John Southworth is a remarkable songwriter, musician, filmmaker, theatrical performer, and author who splits his time between Toronto and Montreal. Over the past 20 years, Southworth has established himself as one of the world’s most fascinating and intriguing artists, with upwards of 13 music releases to his name, including a stunning new double album called Niagara, which is out September 30 via the UK label Tin Angel Records. And on October 1, the Vancouver publisher Simply Read will release Daydreams for Night, a children’s story and Southworth’s first book. He’ll be touring Ontario, Quebec, and select cities in England throughout October and here, John and I have a chat about saying his name, toddler meltdowns, the relationship between Canada’s Niagara Falls and the United States’ Niagara Falls and Niagara, living in England as a child before moving to Canada, classic immigration and feeling foreign, the Aboriginal legacy of Niagara Falls, how Niagara Falls might not even exist, almost running for mayor of Niagara Falls, an amazing scene in Superman II, Marilyn Monroe and the film Niagara, Alfred Hitchcock, Richard Lester, how the album Niagara might be a lot to digest, a streaming joke, a smoothly made ambitious record, motivation, Herman Melville and William Shakespeare are dead, there’s too many records, ego or weirdo, John’s musician father Peter Shelley is not in the Buzzcocks, what brought his family to Canada, how his dad invented the Kenner toy Robot Man, staving off bitterness, going to film school and making all of his own music videos, discovering that his first book Daydreams for Night is for children, writing a new novel might mean no new songs for a while, people might know more about us than we do, kids’ age range recommendations might be bullshit, challenging innocence, making music, acting, directing films, reading poetry, writing books, and painting paintings, the South Seas and the North Seas, Jean Martin and Tanya Tagaq, Simply Red and Simply Read, the song “Ode to the Morning Sky,” and then it’s over the falls.
Related links: johnsouthworth.ca tinangelrecords.co.uk vishkhanna.com
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