Kit interviews Tracy McNeil about their Album ‘Thieves’ release and more!
Fresh from the recent release of first single Paradise Tracy McNeil & The Good Life are delighted to present McNeil’s fourth studio album THIEVES, out July 1 on SlipRail Records (distribution via MGM), and announce a tour to celebrate. The band will be hitting the East Coast of Australia and Adelaide from late June through to mid-August.
2015 was a monumental year for McNeil, on both the personal and professional fronts. The highlights – including touring solo throughout Ontario in her native Canada, supporting American rock band Dawes back in Melbourne, and performing with her band The GoodLife at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville – were all overshadowed by the heartbreaking loss of her father Wayne “Mac” McNeil.
A travelling country-rock musician in the late 1970’s, Tracy’s father had provided her with both inspiration and a deep connection to music. Unsurprisingly, McNeil found her solace in song, and through some very cathartic and productive writing sessions – Thieves was born.
Ten songs written across three countries – Thieves traverses the undulating, emotional landscape of loss, the elusiveness of time and the thrill of new beginnings.
“Do I scatter the ashes or put em in a jar
Do I wear them round my neck like some old medieval scar
I do it all in vain to help me feel where you are
But I’ve never felt closer
Than when you’re ringing through this old Gibson guitar”
Co-producer and engineer Shane O’Mara has applied a magical dose of Californian shimmer to this album. Driving drum tracks and exquisite Lauren Canyon-esque vocal harmonies hung from pop-hooks hark back to the halcyon days of late 70’s LA country rock.
Writing at her most assured and forthright and with her dream band by her side, Tracy McNeil has delivered something very special with this release – an undeniable standout from an artist whose previous works have all garnered unanimous high praise from critics.
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Kit had a chat with Tracy prior to their tour to find out more about her influences and why she fell in love with Australia and made Melbourne her home.
Kit: Hey Tracy
Tracy: Hi Kit
How Are you?
Yeah good thanks I’ve got a bit of a head cold so I’m [sounding] a bit elma fuddy, how about you?
Not too bad
Being Canadian Born, has living in Canada influenced your lyrics and if so in what way?
Probably not in the lyrics so much but maybe sonically you can’t help but be influenced by what you grew up on and the music you listened to as your growing up. I listened to a lot of Neil Young which is kinda of the standard Canadian thing to do. I don’t know how many 9 year olds listen to Neil Young but I was and I just think theres a lot of great music coming out of Canada and I kind of grew up around musicians, my family was always heavily involved in music, my dad and my mum, we always had a piano in the house in the family itself was always quite musical, but in regards to genre’s it was a bit of a more north american sounds what I create and so I’ll never sound like an Australian singer songwriter per say, because I’m not Australian, but I think its an interesting kind of mix or hybrid genre because I’m influenced by my new landscape, which is Australia and Melbourne specifically. I think now currently theres a bit of a blend now of stuff that I’m influenced by here, [people like] Liz Stringer, Jordie Lane, my husbands (Luke Sinclair) an incredible songwriter in a band called ‘Raised By Eagles’. I’m surrounded by great music here in Melbourne and I’ve got what I brought with me from home, more North American, rooted in country and blues sort of stuff.
You talked before about when you were young having Neil Young playing around the house, what would you say was the normal sort of playlist surrounding you when you were a kid?
Really it was eclectic, My mum had a lot of Jazz records laying around, Like David Brubeck, she liked Steely Dan, everything you know, The Eagles, theres all this kind of country stuff, the west coast, which I’m definitely drawn to now, this new record its kind of influenced by that sound and the grittiness of Neil Young and the honestly of it, that kind of stuff, Fleetwood Mac, but then I went through a whole new wave stage where I was listening to Depeche Mode and The Smiths and The Cure and shaving my head, being a bit of an alternative weirdo for a while. I loved it, all that kind of music in the 90’s, listening to bands like Type-X and Sonic Youth, very different, I didn’t come back to country and singer songwriter music until I was in my late 20’s I got into blue grass and country.
Do you remember what caused that to come back into your life?
My brother and I have always been just really good friends and his only a year and a half younger. He was playing guitar and writing songs and listening to a lot of country and bluegrass at the time and kind of starting to get into that scene a bit and I always kind of always followed his music taste, well I’m older but both were in the same circles, living in Montreal going to blue grass nights on Sunday nights there was a local blue grass night, and thats kind of where I wanted to be, in a seedy little bar called ‘Barfly’ on Sunday night they’d just play bluegrass music and old time country music and there was this sort of acoustic language in this french speaking town, but I felt right at home within that music, so it was kind of a comfort I think. So I guess I got into it by going to live shows and my dad loved country music and so did my mum, and so I heard it around the house a lot so it was in my roots I suppose.
You talked before about always having a piano in the house, did your parents play any other instruments?
My dad played guitar, my parents were divorced when I was 3 but they both remarried and always got along, he was a working musician and had part-time job as a laborer but he was a musician, he was a rhythm guitarist and my mum had a piano in her house and was classically trained. My brother played guitar, my step dad played guitar, the drums and everything. There were not any other weird instruments in the house although we did have a key tar at one stage.
When did you get your first guitar that was just for you?
My mum and my stepdad bought me a guitar for Christmas, it was an awful guitar but there were really supportive. I can’t remember the brand of it but it was my first guitar. My mum had a gorgeous Gibson J-45 that my dad bought her when they were married and that was always in the house. On my guitar I used to write jokes songs, I never really took myself seriously, I think that I was 16 or 17 when I got that guitar. Many moons ago.
So when you were growing up music was all around you, was it just a natural incentive that you felt that you needed to play music or did it kind of come to you later on?
It definitely came later on, I played around with it. I made up joke songs is and I was I would play the top cords, when I was 13 that I learned on the guitar that I had around the house, my brother would teach me stuff, my dad, my stepdad and just enough for me to make up the stupid songs that were probably not very flattering about a friend. I was in a group of friends that sat around and make up silly songs. I always wanted to write a song but no one else will take it very seriously. So it was always a joke and it would last a very short time. It was not until I went to university in Toronto to do with Dance degree, I was doing jazz, ballet and contemporary dance. When I was there I would use the guitar that my mum and stepdad had bought me and go and sit in the stairwell and started writing what I thought was serious songs. I was really trying to write some good songs, I guess that I was 19 or 20. I guess I did a couple of open mikes, I was a bit of a closet performer when It came to music, I could dance for a 100 people but as far as stand there and play the guitar and sing my own lyrics, it was just completely terrifying. I was probably 27 when I really started for real doing gigs and wrote my first record. I thought, right, let’s do this, let’s write music!
Do you find you feel that you are more comfortable with the band or by yourself?
I really enjoyed playing with the band more! although there is something really special when it comes to playing a solo show there is a kind of freedom and I’ve had some solo shows that I have found to be really rewarding. Doing a solo show means that you don’t have to stick to any patterns, you can slow the song down and you can change the dynamics of the song. I don’t mind playing solo but if I had to have were to show the left I would choose to have with the band.
Why did you choose to move over to Australia?
I came here to do some education, a post grad dip at Deakin so I could teach at art school level. I had done all this university, a dance minor, a dance major and I thought that I could become a drama teacher, I have had enough of the dancing business. I needed to move forward and I needed the money. So I wanted to become a teacher during the day so I could do my music thing at night, I came here for 10 months with the intention of going back to Canada and continue playing shows and have a day job as a teacher but it turns out that there were not any jobs in Canada, the economy was in a real slump at the time. And I have met people here and formed a band over here. I started riding with Jordie Lane and I started working on a record and I thought, Melbourne is awesome. So I applied for a job and if I get it I will stay and if I don’t I will have to go. I applied for one job and I got it and I’m still at that same school. I am at Williamstown teaching drama dance and music. Now I’m married to an Australian and I have a whole family here. So 10 months turned into nine years!
How did you meet your husband here?
Through music. He was in a band and we did a gig together. The rest is history!
Before I moved over to Australia I started to study what the music scene was like over here. By listening that is how I discovered artists like Liz Stringer and Jordie Lane. I thought this is incredible in Canada that we didn’t have music like this. I love the fact that the Australian accents came through their singing. There was a looseness to it that I did not think Canadian music did not have at the time. I was really infatuated with it all so when I moved over here I went to see their shows. I connected with them on MySpace that is how we became friends and they helped incorporate me into the scene and it worked beautifully!
Going into your new album, it definitely has that country sound but I feel that you have gone forward with it. How much would you say that country music has influenced your sound now?
I think that the country in there is in my blood and it comes through but I did not set out to make a country record. My first album I did, in 2007 but my second and third have more of a rockier and poppier and a bit more alternative and all the stuff that I’ve been listening to over the years pushed it in different directions. Now I think I made a place where I’m just writing from the heart. Some songs are written out of my comfort zone for example the ones written on the piano as I can barely play the piano. The melodies appear in my head. The emotional force behind the song kind of dictated how the song was going to sound by the instrument I wrote it on. for example a song like ‘Wait on You’ that was written on the piano has almost like a bluesy vibe. I didn’t sit down and think about it a genre. I think the bands that I’ve listened throughout the year have influenced the album. The band that I am in now all like the same music so when we come together in the rehearsal room it is very cohesive. It works out really well.
When I was listening to your album I found that there are a few songs that had Fleetwood Mac kind of feel to them, have they had much of an influence on you?
Well we all love them, Paradise is an example but the funny thing about that we wrote that song on the sidewalk in Toronto with no guitar, just in my head. I went back to my brother’s apartment and wrote down the lyrics and picked up the guitar. I did not think that it was like Fleetwood Mac, not even once, it was when I got back to the band I started playing it and we listened back to it as we always record our sessions and we thought Holy shit! Fleetwood Mac did not even come into the conversation until we play back the song. We loved Fleetwood Mac so we thought cool! Although as it was too close for comfort, Dan change his guitar line, so we actually made a conscious effort for it to sound less like Fleetwood Mac.
You are about to go on tour. I was wondering if there was anything special that you do to prepare for the tour as it is a fair bit of time away from home.
Good question! I was thinking about that today. I went to the chemist to get all the drugs for health reasons as currently we are all sick with a head cold and a chest infection. We stocked up on antibiotics and vitamins. Some nice natural sleeping remedies so we can get some sleep because it really is hard work. We are not flying around in jets with Roadies, we are flying Tiger airlines and driving around in minivans and playing and we are late. We do do some drinking and partying and then the next day for example we have three radio spots then off to the show. It is not super glamorous it is hard work and it’s very rewarding.
I have heard that your shows are amazing. I wanted to know, when you are on the stage do you just kind of think about making the songs sound about the best quality or trying to connect as much to the lyrics and really personalize it.
I am always trying to personalize it. Like I’m thinking about what I’m saying I’m not just delivering it. I’m usually in the moment trying to deliver the song as best I can in terms of emotional quality. That means sometimes it is not the most pitch perfect delivery. There are some songs on the record that I haven’t done live yet. For example ‘Ashes’ which is about my dad passing away last year and I don’t know how I am going to get through that.
That brings me into my next question. Music is a very emotional outlet, what part of your life do you think that has influenced your music the most. How important do you think it is staying focused on bringing that out in the music?
I think musicians are always chasing that person, that experience, a color or the landscape or the moment in time or what happened in Coles. I don’t know. We are always chasing inspiration for something that is going to want you to pick up the instrument. I always feel like songwriting is like a cold coming on, when you start to feel that you’re getting sick. I start to feel like that with a song, I then pick up my guitar and I can feel that something is going to happen.
So the new album, ‘Thieves’, the title track was there any major significance to that song as opposed to the other songs on the album to make it the title?
It was really simple, I always knew I wanted to call the album ‘Thieves’ because of the theme in that song and I struggled as I was going to call that song something else but there was nothing else I could call it so I called the both ‘Thieves’ and it really embodied a lot of what was on the record. Now I am happy that it is the title track.
Last question for you Tracy, if you could say one emotion was the primary force behind this album one emotion would that be?
Loss. On many levels.
Beautiful. That sums it up perfectly.
Thanks so much for your time, it has been awesome talking to you.
Thanks Kit, take care.
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TRACY McNEIL & THE GOOD LIFE TOUR DATES
For full tour details head to www.tracymcneil.com
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Music Injection 
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