For any hardened and devoted Canadian music fan of the past 30 years, the announcement of Joel Plaskett Emergency as the Arkells’ opening act during their final Canadian tour dates of 2022 might come off as kind of puzzling. On one hand, you have arguably the hottest band in the country, whose been churning out hit after hit and selling out shows from Victoria to St. John’s for over a decade – and on the other, you have the prolific, masterful songwriting icon of Halifax’s rich music scene whose influence has been felt all over the Canadian music industry since the late 1990s.
But between the excitement in singer Max Kerman’s voice in social media posts in the days and weeks leading up to the three stops and sitting down and talking with Joel Plaskett ahead of their November 24 stop at Ottawa’s TD Place, it’s clear that friendship and love for each other’s craft made the pairing a true match.
“Max has been really quite vocal about the fact that the Truthfully, Truthfully record really hit him back in the day. He’s nice enough to say that we’ve had a bit of an influence on songwriting in the band,” said Plaskett.
He then goes on to say that the friendship between himself and the Arkells grew over time as their paths crossed at various music festivals across the country and through mutual contacts within the Toronto music scene, and has most recently led to full collaboration with the track “Something’s Gotta Give” off of the band’s 2022 album, Blink Twice.
Plaskett says the track originated from the Arkells, who sent the track for Plaskett to take into his Dartmouth studio to add guitar initially, but the singer-songwriter would also add lyrics to give the final product a true collaborative feel.
“Max sort of brought it to me, kind of framed it like ‘I think this might be a bit of a Plaskett ripoff. Will you play on it?’” he said. “I’m flattered ’cause it’s a cool tune, but also, it’s like in my wheelhouse. I don’t think they normally have as much guitar solo stuff on their records. So I might have made it a little more classic rock than they normally do.”
With the release of “Something’s Gotta Give,” the addition of Joel Plaskett Emergency (featuring Plaskett on guitar, Chris Pennell on bass, and Dave Marsh on drums) feels like a given; and was a welcome opportunity for Plaskett. He explains that with the makeup of his three-piece rock band that’s more suited for more intimate rooms and settings that come with playing everywhere from Halifax’s biggest festivals to Dawson City, the pursuit of larger arenas isn’t in his comfort zone. Still, he enjoys the diversity of also being able to play for larger crowds when given the chance.
And of the mainly young crowd associated with the Arkells, he says the reception from the prior night’s show in Montreal was great, particularly when it came to introducing the audience to a new and yet unrecorded track called “Hey Moon (Campfire song)” that was written in 15 minutes for the YMCA.
“I introduced it to the audience last night, and was like ‘OK, I’m going to sing this for you now. Let’s sing it together.’ And they just ran with it, totally singing along. From the young folks, I really feel like there’s not an inhibition when it comes to just singing and participating. In that way so. I felt really well received, even though I could tell a lot of people hadn’t seen this before.”
“Obviously, [Arkells are] a simpatico band to open for. They’ve got a great audience, a lot of younger folks, some of whom I think know my stuff a lot. I always feel like there’s enough people in the audience to feel like we’re not totally unknown, but I definitely get the sense of a lot of people seeing us for the first time.”
It might have been a weird match to some, but in the end, while Joel Plaskett Emergency tore through their setlist simple but powerful rock and roll, the welcoming and dancing crowd was all one needed to know Arkells were on the right track in including Plaskett both in their song and on their tour. And as this long-time fan of both this legend that continues to inspire us and this exciting band of the current generation, I couldn’t help but stop an enthusiastic Max Kerman as he wandered into the audience to watch the opening set, simply to say, “thanks for bringing him along on this tour! What a good idea!”
