Media

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Local cool cat Craig flat out with first album 

 by Thomas Cormier 

 Craig  Cormier  is  a  longtime  musician   and   resident   of   Riverview Park. He recently sat down to talk about the making of his first album, Bodega Cats.

Why did you finally make an album?

I’ve been working on songs for years but could never bring all the differing  styles  and  influences  together into  a  cohesive  album.  Although  I’ve  grown  up  with  pop  and  rock  music  as  my  main  interests,  I’ve also had strong Maritime and Celtic influences that I thought would always  be  the  focus.  Over  the  past  number of years, I’ve been writing more rock and punk-sounding tunes with the band Waterbömber, but I also had a bunch of songs that were more traditional and required a different approach. I wasn’t really sure what  to  do  with  these  songs  but  I  knew  I  needed  to  record  them.  So  in January of this year I took some time off from my regular day job to begin the recording process. Once I got underway, I found these and the newer  songs  I  was  composing  kept  getting pulled towards the influences  of  Django  Reinhardt,  Stephan Grappelli  and  Allison  Krauss.  The  maritime and pop influences will al-ways remain, but the end result was definitely a more jazz and bluegrass oriented album.

Who was involved in making the record?

The  entire  album  was  written, performed,  recorded,  mixed  and produced  by  me  here  in  Riverview Park. I had a bit of help from Gilles  Gaudet  (who  just  moved away  from  the  neighbourhood) with  some  of  his  awesome  drum  work  on  the  track  “Chairman  of  the Board”. As well, some backing vocals were done by two other lads on  “Les  Habitants”.  I  used  all  the  instruments  I  could  find  around the  house  and  managed  to  record  it  on  an  old  computer.  My  original  intention  was  to  try  to  be  as  acoustic  as  possible  and  to  avoid  

 anything   electronic.   Although   I   was largely successful in doing this for  much  of  the  project,  when  it comes  down  to  it  I’m  an  electric  guitarist and just couldn’t resist it on a few tracks.

Why the title: Bodega Cats?

I  was  about  two  thirds  of  the  way through recording the album when I came across this picture of my son with a cat named Herman from  a  bodega  we  visited  in  East  Side  Manhattan.  When  I  was  a  university  student  on  Prince  Edward  Island,  I  used  to  work  in a  convenience  store  which,  of course,  has  many  similarities  to a  New  York  bodega  (minus  the cat unfortunately). I have worked a  number  of  jobs  in  my  life,  but I  have  many  fond  memories  of  working  there  as  it  was  a  great  place  to  see  all  these  folks  from  your community passing through. Also,  it  was  a  picture  that  was taken  the  night  after  we  had  celebrated my parents 50th wedding anniversary.  Since  this  album  is  dedicated to them and all the sup-port they’ve given me, I thought the   picture   had   connection   to   them as well. After a bit of consideration, I realized that this image would help shape the completion of the album. I don’t think my son cares  for  being  in  the  photo  on  the  album  cover  but  frankly  he’s  filling in for the bodega cat from PEI who took the picture. 

Where can you find the album?

You can find a copy of my CD at Compact  Music  in  the  Glebe  (785  Bank Street).  If  you  don’t  feel  like  leaving your home these days, it can also be downloaded from bandcamp (https://craigcormier.bandcamp.com/releases). If you want to know more about me you can always visit my website at www.craigcormier.com.  I  would  like  to do a launch of the record, so watch for announcements on Facebook.