Steven Page |
Craig Northey
Kevin Fox
10th August 2018
Union Chapel, London, UK
Album: Discipline: Heal Thyself, Pt. II (Fresh Baked Goods / Warner Music Canada)
Kevin Fox |
Hot on the heels of his induction into
the Canadian Music Hall of Fame singer-songwriter Steven Page introduced his forthcoming album to the freethinkers of London in the spiritual cauldron of the Union Chapel in Islington. This was a night of spikey wit and proud political musicality. Although Discipline: Heal Thyself, Pt. II, will be released
on Friday, September 14, 2018 fans were rewarded with a preview of this powerful new work.
Ahead of the album’s release, Steven
has launched the vitriolic first single, “White Noise,” a
naked look at the current political discourse south of the 49th
parallel.
Listen/Watch “White Noise” HERE.
Listen/Watch “White Noise” HERE.
Craig Northey |
“I grew up in a household where
social justice was a fundamental value, and I always believed that it
was a fundamental Canadian value as well as a central Jewish one,”
says Page. “I’ve watched how the term has been twisted and
perverted by the Right over the last several years in an effort to
diminish the voices of reason.
Although I grew up politically aware,
in a left-leaning household (which, in Canada, was not regarded as
anything sinister until the mid-90s and beyond), it wasn’t until I
discovered the politically-charged music coming from the UK in the
1970s (the Clash, The Jam) and 1980s during the Miner’s Strike and
the Red Wedge movement (Billy Bragg, Style Council, Communards, etc)
that I became excited by the power of music and activism. This song
pays tribute to that music, and was written in the wake of last
year’s events in Charlottesville. The open displays of racism and
antisemitism, and the chants of “Jews Will Not Replace Us” made
me grab my guitar and tell them I’d be more than glad to replace
them.”
Steven Page |
Recorded at Fresh baked Woods Studios
just outside of Toronto and Vancouver’s Doghouse of Thunder Studio
with longtime live bands Odds and The Original Six, and frequent
collaborator Craig Northey, Discipline is Page’s fifth solo album
and the spiritual follow-up to 2016’s Heal Thyself Pt. I: Instinct.
Musically, the album tips its hat to many of Page’s influences
including the aforementioned punk rock movement and David Byrne as
well as a nod to the Bee Gees and the Zombies.