[charlene]

NWMS: Let’s talk briefly about Edmund Fitzgerald and the TV show about the shipwreck

G: They wanted to prove what happened. That documentary was done by National Geographic and it was called “Rogue Wave”, and it was dive detectives, involving divers, and it actually proved what happened. One of my guys had brought the thing to me in my office and showed me, and he wanted to get some of the music in the show, in order for me to say yes. Because we won’t let them use any of the music until we’re cleared with the Ladies’ Committee in Wisconsin.

NWMS: It’s obvious you know a lot about this story.

G: It’s quite the story; it’s really quite vast. It’s ongoing, and it’s been really, really interesting. I went to one of its anniversaries in Michigan, where they had over 800 relatives and friends down there in one place.

NWMS: So I was reading that you’re into all different kinds of music, from classical to heavy metal to hip-hop, you like everything.

G: Yeah, I love the low-ends on hip-hop. I always listen to the low-end and the bass. It just gets me going.

NWMS: I bet a lot of people wouldn’t really know that about you.

G: Well I mean, I’m not a huge fan, but I appreciate it for what it is, because one of my kids was really into it for a while, and he would play it in the car and radio all the time, and he’d turn it up quite loud, and I was getting an appreciation for what was going on down there with this music, it’s built from the floor up. You can really get going listening to these tracks, because they’re made with such expertise from the producers and record producers that make them. The band tracks are phenomenal on these things.

NWMS: Now there’s a big surge of EDM and beat-driven electronic music that’s getting very popular. There’s a lot of producers out there doing that. Do you think that could potentially hurt music at some point? Like, if there are people that aren’t playing instruments, if they’re creating things electronically, or do you think that doesn’t really matter?”

G: Probably the latter. I don’t think it really matters. All’s fair. It’s a commercial sound, you know? If that’s how they do it, with the use of electronic instruments; but not everything on there is just electronics; it’s like half and half, with all the vocal choruses and stuff that they do. But the basic tracks, though, is where the secret is in that stuff, just all the drums and bass and percussion sections. A lot of the really good acts too get the really good musicians doing it all. You know, people like Beyonce and people like that, they’ve got real musicians going on in their stuff, or at least I believe they do, anyways.

NWMS: Let’s talk about some of this new stuff. I read somewhere that you aren’t a real big computer person. Have you gotten one yet?

G: No, I don’t have one yet. My kids are pretty much into it, but no, not me. I have one in my office that we use quite a bit, but my secretary and assistant do most of that work. Perhaps if I had taken typing in high school, I would’ve been more ahead of the game.

NWMS: These days the Internet is full of music and a large amount of it you can get for free. You can create more music than you’ve ever been able to create, and get it out to a lot more people than ever before. Do you think that helps or hurts the music industry?

G: Well, it probably kind of is detrimental in a way, but the best answer I can give to that one is that it’s affective in some respects. But, you know, retail record sales are down basically. Fortunately, I sold most of my records back in the 1970s and 1980s so I don’t have to worry about that. All I have to worry about is my show. Just getting ready and getting prepared, and I just try to monitor what’s going on, listening to the radio, I get bits and pieces from my office and the staff there, and I go in there every day and stay in touch, trying to get the family thing going, I’ve got six children spread out all across the land now.

NWMS: Are any of them making music now?

G: They did, they have and they came out on the other side of it, really. I had one kid that gave it a good try; he put out about three albums. They just couldn’t stand against the wave, with so many artists and so much talent. They tried, they played, they had their own band. My son just married a lovely girl, and he became a pilot. He went to flight school while he was playing music here on Queen Street in Toronto, which is a pretty well-known musical outlet for a lot of young bands. She had her own band at one point, and he worked in a couple good bands that had potential, and he was a guitarist. He made a whole complete album of songs with everything on it. It was his last project, but then he moved onto being a pilot. He’s a Bush pilot now.