The hour on stage is rarely a drag. In fact, I can't really say that its ever a drag. The few times that its been challenging has been when you don't have a sympathetic audience or there is the occasional strange corporate gig or something that you take or that you're not sure and you're like, "Wait a second. That's just the wrong venue".

Joel Plaskett

Categorized in : Waiting Challenges Gigs

The only thing worse than growing up is never quite learning how

Joel Plaskett

never-quit growing growing-up

I love singing. I've never felt I've had a great voice but I feel I've gotten better. It's funny. I can hear my voice aging and getting stronger. I've relaxed about my singing so I'm hearing it the way I like it.

Joel Plaskett

stronger singing voice

I have the ability to go back to the old days with the boys and remember what it was like playing music. I have that real connection to the feeling of playing music as a young man. I do. I can almost touch it.

Joel Plaskett

real men boys

My dad brings a deep-seated knowledge of the British folk genre, and a lot of my love for guitar playing comes from learning from him and his influences, which eventually became my influences.

Joel Plaskett

guitar influence dad

I love playing and I like traveling. I really do like playing in Canada, its not to diminish anywhere else because touring internationally can be cool.

Joel Plaskett

being-cool touring canada

I hope people leave my show thinking they've had a worthwhile couple of hours. The worst thing you want is for people to think they've wasted their time or didn't get their money's worth.

Joel Plaskett

couple people thinking

We still need to have one beautiful lady standing there.

Joel Plaskett

standing-there beautiful needs

When I'm recording a song, I wake up and I'm thinking about it. I go to sleep and I'm thinking about it.

Joel Plaskett

sleep song thinking

I've had a lot of support from every corner of my life and my audience, to pretty much do close to what I want. I don't have unlimited time or money to execute my wildest dreams but I have enough get up and go to keep me going.

Joel Plaskett

support dream want

I care about the records I make and I love writing songs and some songs are really dear to me and they mean something. But the memory of making the records and the activities surrounding the records, the people involved in them is actually a bigger thing to me.

Joel Plaskett

song memories mean

I chose to go to Arizona, because it was an opportunity to make something that I've never done. To work with different people and to have a good time when you're recording and to not have the whole thing be some sort of editing process in front of a computer, but to actually try and capture some sort of spirit.

Joel Plaskett

editing opportunity people

That memory of making the record is a huge part of the record itself.

Joel Plaskett

records huge memories

Great art is a regional thing. I'm not saying my art is great. I recognize what I think is great about music is often on a regional level.

Joel Plaskett

levels art thinking

I like New Orleans music, I like Memphis music and I like the way that the sound like those places. I like how there are stars and there are people in those cities that are revered in the community.

Joel Plaskett

new-orleans stars cities

I have enough of a fan-base that I don't feel it is going to evaporate. I don't feel like I have a fleeting fan-base. I don't feel like it is coming from some trend-driven thing where I'm no longer going to be hip. I've come and gone through all that.

Joel Plaskett

fleeting fans gone

If your gig is not in an office for eight hours a day, its going to be somewhere. If you're a truck driver, you get on a road. If you're a musician, you go to where the people are going to show up and you take the gig. I enjoy it, so I don't and I'm not complaining. Its just the traveling can get to be a bit much.

Joel Plaskett

eight office people

I've been really supported by my family and my wife. She really understands what I do, but it doesn't get any easier when you get away all the time and so I'm trying to find the balance.

Joel Plaskett

balance wife trying

What you're hoping for about the concert is an overall collective experience that everyone has and that you share with them and when you hit the stage you have a "common" feeling. Even though you're the performer and they're the audience there's something uniting everybody in the room.

Joel Plaskett

uniting feelings rooms

When I'm preforming a lot I'm aching to get back in the studio but I love live performance. I love trying to think on my feet and be spontaneous. I like doing that in a live show and I do the same thing in the studio.

Joel Plaskett

feet trying thinking

I tend to pour myself into my music and I don't have a lot of other places my mind goes, unless it's spending time with family and friends.

Joel Plaskett

spending-time family-and-friends mind