Joy, Instinct, and Eliminating the Unnecessary Notes with Serial Collaborator, Craig Northey, pt 1

Vocal Lab

30-01-2023 • 49 mins

Today on the show, we have Craig Northey, founding member of renowned Canadian rock band "Odds". Formed in1987 they crossed over into radio success, platinum awards and Juno nominations during the mid 1990s and have maintained their vitality to this day. Craig is also known for his work as a film and TV composer (Kids in the Hall, Corner Gas, Hiccups, Young Drunk Punk, This Blows).


Craig and I talk about his music roots as a child whose mother was a symphonic violinist/violist, and moving from a classical pedigree into rock and roll, and the role his musical education has played in his musical journey…how theory helps eliminate the unnecessary notes.


We get into the important relationships in Craig’s musical life, and how learning music was a social concept that involved hanging out at the music stores on the weekend to learn from your peers. Craig has a great perspective on community over competition in music.


We talk about Craigs journey from live performer into music for Film and TV, and collaborating with Kids in the Hall, and writing music for Brent Butt. The process is much more streamlined now than it was when he was starting out!


Craig talks about his songwriting process, both his solo writing, and when in collaborative process. We talk about the concept of storytelling as a songwriter, and I love that one of Craig’s most driving forces in lyric writing is “how can we make this funnier?” We talk about the different ways we listen to music, and Craig talks about Susan Rogers’ (record producer turned brain who worked with Odds) book This Is What It Sounds Like.



IG: @craignorthey

IG: @oddsmusic

Twitter: @oddsmusic

Website: https://oddsmusic.com/


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