The mighty Ron Sexsmith will release his wonderful new album Hangover Terrace on Wednesday August 29th via Cooking Vinyl. Ron was last seen in the UK when he played ‘Sexsmith At Sixty’ shows with his band in November ‘24. Ron extended his stay to record his new album at London’s Eastcote Studios with producer Martin Terefe.
Who better to tell you about the whys and wherefores of Hangover Terrace than the man himself?
On the title Hangover Terrace:
“One day my band and I were travelling to the London Palladium and we passed a place called “Hanover Terrace” to which Don Kerr (drummer in Ron’s band) quipped “Hangover Terrace”. Anyway, I had a sort of lightbulb moment and felt right away that was going to be the title. It speaks of this hangover I feel from the last few years of pandemic and life knocking us around.”
On the lyrical feel of Hangover Terrace:
“My last few albums actually had a feeling of rural contentment. Hangover Terrace feels more wounded to me. The world since the pandemic went off the rails a bit and every nerve seemed quite raw. I had some falling outs with a few friends and so there’s some self-examination going on and a desire to know who my real friends are. It also deals with the passing of time and how things become more dear.”
On London:
“It was the first time I’d recorded in London since 2007 and I didn’t realize how much I had missed spending quality time there. Working at Eastcote with Martin Terefeagain felt really free. I’d forgotten how spontaneous his approach to recording could be. Every day I’d walk to the studio thinking about whichever song we were gonna do and I’d try to reimagine each one going a different way than I originally intended and usually by the time I arrived I was ready to try out something new.”
On producer Martin Terefe and the players on the record:
“Well, Martin’s very open-minded and instinctual. He doesn’t have knee-jerk reactions to things. The studio complex is filled with musicians wandering in and out of the various studios so you never know who’s gonna end up on your record. Some of the musicians had played on earlier albums of mine like Claes Bjorklund and Ed Harcourt and it was great to work with them again. But there were also a few cameo appearances such as the great Robbie McIntosh (McCartney, The Pretenders etc) who played on 4 tracks and even noted producer Chris Kimsey wandered in and ended up singing a bit of one tune. One of my fave moments was when my neighbour’s daughter Nora Joy Stephens (from Stratford where I live) flew over to sing on the final song of the album. She has a lovely voice and is a fine songwriter herself.”
On inspiration:
“It just sort of happens by nature of where I am in my life. I’m always in a different place emotionally which I think is true of most people. I walk everyday and it gives me lots of time to work out things in my head. I never worry about repeating myself. The 31 year old Ron from my debut album could not write these songs and the 61 year old Ron could not have written those songs. Life hits us at different stages and gives us new perspectives, regrets, insecurities and new dreams to contemplate and set to music.”
On songwriting
“I still write as I walk but I think it has changed in subtle ways. I think I’m much better
at troubleshooting whenever I get stuck on a verse or something. Some songs still take weeks or months to write while others take only hours or days. I find I work more on piano than I used to but usually I just go to whatever instrument is closer to me. The lyrics are always the hardest part and that’ll probably never change.”
Advice to his younger self:
“I guess I would tell him not to give up, be patient and try to stay focused on what’s real.”
On Angel On My Shoulder:
“It’s funny, but I was thinking it was kind of the flip side of “Speaking With The Angel.” Religion doesn’t really play a part in my life although when I was a kid, I was the only one in my family who went to church on Sunday. I was intrigued with it, I liked to dress up and I liked the music. Having said that, I’ve always been a spiritual person and I’ve always been God conscious but more in an invisible friend way. I do believe in angels though and have experienced them in my own home.”
On “Camelot Towers”:
“It was inspired by these low-income apartment buildings that they build sometimes
and are given these grandiose names but become eyesores over time. I grew up in Government housing as a kid, but all the houses on my street (Galbraith Street) at least were new and clean. It’s actually a song that I demo’d for my “Other Songs” album from 1997 but for some reason it never ended up on an album until now. With the housing crisis in Canada it seemed more relevant to me now.”
On “Easy For You To Say”
“It’s a kind of take on Dylan’s “Positively Fourth Street”. I had a few different people in mind when I wrote it and so it was very cathartic to record. It mostly deals with feelings of being sort of thrown under the bus and a vague feeling of being excluded from things that I used to get invited to. It also deals with the puritanical climate of the last bunch of years where people seem so quick to judge.”
On uncertain times:
“The world feels dark and unsafe at the moment. The discourse feels toxic. “Please Don’t Tell Me Why” was mostly about how grateful I am to live in a relatively safe and sane country while so many parts of the world are in utter turmoil and wondering why that it is. “When Will The Morning Come” was written for some friends who’d lost a loved one and I was trying to write something comforting but yea, it also deals with the anxiety I have about the world these days.”
On ‘Rose Town’:
“It’s a sort of ‘shudder to think’ kind of song that deals with regrets and of arriving finally at a place of happiness and not wanting to screw it up.”
On his childhood home in St Catharines, inspiration for new songs “Cigarette & Cocktail” “Burgoyne Woods” and his classic song “Galbraith St.”
“I think the older I get the clearer those memories become and the more precious too
When I wrote “Galbraith Street” my publisher at the time told me I was too young to write a song like that. Maybe he was right?”
Ron Sexsmith is one of Canada’s most accomplished singer-songwriters. Born and bred in St Catharines near Niagara Falls and currently resident in Stratford, Ontario, he has released 17 studio albums to date – Grand Opera Lane (1991), Ron Sexsmith (1995), Other Songs (1997), Whereabouts (1999), Blue Boy (2001), Cobblestone Runway (2002), Rarities (2003), Retriever (2004), Destination Unknown (2005, with Don Kerr, released as Sexsmith & Kerr), Time Being (2006), Exit Strategy Of The Soul (2008), Long Player Late Bloomer (2011), Forever Endeavour (2013), Carousel One (2015), The Last Rider (2017), Hermitage (2020) and The Vivian Line (2023). He has collaborated with the likes of Daniel Lanois, Mitchell Froom, Ane Brun, Tchad Blake, and Bob Rock. His songwriting appears on albums from Rod Stewart, Michael Bublé, k.d. lang, Emmylou Harris and Feist. Film-maker Doug Arrowsmith made an acclaimed documentary about Ron in 2010 called ‘Love Shines’. In 2017 Ron published his first book, a fairy tale entitled ‘Deer Life’.
