Eamon McGrath: Workaholic

06/18/09 3:27pm

by Evan Dickson (CHARTattack)

Eamon McGrath is talking a mile a minute about his new album.

No, not 13 Songs Of Whiskey And Light, his recent introductory release on White Whale Records. He just got home after finishing his next album in Vancouver with The New Pornographers' John Collins.

It seems this guy works too fast for the normal media cycle to keep up. Really, he works too fast for The Flash to keep up.

13 Songs is essentially a compilation of tunes the White Whale people cherry-picked from McGrath's previous 18 home recordings. How long did it take him to make all that music?

"There are songs on it that are from up to a year-and-a-half ago. There are songs that were recorded less than a month before we put the track list together. So from 2006 to 2008," says McGrath.

In total, the new, new record, Peacemaker, will be McGrath's 25th album. And the guy's 20 years old? I'm no sciencetician, but that math doesn't seem to add up. How in Dylan's name does he write so many songs?

"The more important question is how [I] record so many songs," McGrath corrects me in a torn up voice that makes him sound about 40 years older than he really is. "The way I write songs, recording is part of the process of writing them. I like to make it so that there's spontaneity or authenticity always flowing in the blood of the song."

It seems the young Edmontonian likes to force himself to create — the more difficult the circumstances the better. He doesn't seem to mind at all that The City Streets, who he had been touring with and who were supposed to record Peacemaker with him, couldn't make the trip to Vancouver due to budget concerns.

"I borrowed some money last-minute from my dad, booked me a flight to Van and that day made a list of alternate songs I wanted to do. Met up with the drummer [Rob Josephson of The Mohawk Lodge] that night, who I'd never met before and never played with before. The next day he walked into the studio after never hearing the songs and recorded all the tracks."

That's right. Not only did McGrath replace or rearrange all the songs he had planned to record, but he and Josephson recorded everything in only two days. After finishing it so quickly, he has no desire to try to change, edit, or fix anything. Since McGrath creates as he records anyway, he thinks of his "mistakes" as just accidental creations.

Since 13 Songs Of Whiskey And Light was just released, Peacemaker won't be available until next year. And by then McGrath expects to have recorded yet another album. (Just one?)

That level of drive, focus, and artistic confidence is rare to find in anybody, let alone a person who's barely out of their teens. Given his torrential output and undeniable talent, expect to hear a lot more from Eamon McGrath.

You can see McGrath here:

June 19 Driftpile, AB @ North Country Fair
June 25 Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore Cabaret
June 26 Kelowna, BC @ Habitat
June 27 Calgary, AB @ Sled Island Music Festival
June 28 Edmonton, AB @ The Hydeaway
June 29 Saskatoon, SK @ Walker's Nightclub
June 30 Winnipeg, MB @ Lo Pub & Gallery
July 8 Edmonton, AB @ Likwid Lounge
July 12 Ottawa, ON @ LeBreton Flats (Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest)
Aug. 29 Edmonton, AB @ The Hydeaway