Dec. 23, 2011 - Issue #845: Headstones

One more move

The Headstones fire up and hit the stage and the studio after an eight-year break

The music industry can be unforgiving, and the grind of making the wheels turn can wear a band down over time. For the four guys in the Headstones—singer Hugh Dillon, guitarist Trent Carr, bassist Tim White and drummer Dale Harrison—the fun eventually gave way under the pressure of the machine's gears, so they broke the band up and went their separate ways back in 2003. New music was made, careers were started, lives were lived and the Headstones remained in the past save for passing moments on the radio. But then that all changed with a phone call. Dillon spoke with Vue Weekly about the band's reunion and what the future might hold in store.

VUE WEEKLY: Eight years is a long time to be away in this business. How did the band get back together?
HUGH DILLON: I had gotten a call from a friend of mine in Vancouver. His name is Randy Kwan, and he was a big part of this band—he was really the first bass player—and he wrote "Cemetery" and he wrote "Losing Control" [on the band's 1993 debut, Picture of Health], and I knew him from typing class in Kingston in Grade Nine and high school. Just a really good guy. And he called me and he said he's sick and he's got a two-year-old son, and he was dying of cancer. It transcended any grievances with the band or anything else, and when I called those guys everybody instantly dropped any bullshit or any things about the band because everyone knew Randy, and because it's so real.
We thought maybe we could play some gigs and raise some money for his kid to go to college. And so on those kind of grounds the band really got together, we made some money for his kid to go to school and we found in the process that we had a lot of fun, we got along, and sometimes you realize you can just, out of ignorance, stay away from people who know you well and who really are your friends. We played those gigs and it was so much fun and we'd forgotten how good we were—we were better then we used to be—and once we saw the fans and got really back into it then all of a sudden we started writing songs.

VW: Was there an immediate connection when you went into the first rehearsal?
HD: We played one song and it was good, and the second song was bad and the third song we couldn't all remember it. And then about the second rehearsal, we played a couple of songs that were good and it really came back. There's always that, you get a glimpse of it, and once you get a glimpse you build on it until all of a sudden you've got a setlist that's rocking.

VW: That's what it's like with everything: you get that one moment that's magic and then you chase after that for more.
HD: That's exactly what it is. And then you get enough of them and then it becomes fun. It's always a matter of just getting rid of the bullshit.

VW: How was it coming back to these songs after a few years away?
HD: I didn't sit around for those eight years listening to the Headstones, but I knew the songs were there and I focused on ones I really wanted to play, and on songs that I was too fucked up to play when we left. There was one song I loved and we play it now: "Pinned You Down." I made myself go back and learn it because the timing on that song is so fucking difficult, it's a difficult song and it's hard for everybody because it takes speed and accuracy, and the lyrics are a million miles an hour and after we recorded that song I could never play it live. It was too good and too fast and too smart and I just could not get a handle on it, and I wasn't in the mental state to rehearse. So to come back and be able to nail that song feels great.

VW: It was only a few months after those first shows that the band put a new song up for free download on your website, along with a message saying that the fans kickstarted a new life for the Headstones.
HD: They did, because we could've played these gigs and they could've been shitty or poorly attended, and just to have people come out in those kind of numbers and with that kind of vocal support, you ride that wave because it's not just indifference, it's not just polite nostalgia. You really do get to rethink it, because these songs do mean something to us, we can really crank them out and get into it, and then to do that and see that they mean just as much to other people, so much so that people are vocal about it, that's why you do it.

VW: It seems like there's a lot more freedom for you now, and you're able to just enjoy being in the Headstones again.
HD: We're not touring because that's what killed us at the end of the game and it's no fun, but we'll play select shows. This could be it for a couple of years, this could be it for a year, I don't know. But what I do know is we've got a few songs we're gonna record, we're happy we have the website and then if a gig comes up here and there, once a year or twice a year, we might play it. That's the beauty of it and I think that's why it's special: we're not out there having to crank it out to support the machine or to support a record or to support a record company because we have to. We're out there because we like hanging out, we love playing in this band and we can go play a couple of gigs and do it for kicks, not feel obligated. And that's why it's fun, and that's what we want to keep it, and we realize if it's no fun there's no fucking point.

VW: What next? Will you release a new album?
HD: I think that's an outdated thing. Nobody wants to buy a record, nobody gives a shit. I've always been interested in making vinyl because I grew up with it, so I've thought do we release an EP, do we release five or six songs? It seems like to make an actual record, nobody buys it and then you're caught with this whole expectation again, whereas I like kinda releasing a song or two and people respond to it.

VW: What about the album as a particular set of songs that fit together?
HD: I still like that, I just don't like the expectation that goes along with it, and that's, "How many did you sell?" That wrecked it for me. If I thought I could just put out an album and not have management or agents or anybody go, "Well, you want to do this right. Let's put it out there, let's get it in these stores, let's hope the radio station plays it," because then it's like, you put out this thing and how good it is depends on how many you sold, whereas if I'm just throwing it out there, the people who download it or look at it, they go, "Hey, that's a great fucking song." I think that's a good way to do it because you beat the hardest thing of worrying about something that has nothing to do with the work.

VW: The Internet has changed now and fans are pretty vocal on the band's Facebook page. If they questioned the reasons behind the reunion, they'd be quick to call you on it.
HD: They would in a hearbeat. In a heartbeat. And I'd rather be true to the people who we started it with, and the band itself, than to try to reinvent for the purpose of cashing in. It's impossible to sanitize it and do it justice, so really it comes down to that: do you want to be honest and do it justice, or do you wanna sanitize it? And if you're sanitizing it, that means that you want to be commercially viable and make it into a business, and we don't. V
 

Sat, Dec 31 (8 pm)
Headstones
With Tupelo Honey, the Bear Band
Shaw Conference Centre, $57

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