The Jon Mckiel Interview
Tell me about growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, CA. What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music, more specifically the guitar and songwriting? Was this relevant around your household growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert?
I grew up in rural Nova Scotia in the full flavor cigarette smoke in a car with your kids during the 1980s. I can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in music. At age 8 my mom was under the influence of visiting Jehovah's Witnesses banning me from listening to AC/DC, which was now an acronym for "Anti Christ/Devils Child". They owned only one cassette tape, Randy Travis’s "Diggin’ up Bones". Maybe I was determined to go deeper. Apparently I was known to find pianos at restaurants, visiting homes and picking out tunes. Despite this, I received an acoustic guitar on my 13th birthday. I started writing songs and recording on cassette players and later playing in punk bands. Around that time I was heavily influenced by Nirvana, Beck, The Breeders and Canadian indie bands like Eric's Trip, Sloan, Inbreds, Thrush Hermit and eventually punk rock. My first show was probably seeing Thrush Hermit with a band called Punch Buggy at the Esquire Tavern in Moncton, New Brunswick in the mid 90's.
2006 saw the release of your self-titled/self-released debut. What was the overall approach for this album? Would you mind giving some background to some of your favorite songs that are featured on the album and why? How did you initially go about putting a band together for this project?
This was a band we formed during my university undergrad in Halifax. I guess I already had the songs so we used my name. My roommates were the band (Colin Crowell, Josh Kogon, Cory Leblanc and Mike Deon). This was the first music I'd ever "properly" recorded, or released with many of the songs dating back to when I was a kid. I definitely had no idea what I was doing at all. We recorded it live to tape at Archive Mastering in Mineville, Nova Scotia with mastering engineer and North of America Instruments member Jay Lapointe. This record was heavily influenced by the Halifax music scene at the time, more specifically the Dependent Records music label and adjacent music scene that included bands like Heavy Meadows, Contrived, Land of Talk, Snailhouse, Brian Borcherdt and Wintersleep/Kerry.
From 2008-2017 you released “The Nature Of Things",“Tonka War Cloud” and “Memorial Ten Count”. Can you tell me about these records and how the deal with labels such as Wednesday Records and Youth Club Records came about? What are some of our most fondest memories while writing and recording these records?
“The Nature of Things” record was a weird ride and my first foray into the music business. Basically, I was "discovered" in the Myspace days by a label from California. We were brought to Boston to record at the infamous "Fort Apache" studios where bands like Radiohead, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr and Weezer had recorded in the heyday of the 90's. It was a cool experience, but ultimately, it didn't sell what they expected and complications with the Canadian label partner ended the arrangement. “Tonka War Cloud” was the first record made at the now defunct "Confidence Lodge" studio in Riverport, Nova Scotia circa 2012. I was working closely at the time with owner and operator Diego Medina on recordings and renovations at the lodge. This record and its companion EP "Confidence Lodge" were in the cold while still installing heating sources in the building since this was a massive historic structure in the community of Riverport, NS. “Memorial Ten Count” is a live rock record we (Jay Crocker, Aaron Mangle, Shawn Dicey and myself) recorded back in 2016. My first record on the You've Changed label and my second collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Jay Crocker (Joyfultalk), who recorded that session. Earlier in 2014 a small label in Canada's northern province of Yukon Territory released our first proper collaboration in the recording world. A self titled EP now long out of print on Headless Owl Records.
Your most recent album, “Bobby Joe Hope” was released in 2020. Can you tell me about this album and what the process of writing and recording this record was like for you? How has this record been in terms of conception compared to your previous albums? What has changed with your style, process and overall approach since you first started out on this journey?
I bought a Teac reel to reel tape recorder on Kijiji that came with a lot of tapes. I loved some of the weird music I found, one tape in particular was a goldmine. I called it the royal sampler. It was full of snips and sounds, perhaps demos, but some were definitely backwards with vocals and others more fleshed out, but short. Who knows who this person was. The kid I bought the machine from had no idea, so I began to jam with these tapes. I wrote lyrics if there were none, I wrote songs from the short snips sometimes expanding the idea further by adding instruments. I even made the "unknown dude", I began to call him, sing with me too. Basically we started a band, but he didn't know it. Myself, Jay Crocker and the unknown dude approached the project with the idea that the unknown needed to be on every track and that the rule we put on the project as well as how it turned out to be.
What has your spring and summer shaped up to be so far? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
We've got a new record coming out in the Spring with our collaborators at You've Changed Records, so keep an eye out for the single and record announcement in early February. Tour dates for Canada, US and EU forthcoming.
