After 20 some years in the business, two Juno awards, a couple theatre soundtracks and 17 albums including his latest –“Median Age Wasteland” and another on the way, you’d think Hawksley Workman might have come down with a case of writers block somewhere along the way.
It s not the case, now that he has resigned himself to never becoming rich and famous.
“Bob Dylan has a quote like being rich is having the freedom to do whatever you want. And I’ve been lucky enough to carve out a living doing just that, which is difficult in Canada. And Im really grateful for that,” said Workman, looking a at a grey, dreary London day, looking forward to a sold out show in London Ontario, one of several shows which are already sold out on this tour.
He brings his long time band the Wolves including keyboardist Todd Lumley aka Mr. Lonely, bassist Derrick Brady and drummer Brad Kilpatrick, to the University Theatre to play a special show for the Geomatic Attic, Nov. 23.
“There was a time, when I was in Sweden, spending time in studios where the sound of American radio was born, when I still thought I could get rich. I thought I could write hits for other people, but that’s not how I work. My creativity dried up because I wasn’t giving it the respect it deserved,” he said.
“I was never meant for mass consumption I guess, I was meant for a small, select group of people. I think I’m playing stuff people like,” he observed.
he has had a “banger of a Year” full of touring, recording his own music, recording music with folks like Sarah Slean, and theatre.
He composed a soundtrack for a musical version of ’80s movie “Never-Ending Story.”
“I spent three and a half months working on the soundtrack. It was an important part of my youth. it was the only VHS tape my small rural school had, so I must have seen it hundreds of times.. One time in the early ’80s, there was a solar eclipse, so they put as all in the gym and showed us that movie,” he recalled.
“For the soundtrack, we didn’t have access to original elements of the movie, so I went for a nostalgic feel to celebrate the movie,” he said, adding he enjoyed working with a director.
