My interview with Johnny de Courcy was scheduled on one of the those terrible Vancouver nights – the kind where the rain hits you at every angle, and the air has a scent of decay and sadness. In so many words, I was kind of grouchy, so when I approached Neptoon Records where I was meeting de Courcy to discuss his new album, Alien Lake, I had to check myself. Artists are sensitive creatures, and feed off of every vibe you put out.
Fortunately the karma gods were smiling on me. The minute I arrived I was warmly greeted by Neptoon owners Rob and Ben Frith, who are also putting out Johnny’s new record on their imprint. I was handed a beer and shown to the basement, a subterranean sanctuary where the walls were lined with hundreds of overstock records, CD’s, cassette tapes, and old life size promo cut outs. The perfect dwelling for a budding rock star. I find Mr. de Courcy, his band, and “The Attorney” (his manager), in a corner under a few Roxy Music records, gleefully listening to The Talking Heads on an iPhone.
“I just started listening to it yesterday” says the former metal head, who got his chops from his days in Black Wizard and Toronto’s Skull Fist.Despite his extensive metal history, de Courcy has been making a name for himself as a solo artist since 2011, known as much for his theatrical live shows as his schizophrenic rock and roll.
“I think for my own stuff that I’m doing right now, and always throughout my time playing music live, performance has always been really important, because people are so visual,” he says. “When you go see a band, you’re looking at them just as much as you’re listening to them.
“People have eyes, you need to stimulate their eyes as much as their ears.”
Alien Lake is his second full-length album, and his most dynamic to date. There are emotional peaks and freak-outs (“Turkish Freakout”, naturally) hypnotic love songs that could easily find a place in the ‘90s paisley underground (“Lady In Red”), and carefully reckless instrumentation provided by his backing band, Phi Van on drums, guitarists Michael Kraushaar and Mat Vass.
Gone are his days of the devil’s triad. So what put de Courcy on this path?
“I bought Harvest by Neil Young, and the first time I heard it I was like ‘woah, there’s other kinds of music out there’?, ‘cause I was a close-minded metal head,” says Johnny of his musical tipping point.
So where, or what is Alien Lake?
“As much as I never thought about making a concept album, it does have a loose concept.” He closes his eyes and ruminates: “It’s like the popular birthday party drink swampwater: You have root beer, ginger ale, Coca Cola, Pepsi… and Dr. Pepper. You put it all together and you drink it and you’re like woah, this is crazy, this is out of this world. I want all the stuff. Alien lake is like the same thing, but instead of root beer and Coca Cola its love and ego crisis and schizophrenic tendencies and coffee. and pop music. so that’s what alien lake is.”
In other words, it is a collection of songs that represent the fifty shades of de Courcy. I think.
Throughout our interview, de Courcy, his band and I discuss everything from impressionism, Carts of Darkness, (Murray Siple’s documentary about homeless men who enjoy the sport of racing shopping carts), the history of Guinness beer and the undeniable genius of Chris Isaak. He seems more pop culture historian than rock and roll musician. The son of renowned artist Michael de Courcy, Johnny was quite literally born to create. You get the sense that he grew up in an alternative universe, where family life was more museums and art galleries than beaches and babysitters.
A family man by nature, whether it be by blood or music (arguably the same in his world), he speaks of Alien Lake producers Malcom Biddle and Matt Krysko fondly: “We were like a bunch of kids running around drinking coffee and recording music”.
It is growing late, and I am a bit tipsy, so we wrap up the interview with the inevitable future plans question.
“We’re gonna do North America. It’s going to be a big fucking tour, like a big production stage show. Owen Ellis, the director of the music videos [for “Alien Lake” and “Wind Chimes”], is going to be the stage director. And we’re going to go to Asia in the summer.”
On our way out, Johnny shows me a secret room in the Neptoon underground. His excitement is palpable as we walk into a dingy dirt dungeon that has more musical memorabilia than David Bowie’s closet: Gold records, concert posters from the 1960’s, and life-sized cut outs of Bruce Springsteen circa 1983. In a by-gone era of the record store hay-day, Johnny would have been just the icon our generation is looking for. Someone who spends more time on his album art work than his twitter page, and reads liner notes like they’re the Bible. He’s a true rock and roll classicist, and if he plays his cards right, it might be one of his records a young metal head picks up one day, forever altering his journey and the history of music to come.
Johnny de Courcy’s ‘Alien Lake’ release party happens at Neptoon Records (3561 Main) on Nov. 22 with special guests Dada Plan. All Ages. Free.
