Hawksley Workman is a sensitive soul who mostly writes songs about relationships.
But don’t let that fool you.
In private, he’s tormented about the state of the world in general and isn’t afraid to vent about politicians “who lie to us,” and the news media, which “follows a story to sell advertising.”
“Music has been steadily dumbing down,” he said, “and the public has had to accept a lot of things that are a corporatized version of pop culture.” Among other things, he despairs whenever a TV show is turned into a movie. “Have they run out of ideas?”
Workman, who performs on Wednesday at Red Deer’s Memorial Centre, is never at a loss for new song topics. His albums tend to switch gears between mellow folk tunes, pop and hard-driven rock anthems. But while Bruce Cockburn remains one of his major influences, the Toronto singer/songwriter rarely writes overt protest songs.
Workman said he can’t think too long about any “geo-political activity” without going a little crazy. “I am idealistic and that’s why I’m feeling suicidal whenever I feel the truth about humanity. It hurts too much.”
For instance, Workman doesn’t “get” why everyone made such a fuss about Barack Obama getting elected as U.S. president. Why should it be a big deal for a black man — or a person of any minority race — to attain the presidency, he questioned. “I couldn’t stand all the back-patting that was going on.”
The Juno Award-winning singer expressed similar frustration with so-called military solutions. Whether the war is in Iraq or Afghanistan, “it’s hard to believe humans still engage in these silly things.”
All of this disillusionment explains why Workman rarely follows the news these days, and why he sticks to singing about introspective things, like relationships. Or quirky ones, like dog booties.
Workman was walking in front of his house recently when he noticed a lost dog bootie on the sidewalk. “I kicked it under a tree,” he said, thinking the owner would come looking for it. But on his way home, the lonely bootie was still there. “I thought, isn’t that sad? There’s a dog with three booties out there.”
Whether this observation ever makes it onto a melancholy song remains to be seen. But the prolific Workman is putting out two new CDs this year.
Meat is a rock ’n’ roll album he made in the garage of his “country home up north.” Milk is a “cheeky” electro-pop album he recently made with Swedish producer Marten Tromm. “It’s a sound unlike any I’ve ever made before,” said Workman, who met Tromm while writing tunes for European pop singers — just one of his related jobs in the music industry.
Among Workman’s latest offerings from his new albums are the songs You Don’t Just Want to Break Me, about a brutal relationship breakup (he said he’s OK now), and Warhol’s Portrait of Gretzky.
Workman revealed, “I idolized Wayne Gretzky as a kid. I had all his hockey cards, and I watched his years with the Oilers . . . (the team) played a real poetic style of hockey. . . .” Warhol’s portrait of The Great One, on the other hand, shows another kind of admiration. It has a homo-erotic quality to it, said Workman, “where he was obviously seeing him with different eyes than me.”
While the 34-year-old, who was born Ryan Corrigan in Huntsville, Ont., has been putting out albums steadily since 1999, his fans are left guessing about which Hawksley Workman they will they hear from next.
Most of his hits, including Striptease, Jealous of Your Cigarette and Anger as Beauty, are from mainstream rock albums, but this hasn’t stopped Workman from experimenting with country-folk and other genres. He admitted none of his hits have been big enough to allow him to coast, so why not mix it up a bit?
“Dad was a record collector who liked any kind of music, as long as it was good. So for me, jumping from style to style was easy. I didn’t realize I should be sticking to one kind of genre and never changing.”
His ability to grasp the fundamentals of various musical styles has made Workman, who plays guitar, drums and keyboards, the go-to producer for a number of other artists, including The Cash Brothers, Tegan and Sara, Serena Ryder, Great Big Sea and Hey Rosetta!
Producing is not only a change of pace, it takes some pressure off from focusing on his own albums, he admitted.
“My job is full of absolutes, where there’s a direct connection between my worth and my imagination.” Working with other artists creates a nice balance, Workman said.
“I can see the potential in anybody.”
Who: Rock singer Hawksley Workman
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 10
Where: Red Deer’s Memorial Centre
Tickets: $32.55 from Black Knight Ticket Centre
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com