Hawksley Workman's No Longer Naive

While many artists struggle to release albums even within the typical two-year timespan (negative points if the wait is upwards of three years), Hawksley Workman has never had that problem.

The Huntsville, Ont. native has well-earned his reputation for being incredibly productive when it comes to both his own works (he's up to the double-digits when it comes to his discography) and others' (he just finished producing Justin Rutledge's new album).

With so much on the go, it's only natural that Workman keeps the momentum rolling with his two newest albums, the harder-edged Meat and the electronic-based Milk.

Workman spoke to CHARTattack while he was getting ready to release Meat earlier this month — Milk will follow, being released digitally single by single. The conversation covered changes in his career, his worldview and how glad he is that his genre makes allowances for grumpy old men (but not Lady Gaga).

CHARTattack: Has producing other artists' albums changed the way you look at your own sound and your own music?
Hawksley Workman: It's such a humbling thing every time you do it. I think that when a lot of folks are making a record, they think that they're going to make the record that they hear in their minds. But I think that, more often than not, the record that wants to get made inevitably gets made. You're just along for the ride. The more you learn that, the more you learn to trust the process.

You'd played some successful shows in the United States back in the fall, and now you're re-releasing your first album (For Him And The Girls) there. Is the U.S. a target of yours for 2010?
Um... (laughs) I guess I would be concerned to use the word "target" for fear that it would be construed as some sort of terrorism, but... I made somewhat of an error in my career in that I focused a lot of my attention on Europe. And I had a very fun time for those six or seven years that I was a cult celeb or whatever there.

But what happened was that once the record business took a shit, my career got unplugged in Europe. And because Americans really run the entertainment business the world over, I didn't spend enough time in America when I was younger, making an impact there.

From a business perspective, I really do need to go there this year. And also, I'm really tired of flying places, so I'm trying to expand my horizons with places I can reach by land.

It's interesting, because every single American friend of mine that I've played "Striptease" for have fallen in love with it. Americans absolutely love that song.
I know! It's funny you say that because that song and "Jealous Of Your Cigarette" have done more for my career than I could ever imagine. Those songs have such legs. I don't really understand it.

When I reviewed your Massey Hall gig last year, I compared you to Leonard Cohen in that you're both the balladeer-songwriter types. Is there a key to being able to connect as well with your listeners as you both do?
Well, I think probably with Leonard Cohen, his subjects are not dissimilar to my subjects. I like writing about God and women and sex and drinking, and I imagine that most of his songs are pretty much about the same things.

But those are pretty easy topics to connect to people with, because those are a handful of things that both exalt human life and complicate human life. It's just a celebration of how bizarre it is to be alive, you know?

Would you consider doing another collection of poetry or written word like Hawksley Burns For Isadora?
I have considered it. When I wrote Hawksley Burns, I was 22, I think, and I was a very, very different person then. I'd never travelled anywhere, I'd never had any real relationships... I had really just emerged from my long adolescence of practicing music. And there was a certain amount of innocence and naivete conceived in those early years.

So I don't really know exactly what I would write about at this moment. My thoughts now are largely contained in the songs I write, and the interviews I do as well.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe I was too young and too stupid to know that what I was doing was... well, in hindsight, it looks awfully irreverent to me, the idea that I could have a book. I guess I'm not exactly book material, is what I'm saying.

It seems like maybe it was the youthful exuberance of trying out new mediums.
Yeah, exactly. I look back and I'm grateful that that happened, but sometimes I'm just like, "...oh." (laughs) It happened by accident, but maybe it was a good thing, too, and I should just take it as that.

Has your worldview changed greatly from when you made your first album to now?
Absolutely, because I've seen a lot of the world now, and when I made For Him And The Girls, I hadn't seen any of the world. Everything's changed, and I think I've changed a few times over. I did so much differently then — I was such a pious, dedicated, sort of closet Christian boy back then, and that doesn't play as much of a role in my life anymore. I'm not the same person, I'd say — but you can't hope to be, I think.

I know that there's an obsession in rock 'n' roll that we resemble our recognized archetypes of the business — died young, remained beautiful and all that.

Yet all of these aged music-makers like Leonard Cohen are exciting to me, because as you get older and realize that you're no more blond or beautiful than you were when you started out... well, I just like the idea that I can continue to be relevant in my way, even as I grow with experience and my naivete's taken away and my grumpiness takes center stage.

Well, you won't have any competition from Lady Gaga, at least.
(laughs) No, we're in very separate leagues, me and Lady Gaga.