"When we go acoustic..."

Mick Sleeper talks to Gordie Johnson about the acoustic duo (again).

Sleeper: I noticed this acoustic tour you're doing is just a few dates in Alberta. Have you ever considered doing a big, cross Canada tour? Putting Big Sugar on hold for a year while you and Kelly hit the road with your guitars?

Johnson: Well I wouldn't do it for a year; but I would do it for a month or something. I mean, we have done Alkaline across Canada, and that worked out great. You know, it keeps the Big Sugar guys employed and it's kinda interesting for the fans, too, 'cause it's a little bit different. I mean, they can hear a lot of the same music or songs that they love but to hear them in a different context with a slightly different presentation; I think that's an important thing to do from time to time. Especially if you're like me and you want to get out there and entertain your fans as much as we do - eventually people can only hear "Ride Like Hell" so many times exactly the same way, and then they go, "aw, well..."

Sleeper: That's funny you should say that, 'cause I've got the American version of "500 Pounds" which is missing "Ride On" [an acoustic version of "Ride Like Hell"].

Johnson: Right - and that one has "Dear Mr. Fantasy".

Sleeper: 2000 was a big year for you: between Big Sugar, Alkaline, producing that Wide Mouth Mason album, and all the usual touring, are you having fun or are you feeling burned out?

Johnson: No, I'm having a ball! I mean, I'm gonna enjoy my Christmas vacation (laughs), but the acoustic thing is a nice way to wrap up the year for us, too. I've been in the studio so much over the last couple months - almost non-stop. There really hasn't been that many shows. So, to get out in a really stripped-down presentation - just two guitars, a couple of harmonicas, a bottle of bourbon, a couple of wooden chairs - that's the whole show. You know, there's no tour bus, there's no lights and smoke - none of it. So, it's kinda nice to just tote my own acoustic guitar around, and sit down. You can talk to people during the show, you can talk to the audience and answer questions.

Sleeper: Yeah, we've talked about this before - you said it's more intimate, people can get more of the nuances of the music that you wouldn't get at a Big Sugar gig.

Johnson: Yeah, definitely.

Sleeper: So, in regards to the show, what would you tell people who have never seen you guys acoustic? Somebody who is a big fan, and can't come to grips with Gordie Johnson sitting down and unplugged?

Johnson: Without feedback (laughs).

Sleeper: Yeah (laughs). Without the dub mix.

Johnson: When we go acoustic, we go really acoustic. I don't have my guitars wired for sound at all. It's just a microphone in front of me. And a lot of times you can just hear the sound of the instrument and my voice from the stage, without even the P.A. system, for the most part. So, it is a lot more intimate. I think it's a very entertaining show even for someone who has never seen the band before, just because it is such a personal contact kind of a show. Usually, it's like the performer's way up there under bright lights, and it's so loud, and there's a distance there, you sort of become deified standing up on stage. Whereas this is a guy who walks out with an acoustic guitar. You know, people can hear you chew gum in there, it's so quiet! So I think you get a more personal - you get closer to the performer on a more personal level seeing a show like that.

I'm a huge fan of that sort of thing. I love to go and see that, too. Any opportunity to watch an artist perform in close contact like that. And it's not like I'm just sitting there, playing a piano recital where no one talks. I mean, I talk to the audience, they talk back to me, that kind of thing. It's not a symposium or anything, it's not chamber music - I don't have that kind of reverence for it. It's entertainment. People are gonna stomp their feet. And we've done this presentation in a bar or in a pub at a university, people bang their beer on the tables and the whole crowd gets involved. They're the drummer, you know? (laughs) So, it's entertaining on that level.

For Big Sugar fans who even have seen us and have our records and love the electric approach, it's an opportunity for them to hear the songs in their embryonic stage. Because none of our songs begin their lives through a stack of Marshalls. They all start out on an old Gibson acoustic in my living room or in my kitchen. And so you really get the chance to hear where the songs truly started.

Sleeper: Do you think the acoustic duo is ever going to record?

Johnson: That might be nice, wouldn't it? I'd love to do that at some point, and I imagine I will.

Sleeper: Any definite plans?

Johnson: Well, it's not - I mean, I would make more concrete plans to do it, except that I've just been slaving away to try and complete a Big Sugar record. I'm back in the studio with Wide Mouth Mason this week doing another single for them. And I just haven't had time to slate it into the calendar. I'll probably use it something like what we did with Alkaline, as a between records, tide people over kind of project. You know we'll put it out, it's easy to tour, it's easy to listen to, not real complicated. Have to organize things like that, though.

Sleeper: So, what can we expect from the next Big Sugar album, and when is it out?

Johnson: The next Big Sugar album won't be out 'til spring. And, the fact that we've had our original drummer, Al Cross, back in the mix for the last couple of years, I think it really recaptures a lot of the spontaneity of 500 Pounds. You know, that album had a lot of -- that was just me and Al on the whole record, so it had a lot of that interplay between the two of us, that improvisational freedom, and just chance, musical accidents that occured just because of our musical intuition between the two of us.

Sleeper: More of a "live in the studio" feel.

Johnson: I think so. Definitely more than Heated. There's more of that musical freedom that people can hear, and I think people expect it from Big Sugar in the live show - that they're hearing stuff that we didn't rehearse. It's kind of, "oh, my god - are they gonna make it out of this?" (laughs) So, I've captured some of that on record. You know, we've gone kind of deep in the reggae thing with Alkaline and with Heated, and those elements are still there, but I have incorporated more of the really heavy guitar sounds that I think people depend on us for. And there was some fear; I know some people were kind of freaked by the Alkaline idea and were going, "well, are you guys gonna play reggae, now?" You know? So, I think this is probably our heaviest - in terms of guitar sound - probably our heaviest album to date as well. People will get the full-on, heavy metal approach that we're known for, on this record (laughs).

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