with that." Then there's other times when you put so much thought and effort and focus into it that you could- n't get a lyric out of your head if you tried to, because you're trying too hard. But for this record, it was a matter of, we would write the song, we would go into the studio, we would start noodling around with ideas, with not really knowing what was happening. While we're noodling around with the

ideas, we'd start formulating the lyrics.

There was no official ‘sit down and write the lyrics,’ it was sort of ‘write them as we go.' As we're writing the music and arranging the song, we're writing down lyrical ideas. I say ‘we' because I bounce them off the produc- er, I bounce them off the players, you know, I bounce them off everybody. (Oops. The phone shorts out momen- tarily, I apologize about the phone, Edwin insists that it's his phone, we laugh and continue.) E: So yeah. The lyrics. Sometimes it'll be a book I read that week and certain lines will stay in my head. Sometimes

“:«

Where’d Edwin go?

I Mother Earth: Back in the day

it'll be something I heard somebody say to somebody else on a patio having a drink. People walk by and I catch three seconds of their conversation but in that three seconds you kinda get this whole other vision of a conversation that is going on in the song. Basically they weren't intentionally cliché and they weren't intentionally kitschy or anything like that. It just seemed like for the song and the moment we were trying to create in the song those lyrics seem to describe the moment, I guess you might say.

M: There are an awful lot of drug-use metaphors in your lyrics. "She's getting high, she's getting high, she's gonna fly, she's getting high," for instance. Any comments on that? Why so many drug metaphors?

E: Well, that's true. There's a lot of ‘she's getting high,’ and well, there's a lot of the use of the word high. Not even that, smoke a J, getting stoned, all the references. Some of them are refer- ring to smoking marijuana I suppose, but that's about the extent of the high that it's referring to. It's not referring to like heroine, coke, acid, you name it. But some of the high references aren't referring to drugs at all, they're refer- ring to a human state of mind. I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where you felt repressed, or held back, or like people were putting up walls around you and at some point you break through that mentally and emo- tionally and you get this euphoric sort of elation, like you're high. Whether it was.a relationship that was bad or a work situation or a friendship situation.

In the song High where she's getting high, the high is not referring to a drug high, even though that's completely what it sounds like, it's referring more to that emancipation of the spirit high. M: What is the theme of this record? E: There's no solid theme to this record. The only really solid theme to this album would be, like, an intro- spective person taking and writing down what they see around them. Does that make sense?

M: Sure.

E: You've got a person who's not an extrovert, they're an introvert but they're jotting down, they're taking notes on what's going on around them. It's not really a theme, it's more of a perspective.

M: That's an interesting concept. I like that. How long did it take to put this album together? Was it a long, couple- of-years process or did you guy just kind of get together, get some songs down, and put it out there?

E: From the beginning of the song writing up to the production in the stu- dio, I would say it took approximately six months.

M: And you have excellent producers. My dad was listening to your album and he was like, "WHO produced them???" Can you tell me about them? How did you encounter them? How did they influence the music?

E: Yeah, well I was at Sony here in Toronto and I was talking with my A&R guy who deals with the artists directly. We were talking about pro- ducers for the record, and I had a cou- ple ideas but I wanted all the big name producers like Tricky, and who have you. He thought that was a great idea but he thought, "You know, I have this song I want you to hear, and it was produced by this guy who works for us here at Sony." And I'm like, "Yeah... ok ..." So he plays me this hip hop sort of tune, and the production on it was amazing. It was like, amazing. It was just as good as anything I'd ever heard on a tape. So I was really willing to talk with this guy. His name was Tawgs. When Tawgs and I started working together, we got along great. He's a young guy, didn't have a lot of experience, but he was really excited about working with me and I was excited about working with somebody

that was young and fresh. So, we got along great, we started writing out songs, we had a good time, we both got very excited about it, but we felt we needed one more person to round out the trio. Somebody who could give us a more experienced, more skilled opinion. So at that point, another per- son who produced for Sony Record company, his name is Diesel. He just finished producing a record, so he was free, and the big studio at Sony was free. So the three of us ended up hooking up and having a similar vision for the type of record we wanted to make. We camped out in the studio every day for about five months. And basically, because it's right in the mid- dle of an office building, all the office workers would leave at five o'clock and I would show up at five o'clock in the evening and we would work until one in the morning or whenever. We didn't want to be there when the offices were in full bloom, so to speak. Not the right rock recording environment. So we camped out in there and we wrote, and we'd go to dinner, we'd come back and listen to what we did and we'd be critical about it and that's basically how the record came about. M: Stop me if this is a touchy subject. What do you think of I Mother Earth's new album? Have you heard it?

E: The album's out? Are you sure?

M: Yeah, it came out in October.

E: Wow, I didn't even know. Honestly, I didn't even know they had their record out. I'd really like to hear it. I've heard their single on the radio. To me it sounds like vintage I Mother Earth. I think their music is as thought about as it ever was. Basically I haven't heard the record so I'm not going to sit here and criticize. I was always a fan of their music, but I can't give you an honest answer.

M: Well, that's the end of my ques- tions. Anything you'd like to add?

E: Well, I could get philosophical. Always make sure you're doing some- thing in life that makes you want to get up in the morning and do it as best as you can do it. It keeps me going. You've got to do things you love to do. That make you feel good about your- self, and that make you want to get up in the morning, like I said. It's too easy to live your life for other people, and before you know it, it's over.