After releasing some 18 albums over the past 25 years, Bill Henderson singer, frontman and guitarist for iconic '70s and '80s Canadian band Chilliwack is not at all interested in recording another CD right now.
I have no plans to set foot in a recording studio any time soon, he said.
Instead, the 68-year-old, Vancouver-born musician is more than content to get together with his old band mates periodically for mini-tours, or solo acoustic gigs, such as his upcoming show at the Brackendale Art Gallery (BAG) on May 19.
I usually do about 20 or 25 dates a year with Chilliwack, he said. It's still such a pleasure to play with those guys.
Henderson first hit the Canadian music scene as a member of the group The Collectors, which soon morphed into Chilliwack in 1969. The band is most known for classic songs like My Girl (Gone Gone Gone), I Believe, Whatcha Gonna Do and more. In addition, Henderson is a member of the super-folk group UHF with Shari Ulrich and Roy Forbes, and has earned a Juno Award for Producer of the Year, a Genie Award for Best Original Song in a Movie and was also the musical director of Sesame Street!
The CRTC has mandated a certain amount of Canadian content for broadcasters, Henderson said. So with Sesame Street, there were offices in Toronto, Halifax and Vancouver where each place produced content to be placed in various spots of the program. I would come up with music that went along with the vignettes which mostly had socially conscious messages. My kids always loved Sesame Street and watched it. So it was really interesting and really fun. I did that for about six years.
Henderson has also been director of the Canadian Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) and served as president of the Songwriters Association of Canada (SOCAN) for five years.
He's a staunch champion of artists' rights, and said the current business models don't exactly function smoothly in the digital age of peer-to-peer file sharing.
The record industry can't get their heads around the fact that people don't want pieces of plastic anymore, he said. But with those pieces of plastic CDs and records they had control over the supply, production and demand. That has changed. So they have a huge problem. File sharing which is the unauthorized use of a song or performance is a big issue.
Henderson said one model existed that worked for almost everyone.
We were working on a model where people could pay $5 a month and they could share all they wanted, he said. Basically when using a peer-to-peer program, they would get a window asking them if they wanted to subscribe and share 'legally.' Surveys found more than 70 per cent of people said they would pay in such a model to legally share. So the public liked it, the artists liked it, publishers too but the record companies didn't like it, so it isn't going to happen.
He said newer Internet music services run by big record companies leave artists out of the cash loop.
Spotify is a joke, he said. Artists get no money for that, and people really do want to support the artists who create and perform the music that's been the soundtrack to their lives.
If Chilliwack played some of the soundtrack to your life, make sure to head to the BAG on Saturday (May 19) at 8 p.m. for a solo acoustic set featuring classic Chilliwack songs that work on the acoustic plus some new songs and some covers of Henderson's old favourites.
Tickets are $20, available at Xocolatl and the BAG.
