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The new Headstones album is their best yet. Hugh Dillon is off smack.
Kerry Doole has heard it all before but does he believe?
Three years ago, this scribe interviewed Headstones
mainman Hugh Dillon for Access. Back then, Hugh claimed the new
Headstones album, Nickels For Your Nightmares, was his favourite
yet and that he was cleaning up his act in terms of his drug use.
This time out, he stresses that the new Headstones
record, The Oracle of Hi-Fi, is their best yet and that he’s
now out of rehab, clean, sober and rarin’ to go.
The refrain may be familiar but you get the feeling
he means it, man.
Certainly, the lovable rock & roll rogue looks
the picture of health this time around. We chat in the appropriate setting
of Toronto’s Hard Rock Cafe just hours before the band delivers
a typically entertaining set of their signature brand of adrenalized,
punk-fuelled rock.
Dillon’s wearing a gangster-style suit and raccoon-like
makeup around eyes blazing with genuine passion and enthusiasm. With
good cause, as The Oracle of Hi-Fi, their fifth studio album,
is being (deservedly) warmly embraced.
Dillon’s admittedly biassed view is that the
record “is a f**kin’ solid piece of work with moments of brilliance
on it. That’s all you can hope for, as opposed to a ‘good’
record. That doesn’t cut it. It’s our most focused record.
Nickels had things we experimented with, which I was proud of
at the time, but I look back and there are things I’d change. Not
with this record. I was more on top of it. I was involved in every fuckin’
thing, right down to the artwork. That’s why it is better: there’s
more Hugh in it!”
Of course, he delivers that last line with a raucous
laugh. “We’ve got no problems in the ego area,” he chuckles,
while bassist Tim White agrees that “we’re pretty good in
the loving ourselves end of things.”
Their self-confidence has been earned the hard way.
With six albums behind them (including 2001’s The Greatest Fits
collection), the ‘Stones have defied the odds and produced a large
catalogue. “I call it the Marlon Brando body of work,” says
Hugh. “We’ve recorded and released 66 songs, and I couldn’t
be happier. If you dedicate yourself to writing, recording and playing
rock music, then come out with this, you’ve got to be pumped. F**k
it, it rocks.”
Kicking his heroin habit is clearly a factor in the
band’s rejuvenation, as Dillon candidly notes. “Before, I’d
be there to sing my part, happy things were going well, but also, quite
frankly, happy to then go out and score. This time out, the other guys
would say ‘make sure these lyrics are what you want.’ And
because I had [taken scoring dope] out of the mix, I was there all the
time. So every word fits, every melody is what I wanted.”
“That’s why this is the most cohesive thing
we’ve ever done,” adds White.
The Oracle of Hi-Fi is co-produced by Brad
Nelson and Colin Cripps. Nelson had worked extensively with the Headstones
before, while the addition of noted guitarist/songwriter/producer Cripps
(Crash Vegas, Junkhouse, Oh Susanna) was an inspired choice. “We
are a guitar band, and we needed a guitar player at the helm,”
says Hugh. “Colin produced the two new songs on The Greatest
Fits so we got to find out how he worked under pressure. That made
it easy to assemble the army for the next assault!”
Cripps adds tasty guitar work on some tracks, while
Big Wreck’s Ian Thornley (‘Nothing Changes’) and Teenage
Head’s Gord Lewis (‘Tiny Teddy’) also have guest solos
on a cut apiece.
The mini-movie-like outlaw tale of ‘Tiny Teddy’
is apparently a favourite of Hugh’s pal, director Bruce MacDonald.
Dillon, of course, had a triumphant role in MacDonald’s Hard
Core Logo, and has become an in-demand actor. You’ll occasionally
see him take cameos in film and TV (Dance Me Outside, Blue Murder),
but his charisma remains best suited to the stage.
“The bottom line is that rock & roll comes
first,” he insists. That’s good news.
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