Number one, I think, is other music, in general is very important to me, because you hear other music and it could be a reaction but it doesn’t have to always be. I remember one time I wrote a song called All I Do, a song I wrote with Coyote (Shivers) that I ended up writing on a train in Amsterdam. The original impetus was a song that I was listening to on the radio. There was this modern contemporary girl singer and I remember taking the melody that I heard on the air and started fooling around with it and changed it from a typical late 80’s Janet Jackson type melody and then I played with it and added a little Iggy Pop to it. From that you have this sort of melody sitting there and then Coyote and I continued working on the song. We tried to capture the mood of the place and what was happening around us and put it into that song. And then you strike up a mood and a rhythm. That to me is what makes for great songs in the long run—you need a mood and a rhythm. It can be a rockin’ mood. It can be a sad mood. It can be a mellow mood. As long as there is some mood and then the rhythm and you put the two together and then you have the main ingredients. Number two is what you read. You could be reading the newspaper. I remember with a song called “Good News” that came on the Valentino’s record that was inspired by different things. I remember reading the LA Times and Daniel Lanois was in the other room doing an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine and I was killing time. In the paper there was some sad story in it and from there I thought about the notion that ‘good news here is hard to find’. I remembered too about the existence of the ‘Good News’ Bible so I was sort of playing with both ideas. So what you read can influence you in that way. Then you’ll have particular songs that you love that you will go to. For example, I always loved the songs Tangled Up In Blue and You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go by Bob Dylan. Those songs get in your system. There’s a narrative going on in those songs that I’ve been following since 1975- over 30 years now. There are narratives and also themes of music that you follow. For example Blood On The Tracks would be a narrative. I particularly liked John Lennon’s first solo record that he had done after the Beatles because it was a very powerful record. There’s a certain truth in that album that I can hear underneath my work too. I call it the underlying truth of the music. In the last five years I’ve been listening to Thelonious Monk. I particularly got into his music after I did this last album with Mark McCarron. That’s a new theme that’s under my music. I’m hearing it in my latest compositions. I’m hearing Monk in there. These are movements that go underneath what you do and then there’s poetry like Arthur Rimbaud and Leonard Cohen. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Glass Menagerie and Tennessee William’s plays and many playwrights. They put something together that evokes something. So playwrights, poets and books are part of the equation. You can live in books and you want to bring some of those characters in your music. The most important part is that you take all of that raw stuff and you apply it to what’s going on in your life now and how you feel about life and how you see it according to you. That’s your final stamp on it. So you might get a line from Shakespeare that you always really loved and kept it in you or you might get a line, a song or a bridge from an Elvis song or you might see a painting by Georges Seurat and go “I want the Shakespeare line, an Elvis bridge and a painting like A Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte all in one song.” That’s what makes what I call the layers of a song.

2. What makes a great musician?

I think a great musician is a listener. I think a great musician reacts to what he hears. For example with Gord Lewis in Picture My Face- the song we built was in answer to each others licks. The great musicians are listeners and they are always in a conversation with the other musicians in the room. If you listen to my records, the newest ones, the compilations you’ll hear Jack Pedler on When Patti Rocked totally answering everything I’m saying on the kit. He’s a great listener and a phenomenal drummer. I would say ultimately they should be skilled at their instrument of course. There are good musicians out there but the great ones are the ones that take that next step and listen and they know what not to play and what to play and that’s important. I remember one of the things I learned from (Thelonious) Monk is that he said that it’s the space that counts but even if you go to a song like George Harrison’s I Shoulda Known Better there’s some amazing space in that song. He’s not filling in the space for the sake of filling in the space. He’s using it. It’s listening and sensitivity to what the other person is playing.

3. Where do your songs come from?

: I think that they come from the earth but that’s probably because I’m a Taurus and I have earth in me. I once wrote a poem about it. Songs come from every song that ever been written, every poem that’s ever been written and every heart that’s ever been broken. I think they come from conversation, memories, moments where you really have no other place to go and a song is a place where you can go. They also come from celebration. I think that the music that I love the most is celebratory music like gospel, rock and roll, blues, bluegrass and punk rock. They all have something in common. They all celebrate something. I like that. Whether they celebrate sadness. Whether they celebrate happiness. If it’s something that moves me like the first time I heard I Will Not Go Under The Ground. I remember thinking, “Wow that’s a pretty powerful statement” and it moved me because he said he would not go under the ground even though there could be a nuclear bomb happening he was going to die in his footsteps. I love that. That’s heroic. I think my songs take the best qualities of that. What you hope for is that something heroic is happening or a narrative. Or you try to open a window onto somebody else’s life and for that little moment you’re in their lives and then you close the window.

4. Why does so much great music come out of Hamilton? What’s in the water?

We somehow have the combination of being literate and very smart. Most of the musicians from my gang were well read and all of them were searchers of music. Gord Lewis searched for Iggy Pop and the New York Dolls before anyone else in Canada really cared about them. It was in him to find this music. It’s very intelligent you know. Tim Gibbons is still studying old time music and he’s never stopped searching. At the same time I think that there’s a bit of humbleness to it. We sort of know that it’s not the end of the world. We know that people have to go to work tomorrow and get a job and do other things so we’re not self-possessed or self-obsessed which I’ve seen in other cultures.

5. What are some of the collaborative highlights in your career.

I’ll give you some key moments. I remember when I was at Frank Kerr’s house on Hillview in Hamilton and Rick Andrew joined the band. I remember Rick playing a song by Gordon Lightfoot called Only A Go-Go Girl. He showed me the harmony to it and that was probably the most important moment in my musical career. I remember him having the patience to teach me the harmony notes. I think that that’s probably one of the major collaborations that I had in my life because I never took music lessons in learning harmony. All of the stuff I did with Rick was fun. I would say that in the ‘90s when I moved to New York I got into different collaborations. It was fun writing with Chris Stopa. John Wesley Harding and Lauren Agnelli and I working on “Pray For Rain” was really exciting because he’s very brilliant and Lauren’s no slouch either—two literary whizzes at their peak. That was pretty impressive and I learned a lot from that. I loved writing with Colin (MacDonald) from the Trews. Like Wes & Lauren he’s another brilliant mind. There’s nothing that gets by him. Writing with Mark McCarron is awe-inspiring. He just takes what you do and turns it around. It’s remarkable. I’ll say, “Let’s do this kind of jazz line,” and he’s right there. Before we know it we’ve got a piece. All collaborations are fun and these are just a few of many examples.

6. What are some of the favourite studios that you’ve recorded in?

Well let’s start from the beginning with Daniel and Bob Lanois at Grant Avenue in Hamilton. What a way to start your musical career. It doesn’t get better than that. Michael J. Birthelmer, a Hamilton musician, asked me to do his ghost vocals because he wanted to play the guitar. When you’re recording everything’s got to be quiet and Mike wanted to play the acoustic guitar loud and get it recorded. He didn’t want to sing because the recording wouldn’t be as strong, so I had to go into another isolated room and guide the band through these complicated songs that he wrote. So that was the beginning of working at Grant Avenue with Daniel and Bob Lanois. After that, working with Jack Richardson on The Shakers recordings was pretty spectacular. What a punch to go from that to Jack. Dave Green the engineer, who has previously worked with Phil Ramone and is still out there making film stuff today in Toronto, was brilliant. To have those two is a great combination. Then it kept getting better because I even worked with Dave Botrell when we did the Teenage Head album Trouble In The Jungle album. That was his first project that Gord and and I self-produced. Dave Botrell has since gone on to work with Tool and Peter Gabriel. From the beginning he was just so open and we learned so much. I mean the album itself had a lot of flaws sound-wise, but it’s because we were all learning. I’d rather have a flawed album and learn something than something that was slick and not learn anything. In New York we loved Dubway Studios, which is run by Al Houghton who is one of the greatest engineers in New York not to mention one of my favourite people too. He’s just so easy to work with and he makes you sound great. Dubway Studios has now moved from the small little studio that it was into this amazing studio on 26th Street. Of course we can’t forget Catherine North and Glenn Marshall. Glenn is one of the most generous humans I know. I’ve learned so much from being in his studio. It’s well run and he and Dan Achen make it a lot of fun to be there. I’ve even gotten a lot out of recording with Mark Rogers in his basement. We have so much fun when we’re there that a lot of the time I don’t even feel like I’m working. I don’t want to leave anybody out. They’re all great in their own way but those are some of my highlights.

7. What are some of the more memorable shows that you’ve played in your life, so far.

There was something very magical about playing the Cavern Club in Liverpool last year. Liverpool is a magical city and it’s where it all began. The Beatles were the first light for our generation followed by the Stones and the Animals. The rest is history right? But to be in their hometown and spend a couple days there having a look and meeting some of the locals was amazing. The audience was great. We were on the bill writer/musician Kimberley Rew (Walkin’ On Sunshine, Going Down To Liverpool). It reminded me of Hamilton in a way, apart from the accents, which made me feel very much at home. I think that playing the El Mocambo in 1981 with the Shakers was remarkable as well because the Stones had played there and we were like,“Oh my God! Here we are at the El Mocambo!” I also think that playing Maple Leaf Gardens with Teenage Head was a very big highlight because I’ve always dreamt of playing the Gardens, and then it happened. I have to thank Teenage Head for that. I remember being in the equipment room and we were all laughing because it was where we figured Terry Sawchuck got his stitches and stuff like that. Another memorable show was the Beacon Theatre in New York. We went there when we were doing a tour with The Band. The Beacon is just such a beautiful theatre. I never got to play Massey Hall and to me the Beacon Theatre is like Massey Hall, except it’s New York. Playing Tears Came Down From Billie’s Eyes in front of two thousand people was also a high in my life. The Roxy in LA was a lot of fun because it was with Teenage Head and we still talk about that time. We also played The Troubador on that trip which was cool. I played the Troubador afterwards, on my own, but the nights with Teenage Head were pretty special. That was a great trip to L.A.

8. What music do you listen to?

I have Radio Rave. It’s my own mix of everything that I like to call the radio of the world. I particularly love Rockpile, The Flaming Groovies Shake Some Action? that whole stiff scene. Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, The Ramones, Blondie and Robert Gordon are all incredible. I know their records note by note. When I was a kid we had to listen to what my sister wanted to listen to. She’s a boomer and liked all the groups from the Beach Boys to the Stones to Donovan and the Fab Four. She also liked a lot of great Motown singles. My mom liked Big Band, Sinatra and other popular music. My dad liked country music such as Hank Snow and Hank Williams. Now I tend to listen to different things and I’ll go into these phases. Whatever comes through the old machine.

9. What instruments do you play?

I play pretty good guitar. I think I’ve got good rhythm. I sing as well. I also play bass when the necessary. I used to play sax, which I’m really glad I did because it was great for phrasing, but I never kept at it. I play piano badly.

10. What work are you proudest of?

I’m proud of certain records. Tearing Me Apart? the first Teenage Head record. I played rhythm guitar with Gordie. That was a great record and I don’t think we ever topped it. Out The Door/ ‘Til I’m Gone, the very first Shakers singles are hard to top. Great music. I loved the In Time record. I think that it’s a great record and I’m very proud of it. I’m very proud of when I sang on Frantic City. It’s one of the best records Canada ever produced and one of the greatest rock n’ roll records of all time. I always enjoyed Electric Guitar because we finally learned how to do it right on our own. I’m very proud of Valentino’s Pirates because it was the culmination of everything I’d learned and it might be the best record I ever did in one way because it took a lot of elements and put it all together. I loved the last record I did with Lauren Agnelli, Heaven & Earth, because we are at our folk peak. The songs are great and like Valentino’s it captured so much. I really like the new record that I made with Mark McCarron, In the Blue of my Dreams, which is coming out soon. I think it’s going to be one of my favourite records of all time.

11. Tell us about your family background and what it was like growing up.

My Father was from New Brunswick, Riviere du Portage, and my Mom is from Lawrence, Massachusetts. Their family traveled through the US to Niagara Falls and from Niagara Falls they came to Hamilton. That’s what I know. I know that there’s mystery and that dates can get thrown around. One day somebody should do a chronology of that and then maybe I’ll know what’s goin’ on. My Mom is a Hamilton woman really. She grew up in the north end of Hamilton. My Dad came here when he was 18 and like Tim Gibbon’s Dad they all stayed at the Staff House which was right on Burlington street? a place where all the young guys who worked in the factories would go. They’d get a meal and women who would take care of them. So my Mom and Dad met and they had my sister April who became my musical source. I also have a younger brother Jim. My brother and I were close in the certain way that brothers are but my sister and her friends influenced me with their own taste in music. We grew up in the west end of Hamilton on Bond Street in an area called Westdale. I actually led a bit of an isolated life at the beginning because at that time there were not many other kids on the street but there was a lot of nice old ladies. It was lovely because they all gave me pickles, cookies and all that good stuff. Homemade cookies not the store bought kind. That brings us to phase two. I grew up in this little area and then my Mom and Dad sent me to Catholic school- Christ The King, which was the basilica at that time across McKittrick Bridge. It was a great school because everybody really grew up on the Victoria Park side and not the area where I’m from. A few of us from our area would cross the bridge and Gord Lewis was one of them. It was during that time that we both became altar boys. So we were good boys and David, Gord’s brother became a priest. We were sort of the outsiders. And in a way I got used to being an outsider as I never really belonged to the group. We wanted to belong but once school was over we all had to go our separate ways so that’s how Gord and I became tight as friends as we would walk home from school together every day between grade 1 and grade 8. Now Gord was always a very, very smart guy. He even skipped a year so he was a year ahead of me but we still walked home together. We shared a love of sports like most kids at that age. Baseball was our big love as well as hockey. Gord was a great goalie and he robbed me of the only goal that I ever had? that little toe save that he perfected from Roger Crozier. After that Gord went to Westdale high school- he didn’t stay in the Catholic system and I followed suit the next year. I didn’t really want to stay in the Catholic system and that was my next set of education because if my street smarts come from Christ The King and growing up in that environment. The next environment was Westdale High School. Westdale today is still today a pretty amazing school and it’s having it’s 75th Anniversary this year. What was also great about Westdale is that was a real mix of ethnic and economic groups. You had people who were well off. People who on one side of the bridge who were less well off and then you had the middle class so you had all three working together plus you had the Jewish community and many other different communities all together in one school so it was a great place to get an education. It’s also where my guitar playing and my musical career started because that’s where I met Frankie Venom and Rick Andrew. Really Teenage Head and The Shakers came from Westdale high school and it was a forum for me to play. So by 1973 I was already playing in front of a couple thousand people in front of my high school.

12. How did your family influence you musically?

Both sides of my family are very musical so it comes naturally.

13. When did you write your first song and how old were you when that happened?

Actually the first song that I ever wrote was when I was six years old and it was called “Come and Get It” about my Mom calling me for supper. It was very Dave Clark Five. Actually that’s where I first learned about writing songs. Songs are really just you echoing what’s around you. So I guess at a young age I already knew instinctively what to do. I used to sing tunes on my bike. I didn’t know I was writing songs but on my way to school I’d just be making up tunes.

14. What was the first album you ever got or bought?

When my sister got Twist and Shout by the Beatles, even though it was for my sister, it made a big impression on me because I remember coming in from school and my Mom saying, “Take a look at this,” and it was a picture of the Beatles on the album with them all jumping in the air and I thought, “Wow that looks like a lot of fun!” Then my sister came home and we played the record. Again, even though it was my sister’s, it was really the first album that influenced me. I think All Summer Long by the Beach Boys and December’s Children by the Rolling Stones and many other different ones along the way.

15. How did you get the name Dave Rave?

This is a fun story. When Gord Lewis and Frank (Teenage Head) asked me to play rhythm guitar on their first single we used to rehearse at the old Star Records in Hamilton. Mike Mope came in. He had a very cynical sense of humor and he looked at me on guitar and said, “Look who’s play guitar. Dave %&!#?@£ Rave. Everybody laughed and I realized that I’d been christened. The typical Hammer cynicism.

16. What are some of the highlights/ lowlights of touring with Teenage Head?

The highlights were so many. Playing with the Stray Cats was a great night at Wonderland in Toronto. The first tour that I ever did in Western Canada was wonderful. It was all fresh and new. The guys were great and we had a lot of fun. Frank was really into it and we laughed a lot. Western Canada to me was always the most fun. We would really have nobody around but us and we would sing and laugh all night. I always liked Nova Scotia too. I loved Halifax because they were really great people. So between Halifax and Western Canada those are my favourite memories of being on tour with Teenage Head. I guess the negative side, like anything, was when we were all losing our enthusiasm for it.

17. What made you want to live and work in New York?

When I first started playing in the US with Teenage Head I really enjoyed the US audiences. I thought that they really had a great take on things and I remember thinking to myself, “I really like this place.” They were friendly and very attentive to everything that we did. They paid attention. I really loved that about the American audiences. New York was always great. It was like the cherry on top of our career to be able to go to New York City.

18. You actually made the move to New York with Gary ‘Pig’ Gold. How did you actually meet Gary?

Well I’ve known Gary for years because of his “Pig Paper” during the punk days. Then Gary left Canada but we were still getting his papers in Los Angeles so he was still in my consciousness. When the album Electric Guitar came out and we were looking for promotion and Bruce Mowat suggested a writer from New York named Dawn Eden who was going to be in Canada for a while. Our first formal meeting comprised of Dawn Eden, Gary Gold, Sir Doug and Mole (Bruce Mowat). Dawn Eden is a brilliant, eccentric woman who eventually wrote some amazing liner notes for Valentino’s Pirates. Gary ‘Pig’ Gold is exactly who he is. He’s a wild, unique and very self-determined guy who marches to the beat of his own drummer and only does what he wants to do. When I met him we got along really well. I had no idea at that point that I was going to leave Teenage Head but I had this piece of music that I knew did not fit Teenage Head no matter how much I tried. I knew that Gary had done some Beach Boys style harmonies so for a laugh I gave him the track and told him to have some fun with it. The song was Farmer Needs Rain. A little while later he came by to see us at Entex in Mississauga so show us what he’d done. He’d come up with this really, really original brilliant stuff and I said, “Let’s record it.” Once it was cut I knew then that maybe this was a direction that I wanted to explore. It seemed interesting and the opportunity and the right people presented themselves to me.

19. You were in New York City at the time of 9/11. Did this affect your work and if so how?

Intensely. It was one of the most devastating, incredible moments that happened in my life. To this day I still shudder when I think about it. Look at how it’s changed North America. You can’t function way you did before it happened. It was intense. I was working on the album Everyday Magic at the time and we were all set to continue recording this album. Glenn Marshall then came into New York and we went upstate to record songs that we thought were going to be for Everyday Magic. When we, including Mark McCarron and Mark’s partner a fellow musician Suzanne Mueller listened to the music I realized that this was nothing like “Everyday Magic” This was its own entity. There was a mood in it that was scary but compelling so I called Mark and asked him if he wanted to continue the theme and he was all for it. So we sat for a period of two months and wrote an album called In The Blue Of My Dreams. You see a building fall down in any state even if it’s just being intentionally torn down it is still pretty intense but to see it go down on its own because of war it gets in your blood. You do feel it.

20. How have you gotten you label deals. Do they choose you? Do you choose them? Is it the name or the people behind it?

I think that the most important thing is to meet like-minded people such as Ralph Alfonso at Bongobeat. I’ve known him since 1976. I used to read his articles in the paper in Toronto. I remember when Teenage Head got signed to Attic and we’d go in there and there was Ralph. He worked there at the time and he had the vision to get their product into the States— to Trouser Press and New York Rocker. Ralph’s always been that kind of guy. Eventually we played together and when he moved over to the more artistic part of the business so when he started his label it totally made sense that I would be part of it. Now with Bullseye it came down to Jaimie Vernon and Jaimie being a re-issuer of Canadian music and me being part of that story. He liked the old Valentino’s Pirates record and The Shakers. It seemed like a natural home. When I met Jaimie I just loved the guy from the minute I met him. His heart’s in the right place and everyone he’s hired are just incredible people.

21. What was it like going through your archives for this Anthology project. Were there any surprises? What did you learn?

It was harrowing and I’m so glad that Lisa Millar was there or it might not have happened. It was daunting at first because it can be so hard to look back at your career and ask yourself do I deserve this? I didn’t write The Wall. I didn’t write Imagine just nice tunes like Can’t Stop Shakin and Everybody Needs Somebody so you have to face where you stand in reality in the musical world. There is also a fear of faces some of the negative parts of the past. The positive, fun stories are great to remember but there are always difficulties too like when bands fall apart. There were times that I wouldn’t want to listen to something but thankfully Lisa was there to guide me through the tough parts of the process. I’m glad we did it. If there’s one thing I learned it’s that I’m persistent and that I’ll continue going in spite of everything. I’ll always be there through thick and thin. Whether an album is the greatest album or not at least I’ll stand by it and the mistakes that I make are my own and not somebody else’s. I never wimped out and said, “Maybe I should have done this?”. When it’s done it’s done. No second-guesses.

22. Who are your heroes?

Number one would have to be my Dad because I think that to every lad their Dad is a hero to some degree and he was an inspiring guy and I appreciate him even more now that he’s gone because when you’re alive how can you ever really appreciate anybody properly. Of course my Mom’s been awesome. I have to start at the top. It’s hilarious. Still today she loves music so much and she’ll ask me if there’s anything I want for Christmas and I’ll say who I think will be cool and she always picks out someone way more far out than I’ll ever dream of. I’ll say, “Where did you get this?” and she’ll say, “I thought you’d like it.” It blows my mind. They’ve always supported my choice in career even though for most parents music is the last profession that they would ever choose for their child unless you come from a musical family where it’s passed down. So at the top of the list you’ve got my folks. In life the first people that ever moved me as a kid were Willie Mays of the Giants, Jean Beliveau- the way he held it himself. I was never really a Leaf fan with my French background but I liked Davey Keon in spite of that and admired Johnny Bower because he was a great goalie and Sawchuk—you couldn’t go wrong with Terry Sawchuk. Those guys were unbelievable goalies and stopped the Habs in the last Stanley Cup in ‘67. You could not knock Terry Sawchuk- the greatest goalie I ever saw in my life. I like the Hamilton Tiger Cats of course. Guys like Angelo Mosca & Joe Zuger were idols too. When I was a kid they were the big football guys. Then in music there’s Keith Richards because he’s such a musical, funny and inspirational guy. He tells it like it is and isn’t afraid of being who he is. He’s been a human experiment and he’ll admit it and you gotta love him. His interviews are always interesting. I think that when I was a kid what I liked about John Lennon was that he was fearless and a fighter and irrational. He could go from one side of something and love it and then completely turn around and hate it and he taught me that humans do that. I think that he was one of the first entertainers to be honest that way. One day he would love Paul McCartney and then the next day hate him and that’s the way humans are. Sinatra couldn’t admit things. I also admire what Bob Dylan did because he was also fearless. Whatever he did he did and damned the sails, whether you like his singing or not and though a lot of people still can’t stand his singing he doesn’t care. He’s going to sing. His songs went on too long – that’s too bad. I admire that kind of willingness to go over the ledge and change everything you’re doing. Becoming a born again Christian and saying that everything before doesn’t exist well I just admire what it took to say that. He’s honest. So I think that musically those are the big three. I also like Prince because he’s Prince. He’s such an interesting dude and when you listen to his music he’s done some incredible things. In Canada I like Gordon Lightfoot because he’s Gordon Lightfoot and he’s written the songs that Canada will always be known for around the world.

23. What are your top five desert island discs?

I’d take the Beatles White Album because that’s a double and the Stones Exile On Main Street because it’s a double too. Ultimately Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks. For some punk rock I’d probably want The Ramones Rocket to Russia as it’s such a fun album. For my last selection I’d like to take the Trews new album Den Of Thieves as it’s a great album from head to toe.

24. What song would you like playing in the background on your deathbed?

I’d probably put on something by Gorecki, probably Symphony No. 3. It’s just that kind of music. Music for funerals. It’s powerful music.

25. What were some of your hobbies as a child?

I’m a pretty one-dimensional guy. Reading. Writing. Hockey. Baseball. Most sports. Music. They are pretty much the same now. I haven’t changed much in that respect. I was never one for putting together model airplanes or that kind of stuff. I didn’t really have that kind of attention span. I chill out watching Hockey Night In Canada

26. What was your favourite subject in school?

History and it still is. History’s always got me because it’s where we base our future.

27. Describe your perfect day?

You wake up. You have time to do some great reading so you can get inspired and then you go to the piano and maybe a nice lick comes out and you go “I can follow this.” Then you get a great kernel of a song that you can work on. Then you take a nice walk, especially if you are in New York City. If I’m in Hamilton I might go for a coffee with Jason Avery or Tim Gibbons and we go out and listen to some tunes or go to Hutch’s. It’s a lovely day and it feels good. And then you go home and make some calls and find out that your record’s #1. Now that’s on a day that you’re not playing. On a day that you are playing you go to a show and it’s sold out and you’ve got great people there and you have a great show.

28. If you go to an art gallery and you only have half an hour what sections do you head for?

I love the Cubists. I love the Pointillists. I love looking at Cézanne. The Impressionists. It’s the Pop art. It’s the art that gets a lot of people’s eyes and then I like to look at what’s going on currently— the newest artists and what they are doing.

29. How have the women in your life shaped you?

Incredibly so. My Mother and my sister were my first female influences- both Capricorns. My sister and her friends influenced my musical tastes and my Mom with the Big Band music that she liked. Then of course the girls that you dated over the years. You’ve got to be honest and say that they are part of the subjects of the songs that you write. I don’t write about guys generally. I tend to write about Jillian, Nicki, Jennifer, Madeleine, Patti, Debbie. I like girls a lot. I played with the guys for ten years and that was fun and then when Lauren Agnelli joined the band it was the first time that I really started working with women musically and she was and continues to be a great influence. She’s such a great musician and a great writer. When we brought her into the scene here there really weren’t any women around and now there is. I really love her pioneer spirit. She’s one of the pioneers along with Patti Smith and Deborah Harry. I respected her so much for being able to hold her own and the guys all loved her as a great friend. I don’t think that there was a girl like her. There were other girls around the city playing but not like her.

30. What kind of influence was well-known rock muse Bebe Buell on the Dave Rave Conspiracy?

She was a big influence because she married Coyote Shivers and we had a deal with her. It was exciting in a way and very intense because she’s a very intense woman. And the whole deal with Liv Tyler being her daughter and watching that all happen that was pretty amazing. That sent everything in a loop. I mean who would have thunk that. It changed the Conspiracy big time!

32. Should musicians try to influence politics a la Bono?

I think musicians should do whatever they want. It depends on the nature of your personality. I’m glad Elvis didn’t because Elvis didn’t really need to but I’m glad the MC5 did. I’m glad that Bob wrote Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall. I guess we need Bono. I’m glad that Bob Marley did what he did. On the other hand Paul McCartney tried with some of his songs like Freedom but he doesn’t have to but if he wants to go for it he should. It’s great he believes in no landmines and Bono doing what he’s doing. We don’t always have to agree with the musicians but we don’t have to agree with the politicians either. Sometimes you need a unique voice to explain something in a new way. So it depends on the musician. It depends on how they say it and it depends on what they want out of it. There are musicians that go to both sides of the argument. Some go to the right. Some go to the left. You need it all. It’s all just expression. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s bad. You can always just disagree with it.

33. You are having a dinner party and you get to invite four people living or dead. Who would you invite?

I’d love to invite Martin Luther King. What a magical man. What a unifier and a man of great tolerance and unspoken dignity. I’d love to have Nick Lowe because I really, really admire Nick’s take on music, his production and everything he does. And he’s so brilliant. I’d have to pick my idol Jean Beliveau because he’s such a class act. Again he didn’t take sides in politics and he knows what he represents. He’s a Frenchman and he’s cool. Beliveau and Nick would be interesting to see together. With Beliveau’s French accent and Nick’s English accent and Martin Luther King in the middle- that would be interesting. Then maybe Selma Hayak or someone like that because she’s a great actress and her assets are outstanding. Her or Shakira- one of the two. Of course if I could I’d bring Mariah Carey to the party too. She’s so misunderstood.

34. If you weren’t a musician what would you be?

I’d have probably have become an architect. When I was a kid everyone thought that I would become an architect because I always used to draw maps and stuff. My Mom called me ‘Map Charlie’ or architect and even when I write songs now I tell people to make sure that the architecture is right so I actually think of my songs as architecture.

35. What was your most embarrassing moment on stage?

Wow. There are so many. (Laughing) Pretty well half my musical career. But seriously there was one time when I was on stage with Teenage Head in Vancouver and Kenny our roadie tuned our guitars but the battery was dying on his tuner so we all ended up in different keys. The place was totally sold out so we had to start all over again. That was pretty funny and embarrassing at the same time. There was also one time that we went on the road with Tom Wilson and Rick Andrew we had to kiss a moose. That was pretty embarrassing too.

36. What are five words that you would use to describe yourself?

Persistent. Evasive. Open. Closed. Interested.

37. When was the last time you cried and why?

Actually it was this past Christmas Day. I was with my Mom and Jaimie Vernon gave me picture of my parents together and she saw it and got so choked up and said that it was the only present that I ever needed to give her. She opened it and it was so beautiful and she really got emotional about it and it made me emotional watching her. I had some tears for that.

38. Who in your life teaches you the most about yourself?

Lisa Millar from Bullseye Records because when I’m working with her and we were putting together the Anthologies I really learned a lot about myself. She’s been a great teacher that way. Some of the conversations that we have are pretty mind-blowing.

39. What are some of your favourite books of all time?

I really love the Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and Kozinski’s, The Painted Bird- though I think he killed himself. I thought Bob Dylan’s Chronicles was a really good book. His autobiography was great. I also like the book, The Story Of Zero, about the number zero.

40. You’re on death row. What would you order as your last supper?

Sal’s Pizza in New York City.

41. What is the best question that you’ve ever been asked in an interview?

Questions about the music and where it comes from are the most interesting questions to me.

42. Which came first the guitars or the girls?

The guitars. I guess that there were always girls around but I was too shy to notice. I think that most guitar players, when it comes down to it, are actually pretty shy people in some degree. Usually the guy without the guitar is not shy but I think that we’re all pretty shy in some way.

43. What are some of the accomplishments outside of music that you are most proud of?

44. Where do you see yourself 20 years from now?

I still see myself writing songs, some poetry and maybe even a book if I get the courage to write one. And I’d like to write in a completely different environment like Jamaica or the Virgin Islands with some girls around feeding me rum.