite haunting at times, which really helped influence a number of the vocal takes we were able to capture. Plus, there was an onus to wrap things up quickly so we'd be done recording before the bats came out.

You've never been recognized as an overtly political artist, but it seems one of your new tracks ("Keep Them At Bay") has a decidedly political slant to it. What gives?
That one was inspired by Barack Obama and written in the lead-up to the primary race in the U.S. It speaks to the personal toll that politicians like Obama face in their careers and the impact that politics must have on their personal lives and their families. Just thinking about the turmoil that must cause was the theme I was going for.

Any chance of writing new tracks inspired by the Canadian election? "Ode To Stephane Dion," perhaps?
I wouldn't say that, but oddly enough, I'm working on some lyrics and ideas right now because there are a lot of really big issues facing Canadians this fall. We'll see if those ideas ever evolve into something more concrete.

You've somehow become synonymous with Krautrock over the years, even though your music has always pulled from a variety of different styles. Any ideas why?
I would reference Can a lot in early interviews — how my music was like an intersection point between Can and Stevie Wonder and Scott Walker. A lot of journalists picked up on that comparison and the tag just kinda stuck.

I can't really deny the influence there, so it's never really been something I've made a deliberate attempt to avoid.

All of those artists peaked back in the late 1960s or early 1970s. In general, are you particularly fond of music from that era?
I'm not a fan of those artists because they're from the same era. I'm a fan because, musically and emotionally, I find their songs extremely moving at some level. There's not a specific sound or genre that I'd ever limit my listening habits to. As long as the music can impact me at some level, the genre really doesn't matter.