The Tragically Hip guitarist Paul Langlois talks about life after Gord Downie – and the odds of reviving the Hip

Guitarist Paul Langlois is handiest identified as the rock-solid rhythm guitarist and gruff-voiced background singer of The Tragically Hip, the legendary Can-rock outfit that lost their enigmatic singer, Gord Downie, when he died of brain cancer in 2017.

Langlois and Downie were handiest buds for a protracted time, and Langlois acknowledged he went staunch into a fog after the death of his bandmate. Then came the pandemic. Step by step he chanced on his manner support to tune, as he explains on this interview, and started writing songs, including one stormy, squalling track called Don’t Leave Me Brother.

Article mumble

Article mumble

Langlois is now performing with a band made up of musical chums from the Kingston space, and touring as section of a double bill with Skydiggers. A handful of Ontario shows are deliberate.

On this flippantly edited interview from his home in Kingston, Langlois additionally shared some reminiscences of Downie in the route of the closing Hip tour, and weighed the chances of reviving the band with a new singer.

Q: You wrote and launched Bet What, your first solo album in a decade, closing twelve months. The build did the inspiration for that prolong from? 

A: Neatly, it took inspiration since it absolutely wasn’t on my solutions the least bit. I got offered a gig a couple of years ago by this guy I kinda know who vital a band. I hemmed and hawed but I made up our minds to produce it. It used to be August 2022, and I had my (Kingston) pals in the band and it went well. We had so a lot of enjoyable so I believed I’d steal a couple of months to jot down. I had to home a cut-off date because that’s the handiest manner I will write songs. With a cut-off date.

Q: What used to be going through your solutions if you happen to were writing the songs? 

A: Every thing that goes through the head of a 58-twelve months-earlier man. It used to be the passing of time, Gord (Downie) death, younger other folks rising up and transferring away. And some hints of relationship dedication, and sticking to it. I’ve been married 33 years this June. I’ll be 60 this twelve months. 

Article mumble

Article mumble

Q: The tune, Don’t Leave Me Brother, is about your relationship with Gord. Content me about that one. 

A: I stopped up serving to peep after Gord in the months earlier to the tour, and the tune is about how all the pieces fell away. I walked in one night in the winter — I hadn’t considered him in two months since his prognosis and he’d had a couple of brain surgical procedures and he had a gargantuan beard — and we were every kind of a revelation to every other. I stayed because he vital me to, and I was happy to. It used to be a staunch reward. You’re in actuality in the most modern if you happen to’re taking a look after somebody who’s so sick. 

Q: That used to be earlier than the closing tour. How did he home as a lot as soar support ample to map? 

A: He in actuality vital to produce the tour so I called the other guys and instructed them. It used to be starting from scratch, but we chanced on out he may per chance well composed train. He couldn’t endure in solutions names or lyrics, which used to be unhappy for him because that used to be his thing, he remembered all and sundry’s name. But we came up with a fix: We got a bunch of teleprompters on stage. He may per chance well hang a melody and he had the phrasing. That didn’t leave him. It used to be fantastic that he recovered ample to be at his handiest in the route of the tour, and that’s staunch because he used to be ready to steal four treatments of this drug that stopped the tumour for a month and a half of. Then he had a staunch twelve months, getting the Secret Course (album) done, doing a couple of shows with them and doing so noteworthy with the Downie-Wenjack Fund. He used to be so desirous to produce that. 

Article mumble

Q: How did his death bear an impact on you? 

A: When he died, the relaxation of the guys in the band, myself integrated, staunch went staunch into a fog. As all of us know, effort is a monster that is as a lot as tempo. You don’t put an eye on it. We didn’t in actuality fight through it together. None of us had any enthusiasm the least bit for the band. I didn’t bear any enthusiasm for doing one thing because our huge gargantuan car used to be gone. That lasted a couple of years, and then gradually all and sundry came support to it.

Q: Are you alive to with the others now?

A: Yeah, we chanced on every other a few years ago and we’re in swish consistent communique. Every person does their hold thing musically, but there’s heaps of Hip stuff, admire re-releases and discovering earlier recordings, so that keeps us going. For the field objects, we’ve been discovering the extra songs that never made it to the albums, sending them around and all and sundry listens. Jonny (Fay, drummer) takes the lead on that because he’s in Toronto and that’s the build most of the earlier tapes are living. 

Q: Can you imagine a degree the build the Hip may per chance well keep it up with a new singer? 

A: Um, I don’t think so. We did two songs (with other singers), one with Feist at the Junos, and another with William Prince for Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Eightieth birthday. They were two very uncommon alternatives. One may per chance well even think the four of us may per chance well produce an instrumental file, but I believe all and sundry seems to be swish okay without a longer doing that. With Gord, there used to be frequently consensus. Now all and sundry seems to be admire ‘By no blueprint bid never,’ but at the identical time, doing it at any form of gargantuan scale makes all and sundry feel icky. We had 30-plus years with the identical guys, and all and sundry seems to be happy with riding alongside our path because that path used to be very special to all of us. It used to be staunch a pile of ultimate fortune and dedication and laborious times and in actuality huge times and all of us worked laborious at it, so it feels admire, ‘Let’s leave that support there.” For now anyway. 

Q: What’s next for the Paul Langlois Band? Are you support in the tune biz? 

A: We’re no longer going away. We can map another file at some point soon in the next twelve months or two, and we’re going to place playing. Fairs are my favourite. We if truth be told enjoyed the gala’s we did closing summer season so we’ll put attempting to procure on those bills. 

lsaxberg@postmedia.com

Article mumble