25 and Counting

Zoomer | March 8th, 2010

Travis Persaud: Were there any
big surprises on the album for you?

Jim Cuddy: I think the song “All the Things We Left Behind” is a song that surprised me — we [knew we could] get a song out of it, but you’re not sure that it’s going to typify the whole record. Those are the enjoyable days
in the studio when you’re just trying things out. “Oh, let’s try the timpani. Oh, and let’s put in the bass pedals and another piano part.” The floodgates
just open up.

TP: Is the end result what you expected going in to the studio?

Greg Keelor: Not really. There are
a few songs that seem more obvious. But a lot of the songs weren’t completely formed. A record presents itself when you get in there — you meet it halfway. We didn’t have an idea of what it would be like. For example,
a song like “Gossip” started off as a guitar-picking song. The band ended up doing this beautiful arrangement for it, so it ended up being nothing I imagined. That’s one of the pleasing things about making a record — at the end, you can just go, “Oh, that’s nice.”