Flying on his own
Sons of Maxwell’s Dave Carroll releases debut solo CD Perfect Blue
By STEPHEN COOKE Entertainment Reporter
Thu. Mar 13 - 6:26 AM
IT MAY TAKE some getting used to, seeing Dave Carroll performing without brother Don at his side, sharing the harmonies.
But when the Timmons-born singer-songwriter launches his new solo CD Perfect Blue at Casino Nova Scotia’s Schooner Room tonight, he’ll have a new batch of songs that didn’t quite match the format of the popular folk-pop duo Sons of Maxwell.
Instead, fans will hear a more introspective and insightful side of Carroll, one that practically demanded to be heard all on its own.
"This project has been brewing, perhaps even before I realized it, for the past couple of years," says Carroll, who continues to perform shows with the Sons from here to Nebraska. "Every Sons of Maxwell record would have an extra song or two — or an idea — that never got added to the record. Not for any particular reason, but maybe the song that got left off was too close to something else we were doing.
"Or maybe a song wouldn’t have worked so well with that Sons of Maxwell harmony, but would turn out to be a great song for a singer-songwriter. So I already had a good start on a collection of songs, and I decided if I had a lot of songs to choose from, like 25 to whittle down to an album’s worth, I could put together a record."
While the idea of a solo record had been percolating in the back of his mind for some time, the project really began to take shape during a two-week writing session at the Banff Centre in early 2007. The generosity of the centre and the beauty of the Rockies helped inspire a string of personal songs that set the tone for Perfect Blue.
"Kurt Bagnell is the artistic director, and a Maritimer, so he has an affinity for East Coast artists, and does what he can to help them," explains Carroll. "It’s a resource centre for artists of all kinds, and they gave me a room with a piano — not that I really play piano, but it was there if I wanted to use it — which I could use 24 hours a day.
"So every day I’d go hiking, and then spend some time writing and letting the ideas flow. And I was hanging out with all these different artists, poets and sculptors, and talking about what we’re doing. You ask one person what they do, and they say, ‘Oh, I make animal headdresses out of brass and I go into the woods and act out these scenes. What do you do?’ ‘Um, I write songs.’ "
That kind of environment spurred Carroll to stretch his legs creatively, broadening his emotional palette an tackling material like the social critique of The Average Man which might not have worked as a Sons of Maxwell tune.
"Every song stands out and stands on its own merit," he says. "I didn’t pick one song because it fits in with something else. I went the opposite way, picking each song because of how I felt about it, and not because it fit a particular style. I’m certain there will be people who’ll think it’s too eclectic to be marketable in one genre, but that really doesn’t bother me.
"I think I’m more unguarded in my writing now; I’m not so concerned with revealing some of my perspectives on the world or how I feel about things. That’s been a growing thing. In earlier songs, I would have said that it was a character in the song talking, but now I don’t mind saying that this is what I think, and I want to go deeper to the heart of things."
Carroll cites Perfect Blue’s Now as one of his more personally powerful compositions. The song was inspired by Eckhart Tolle’s best-seller The Power of Now, which hooks readers with its straightforward guide to enlightenment.
"The lyrics of the song are not complex, by any means, but the message of the book is simple, and when I perform it I get a strong reaction from people. They’ll come up to me afterwards and say they’re moved by it or they relate personally to it, and as a songwriter, that’s the best compliment you can get.
"I was blown away by the book, every 10 pages there’s an epiphany. So I took what I got out of the book, the message about living in the moment and finding peace in that moment, and using that as a reference. In a way, it’s about achieving that perfect state."
For further enlightenment about Dave Carroll’s new songs, tickets to the Perfect Blue CD release show at the Schooner Room are $20 at the Casino Nova Scotia box office (425-7777), or by e-mailing dave@davecarrollmusic.com