Let’s Rock Chats With Lawrence Gowan

It’s incredibly hard to believe, but Gowan’s Strange Animal album is celebrating it’s 40th Anniversary.

Lawrence Gowan, is, quite simply, Canadian classic rock royalty. Although he released his self-titled release in 1982, it was his 1985 release that solidified him as a major force in Canada’s topsy turvy world of rock and roll. Singles such as A Criminal Mind, (You’re A) Strange Animal, Cosmetics and Guerilla Soldier cemented his place on classic rock radio and Muchmusic.

Lawrence joined another classic rock legend, Styx, in 1999 as their keyboardist/vocalist. However, he has continued to perform his solo material to sold out crowds in Canada.

Gowan is set to perform a short tour of Ontario beginning on April 16 in Guelph. Let’s Rock caught up with Lawrence on a call from Biloxi, Mississippi before a Styx show on April 11.

The conversation is a long one, clocking in 13 minutes longer (55 minutes) than the entire Strange Animal record (42 minutes). The chat covered topics including emotional reactions to music, his solo drummers, hockey, Cyclorama, Strange Animal (of course, and ever questions from his Facebook fan page, “Lawrence Gowan Fan Group’, with questions from Ken Moskou, Irene Ursine and Michelle Murray. Lawrence also chose his top 4 for the Mount MoreRush of Canadian vocalists.

Some of his answers have been transcribed below, some you have to listen carefully.

Enjoy!

Contents

1.Intro and what Lawrence as been up to: (0:00-3:04)

2. The emotional connection in music (3:04-4:36

3. The recent Styx output (4:37-11:30)

4. Cyclorama (11:31-13:26)

5. 40th anniversary of Strange Animal (14:17-15:59)

6. The Gowan drummers and playing it like the album (16:00-24:33)

7. Introducing hockey to Styx (26:45-28:45)

8. Questions from the Lawrence Gowan Fan Group (28:46-37:31)

9. Can Lawrence remember all his songs (37:32-39:35)

10. Triumph tribute album, Van Halen and Canadian musicians (39:45-45:40)

11. Rapid Fire: Mount moreRush of Canadian vocalists, Leafs vs. Sens, and hardest songs to play and sing together. (45:41-53:19)-

12. Recap

The Full Interview

On The Emotional Connection in music (3:04-4:36)

“Believe it or not, that is not an uncommon reaction from people that, particularly from people who weren’t even born when the biggest records of the classic rock era came out. we do see a very emotiona,l kind of outburst. We saw one in Edmonton, as well, you know right in front of the stage. It’s very gratifying to see that music still reaches people on such a profound level as to bring them to such an extreme emotional response like that. So. yeah. that, I think, is a great sign for the future.”

On the Recent Creative Output of Styx A New Album(?) (4:37- 11:30)

“…Really during this whole period, the music industry was really grappling with where it was going, what it was going to do, because the big majors had major problems.because of the internet and the effect it had had on the entire world. I’m trying not to say music industry, but I’ll say it anyway because it was an industry up until that happened, and then it became a business. (laughs) It kind of downsized. On the one hand, I was still cheering for them, but we realized playing live is the one thing that you cannot download, and that’s what we did. We basically put our efforts entirely into playing a hundred plus shows a year. And then by 2010, I started doing Gowan shows again, so that was on top of that, because I realized, if this music is going to stay alive now that there’s Classic Rock Radio etc, I have to be part of supporting that and getting it in front of people as much as possible. But then, good things started to happen again, as the ship began to kind of right itself in the music business, in the recording side of things because the major labels and other labels had found ways to work with the internet and to utilize it to a great degree to reach people again and be part of that you know. And by 2014, Universal records came back into the life of Styx and they had the catalog and it suddenly became more logical, basically, to start doing some of the new music that we’d been working on all along anyway, because we’d always had new things, you know, and we just needed to find the opportune time to release them. And at the same time, Tommy (Shaw) had begun working with a fellow by the name of Will Evankovich, who’s been now in the band for over 5 years plus probably, and Will became our producer and co-writer and that was a great thing to have someone that was kind of in and outside the band at the same time, and had a a great kind of objective perspective on the overall thing that we should be recording. What the band should sound like now. You know, we’re coming up to over 40 years of age at that point, the life of the band. And that’s when The Mission began to kind of come together, and when when Universal records heard it, they were like, this is exactly what we were hoping you would do, is do something like it was right out of the classic rock era. We found a way to make the record sound like that because we used all the old gear again. We basically used all the old analog stuff and recorded in that clunky old way, when we put these things down, (holds up a cell phone) and said, OK, forget that those exist. It’s five of us in a room and let’s make it happen. And that was such a great experience that it led to us playing several shows where we played The Mission in its entirety. NASA got involved in it. They did a video of one of the songs. I guarantee, probably the most expensive video of all time because it featured them sending the Rover to Mars. I defy anyone to beat a three hundred trillion dollar video. I’m just pulling numbers out of the air.

That led to us doing Crash Of The Crown. The only big hiccup there was 2020, where the world had to kind of reassess for a year. But Crash Of The Crown came out and went to number one on the Billboard Rock album chart, they have a chart just for rock albums now because everything is so designated into its own category. And from there they said we can’t wait for your next record. Well, the next record is on its way, and I said an awful lot about the fact that I can’t say much about the new record. But that’s an overview of the recording side of the band over the last 26 years. Was that the longest answer you’ve ever received to a question of, ‘So, how’s the recording?”

On Cyclorama (11:31 – 13:26)

Let’s Rock: Man, oh man, I loved Cyclorama.

Gowan: Thank you…that puts a smile on my face cuz I think there are some really strong songs on that record. And another thing I take a certain distant pride in is that, there was a young fellow that I met when he’s maybe only 10 or 11 years old, and his parents were very much into Styx, and he came out to a show. I met him because he sent a video of himself playing piano, but he had his dad make him a spinning stand, like mine. So that caught my eye, of course and I met him and I could see he was very talented. Well ,you know, with some distant encouragement over the years, he’s now the keyboard player in Toto. His name’s Dennis Atlas. He’s great. In a recent interview I saw, someone sent it to me, they asked him, ‘Name your top five albums of all time.” His first, the first one he mentioned, was Styx Cyclorama and the reason being was that that’s the record that inspired him to want to get into playing music seriously and playing progressive rock, cuz that that record to my mind is there’s a lot of progressive rock on there, but it’s progressive rock in the Styx fashion where it’s still very accessible to people that just listen to any other types of music. It’s not all that challenging, as progressive rock goes, but it does have progressive leanings and he still you know champions that album, as you just mentioned it now to, so that as I said puts a smile on my face.”

Happy 40th Anniversary to Strange Animal (14:17 – 15:59)

“That’s the big news as far as outside of Styx, right now. It’s funny, when I play the shows and I announce that this is the 40th anniversary of Strange Animal, the jaws drop in the audience. I have to remind them, “Yeah, you’re that old..” But, you know, honestly this is the great thing. The fact that it’s 40 years on and people still embrace those songs as if they’re brand new and as I say, you know, on any given night…up to half the audience can be under 40 years of age, They weren’t born when that record came out. And that’s pretty astounding that they’ve responded to it, that there’s still some airplay because of classic rock radio. And the great thing about the internet is, if they hear one song, or hear the name or something, they can do their own investigating immdeiately and go, ‘Oh, there’s a lot here that I really like, which leads to a lot of younger people having their favorite songs not be one of the singles that came out you know at the time that the radio would inundate people with, but they discovered by themselves and they have a a more unique connection to it, especially since it’s not of their lifetime. They weren’t around when it came out…let me put it that way. It is of their lifetime, They listen to as if it’s concurrent, like we listen to music from hundreds of years ago and still relate to it.”

On the Gowan Drummers, Dylan, Sekou and some guy named Todd. (16:00 – 16:35)

“Here’s the issue. Becasue I tour so much with Styx, you know, we’re still close to a 100 shows a year, we did 90-something last year…The challenge is this…the musicians that I have in my solo band are great, great players and they’re in high demand. So, when I suddenly, sporadically get, “Oh, here’s a grouping of shows.” Well, as it turned out, Sekou’s doing stuff with Big Wreck in this period. Dylan, my son, plays in a band called Seven Spires, who toured in Japan and Europe, and he’s off to Europe again, so I couldn’t get him. So, oh dear, I had to go with the guy from Styx, who’s only probably in the top 5 drummers on planet Earth, being Todd (Sucherman). And Todd jumped at it, because he’s the first person that played on the Gowan shows when we started doing them again 15 years ago. Todd played with us for the first few years, and then when Dylan had a few years of being a professional under his belt, and had played around the world actually, I said to Todd, ‘I want Dylan to take a crack at this.” And he’s done great. But, oh my God, what a fantastic problem to have when I have three drummers of that level.

And Sekou, by the way, he’s slated, and it’s just three shows, but he really, he jumped in so completely into those shows that we did in February.because he said, “Look, I was a kid when this music came out, and I awlays wanted to play it.” And, man, did he play it well. So, I’m in an extremely fortunate position but when people see Todd next week, you’ll see just the finesse and the style and the depth of his musicality, is kind of, it’s hard to find a parallel.”

On starting a show with A Criminal Mind (24:34- 26:54)

“…Great idea. The only thing is, you’re trying to build a show to a crescendo, and in order to do that, I like to come out and play a couple of recognizable hits right off the bat, so that people, are like, “OK, we’re in that mood.” And A Criminal Mind, it might be too much to ask of an audience right off the bat. It might be in a live concert setting, in that the song itself is dark, it’s dripping with memory, and often at the very beginning of a concert, the audience is trying to settle in, so they that might be too high a hurdle to present right off the bat.”

On whether he can remember how to play all of his songs (37:32- 39:35)

“That’s a great question. I could hack my way through, but no, I have to relearn them. An I mean, really dig in to relearn them because you think you know them and you think you can just toss it out there and if you happen to hear it back, you’ think ‘re like, that’s just wrong. We have to rehearse. Right before we came on this call, I was listening to City Of The Angels from Strange Animal becasue we’re going to attempt to play that next week. What we’re going to attempt next week, I’ll let people know now, is we’re gonna attempt the entire strange animal album . Just as Styx is doing the Grand Illusion top to bottom this year, I wanted to try it. So, there may be some fireworks in the first few shows. By fireworks, I mean, you know, trainwrecks. But we shall see. But I have to relearn the song. In fact look,(holds up paper) That’s me writing down the lyrics that open every stanza of the verse fro City Of The Angels because I have to get it around my palate again, not just musical palate, but to be able to sing it and play it properly, is basically what I’m trying to say, and not properly. So, I could hack my way through, but it wouldn’t be a performance that I think you deserve.”

To listen to an interview with Todd Sucherman, speaking about touring with Gowan, watch below: