|
||
A Quiet StormNo wonder Margo Timmins looks worried. On the eve of the release of the
band’s fourth album – black eyed man – it would
appear that Toronto’s Cowboy Junkies has the weight of the world
resting on its shoulders. “There’s a Cowboy Junkie machine,”
says Timmins. “There’s more money involved in this record,
so we want to sell it and we have to depend on it. We have a crew, sidemen,
managers and accountants and everyone wants their share. Our lifestyle
is now structured around Cowboy Junkies, so if it comes apart it means
big changes to a lot of people.” “There was a lot of pressure on The Caution Horses,”
admits Margo. “There’s always that situation where the same
critics who built you up tear you apart and say you’re not going
to last. We just tried to ignore the pressure and do our best and I think
that’s what The Caution Horses is to me. It’s our
survival. It says that we made it through that awful period of adolescence.” While Michael, understandably, likes to concentrate on the music (he
is the group’s principal songwriter as well as producer of black
eyed man), the media tends to hone in on Margo’s hyper-wholesome
good looks. In 1989, she became a pop star all her own, her petite, possessing
features turning heads on the Tonight Show and gracing the pages
of both Esquire and People magazine. Although this kind
of singular attention can cause strife in some groups, Michael –
aware that beauty like Margo’s had always played a role in the marketing
of pop groups – isn’t bothered. In fact, he and the band pushed
for it. “Let’s face it, the music industry is built on hype. There are tons of really good bands out there you or I have never heard of because they don’t have the hype. When Margo started getting all the press attention it was good for the band. It’s the way we wanted it. She’s a good-looking girl.” So how does it feel to be chosen by People magazine as one of the world’s
“Fifty Most Beautiful People”? “I hate that picture, though [in People]. It was a horrible, horrible situation. I was going to a ball, my first New York ball, and I arranged for the photo session to be over at a certain time. This guy came in and he wanted to do my photo nude, just holding flowers up. There are certain things I don’t want to do and I’m not good at saying no. I know he’s a photographer and he’s come with a vision and I want him to get the picture he’s come to get. But on the other hand, there’s only so much I can do. I’m not a model and I’m uncomfortable in that situation.”
Not that she is complaining too loudly. Timmins takes it all in stride, aware that gimmicks like the monochrome portrait of her shot by photographer Herb Ritts for GAP clothing "Individuals With Style" campaign is one way to draw listeners into the music. “It’s weird to see your face very time you walk down the street,” she says of the GAP ads. “I guess if it starts to wear at me and I think I have to go out looking like the girl in the poster or living up to the girl in the poster, then I guess I’m losing control. But I’ve never felt that way, because my personal life is still very personal and it’s still my own.” Control. You can hear it in the ringing solace of The Trinity Session, sense it in the recording company’s warning that Michael and Margo do not do interviews together and Alan and Peter do not do interviews at all. You feel it when Michael responds to a charge made by an unhappy former sideman that the Cowboy Junkies is a penny-pinching employer. “We’ve dealt with so many musicians and we’ve only ever had one complaint,” he maintains. “If you look at how much we pay in relation to other groups, I think you’d find that we’re right at the top of the list. I stand by the record we have as a band, rather than the opinion of one individual, who frankly I think is unstable.” Of course, exercising some degree of control over your art isn’t a bad idea. Margo is genuinely shocked to learn that Louisiana neo-Nazi David Duke used Bryan Adams song in his campaign for governor. “Sometimes all this stuff happens outside the music and there’s not a lot you can do about it.” she says. One thing she can control, though, is how she feels about herself at the end of the day. “When this whole thing started with The Trinity Session and all this attention, it was a little overwhelming,” she says as a thread of worry enters her voice. “I knew I had to find a philosophy of how to deal with it all. “I went to see Emmylou Harris and it struck me – here’s this woman who’s been doing this for 100 years and she’s still beautiful and gracious and she’s just being herself. I thought, ‘That’s what I’ll be. I’ll just be myself and not worry about it.’ When I go home, I’m still Margo.” Latent Aspirations“Getting distribution is one of the biggest problems faced by independent band,” says guitarist Michael Timmins – and, as the man who managed Cowboy Junkies in the early days, he ought to know. Know that the band is a heavyweight in the Canadian music arena, Timmins
has used his clout to help out young indie bands on the rise. Latent,
the tiny record label Timmins started up to put out Cowboy Junkies’
first release, Whites Off Earth Now!, has signed a promotion and distribution
deal with corporate giant BMG. Given that Cowboy Junkies is now big business, Timmins has a more selfish reason for running Latent. “It keeps me in touch with the street and the great new music that’s being made”, he says. What does Timmins, the record executive, look for in artists? “Songwriting is always first”, he says. “If you don’t have good songs, you don’t have anything.” |
||
Return to Main Articles Page |