Canadian Singer/Songwriter Jerry Leger is set to release his new album Donlands on October 27th via Cowboy Junkies’ label Latent Recordings with whom he has also released previous records through.

Previously working with Mike Timmins (of Cowboy Junkies and Tim Bovaconti, Leger has teamed up with legendary Canadian producer/engineer Mark Howard (Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Neil Young) for Donlands.

Named after the street in Toronto’s east end where it was recorded, in what once was the Donlands Theatre, Donlands presents Jerry Leger as he’s never been heard before.

Jerry has just released his new single You Carry Me today!

Pre-order Donlands here

We caught up with Jerry Leger to discuss the new record and more!

Enjoy!

Hi Jerry – How has your weekend been?

Yeah it’s been pretty good. I’m just getting prepared to go on the road again. This Thursday we fly over to The Netherlands and then we have the record coming out, it’s been busy but it’s good to be busy!

Have you been to The Netherlands before?

Yeah! This will be the sixth time that I have been there! I guess the first time would be 2018 – since then I have been trying to go regularly. Obviously since the pandemic we couldn’t, so we had a one tour that postponed three or four times so it’s been nice to be able to get back at it since last year!

Where else are you headed out to other than The Netherlands?

Germany!

I love Germany!

Yeah, we are really looking forward to that again. We are going to make it back to the UK in late spring, I am sorting that out now.

Oh good!

You have the new album Donlands coming out really soon!

Yeah! It’s exciting!

What can you tell us about it? It was recorded live right?

With my records, I like to record them in the studio as live as possible. There is always little over-dubs like percussion and harmony vocals and maybe another guitar part. I like to have the core of the band and the lead vocals happen at the same time live in the studio. I think with this record, it went a little further than that because the way that Mark Howard works who recorded and produced the record. He likes recording when the bands not wearing headphones as usually you would wear headphones so you can hear everything. He felt that that kind of inhibits you because you’re not really hearing yourself and you’re not really hearing the band as they are.

So we recorded the record without headphones, kind of in a hush, a bit quiet. We were like in a circle in the studio and if the band couldn’t hear me, then they were playing too loud. I think there’s also, I don’t know who learned it from whom but Mark Howard worked a lot with Daniel Lanois on different records and Daniel also had that mentality that you sing differently when you are wearing headphones as opposed to when you are singing in the air. I believe that, I think the singing is a little, in a very good way, it’s more vulnerable on this record which really works with the content of the songs. It’s pretty cool, you know! I knew what I wanted to get by working with Mark on this record and I feel like I got exactly what I wanted from it, it’s a good feeling! Donlands is the record that I wanted to make and sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get close to that!

Good! Do you also have any involvement in the production side of things?

Usually I would! All the other records that I have made, the producers I have worked with before including Mike Timmins from Cowboy Junkies, we have made the last four or five albums together with Mike producing before Donlands. Working with him and Tim Bovaconti over the years, it was more about capturing what I do and keeping me on track and getting the best performances and really capturing what they are already hearing but to the best of my abilities. I think that with this record, I wanted Mark to do his thing, I brought the songs and the arrangements, he had a lot to do with us trying to figure arrangements but not really messing with the songs which is great! His production technique is more about pushing the band and getting to the heart and soul of the song.

So besides things like “oh let’s try this a lot slower to space out the words more so they are impactful”, besides that, it was more about trying to get outside the song and finding a cool arrangement that suited it. So yeah, I was way more willing to try different things this time around whereas in the past, I would have already had arrangements ideas. This time around we came in with arrangements and just sort of threw them away and started from scratch. With the exception of a song called Wounded Wing, I think we kind of looped back to the arrangement that I had in mind when we first walked in the door but the rest of it we, Mark and I, gave each others trust and I think we made a great record!

I have heard it, so I agree!

Oh thank you!

I believe that you sent 20 demos to Mark Howard, so how did it get narrowed down to ten in the end?

Yeah I sent him 20 songs and I knew which ones that (I wanted), there’s a few that I was like “if Mark doesn’t pick those, I’m gonna fight for those”. I had an idea of knowing the kind of record that we were going to hopefully make, I knew which ones that I would pick and it was just that great thing that he came back with his choices and it was exactly what I was thinking. It was just about looking at what songs could exist in the same dimension, the same world. We were off to a great start that we were hearing the same thing. That made me feel more confident that we could really do something!

Did that make the track listing order easier to put together?

That is very time consuming putting the sequence together because I always hear the records as if you are reading a story or watching a movie. There’s always different aspects like the middle, the climax and you want it to have a certain flow. Even before we were pressing the albums on vinyl, and it was just cds or digital, I always listen to it, I always put the sequences together as if it was a record and Side One starts and Side One ends and then Side Two begins..you’ve got to have a certain flow to kind of keep the listener on the ride of it. For this record, it was very important to me of the way I was going to sequence it. I really just heard the record in a very cinematic way and I felt like ‘Sort Me Out’, the opener, really sets the scene and kind of lets the listener know what they are in store for. The closer ‘Nowhere Town’ has this real atmosphere to it and a very long fade, almost fading into black, credits roll! Yeah, so there’s a lot that went into putting this sequence together for this record for sure! I couldn’t hear how it could have gone any other way. That’s just what felt right!

That’s so interesting thank you! I love that as it’s not something that the listener may always consider. I was speaking to another artist the other day who said that the closer is always important to her and often the favourite track off any album that she listens to.

The closer and the opener is really important. I think the opener, I write a lot of songs that start off with that first line that sets the mood and you take it from there. The closer is important too because it’s nice that feeling when you have a certain closing song that, if it makes the listener want to listen to the album all over again! I think the book ends of a record are pretty important!

What song on the record took the longest or quickest to write?

I do remember the opening song ‘Sort Me Out’, that came pretty quickly, the words and music but I had written it as a faster song, almost like a power pop song in a way with retrospective lyrics. That was a song that Mark suggested slowing down a bit and it was a great decision. Some of them were, some just came out words and music. Other songs like The Flower in The Dirt, I wrote the words first and then the melody after.

You mentioned Mike Timmins earlier but tell us about working with him and Cowboy Junkies on the label.

Oh it’s always been great! Mike, he’s such a music lover you know? A lot of us start off as big music nerds, buying lots of records, listening to lots of music and I started playing and writing because I wanted to do what The Beatles did. It was so fascinating to me that you could really express yourself that way! Anyways, so working with Mike has always been great and we have always made different records and not on purpose! We both have a lot of the same tastes in music and that can go in different directions. We could take a song in the Townes Van Zandt direction, we can take it in a Velvet Underground direction and we could take it in a Clash or go really anywhere.

We have a mutual respect for our work ethic too and our commitment to it. So we have always had a great time making records together and yeah, this new record is on their label as well. Mike was like “I can’t wait to hear what you do with Mark”. He is a fan of some of the records that Mark Howard has produced. He has always been very supportive of what I doing. I am a Cowboy Junkies fan too and they have always been very artist driven and done whatever they want and that’s also been great. My working relationship with Mike, he is not thinking about numbers, he wants more people to hear what I am doing for sure, but it’s not like sacrificing the music or the art. He has always been very committed to making good albums that goes in the timeless direction rather than trying to jump on something trendy to get more listeners. He kind of like saved my life ten years ago when I started working with him so I have a lot of…I definitely owe him a few drinks.

I like the fact that you are keeping it on a timeless direction. I think that’s where the best music always is!

Yeah and it’s tough out there! I don’t think it’s a secret that the music industry is a tough one and so I think our attitude has always been “well, let’s just try to make great records”. That’s kind of the only thing! Let’s just make records that we can listen back to and aren’t like “well I did this for that reason” and you’re cringing because you didn’t go with your gut on something. You were trying to please somebody else and not yourself!

Well Donlands is definitely timeless as is Lay It Down by Cowboy Junkies which is a favourite album of mine!

Yeah! That’s a great one!

What song of yours is a family favourite?

Well my mum, on this new record Donlands, her favourite song is one called ‘I Need Love’. She is like “you sound just like John Lennon”.

Awww

Yeah, she loves that song a lot.

Well thanks so much for talking today and good luck with the album release. Hopefully see you next year!