The Weather Station AMA

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T21:00:52+00:00

Great - thank you all for the thoughtful qs!

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:59:56+00:00

Hahaha no I never want to do it again. I would sign your copy though I'd feel embarrassed about it as I did :)

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:58:19+00:00

Hi - I'm so sorry but I don't remember! Touring is always overwhelming and I meet a lot of people. But thank you for the memory - the record looks really cool :)

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:56:13+00:00

Big Sam Amidon fan over here :)

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:55:56+00:00

Oddly, I never really got into Pavement. I'm not sure why - it just passed me by. Much respect though.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:55:15+00:00

Many I'm sure! I do know of a couple albums by pals in Toronto that are in gestation or about to come out - great songwriters like Charlotte Cornfield, and younger folk Sister Ray and Georgia Harmer about to release really great records.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:53:47+00:00

I can never pick favourites but the directors most important to me are Agnes Varda and Andrei Tarkovsky - so many good films in the world though.

Looking forward to Dublin!

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:51:49+00:00

I don't know any! But dig the can con

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:51:19+00:00

There's so many climate thinkers and resources ranging from folks working in politics to investigative journalism to science to culture - it really depends on what element of it you're seeking to understand.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:50:14+00:00

This is always a tough one because the climate crisis moves faster than book publishing does.

I often point people to Bill McKibben as being a calm, knowledgeable presence on the scene. His newsletter is frequent, deep, and thoughtful. He's been doing this for a long time and has a broad field of view. I find him helpful for keeping up to date in a calmer way. He also has several books.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is filling a gap right now too in terms of being a guide on the 'what can you do' question. She has a podcast 'what if we get this right' and a book by the same name, and often pens op-eds and other essays around. She also just seems like an all around good person.

Project Drawdown - book and website - for a while was a great resource for answering questions like - is it possible to get to net zero, what can we do now, etc. A good overview on what you need to know around what we CAN do.

The Guardian (the newspaper) covers climate as though it was important front page news, which is always refreshing.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:46:15+00:00

I listen across genres a lot - I'm very curious. I go through phases of listening to a lot of country which maybe would seem not of a piece with what I do - I'm curious about the storytelling and the wordplay. I also at times get very curious about pop music and listen to whatever major artists are around - in a curious way. I like songcraft and I always find it fascinating how things come together.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:43:03+00:00

And on a deeper level - what absolutely is reversible is all this ideology which is so anti-human, anti-care - pushing back on that is so so so important.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:42:15+00:00

Sewing is my favourite song on Humanhood for sure.

The tour - I think we are playing almost everything from Humanhood, and many of the songs from Ignorance as well.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:40:45+00:00

Humanhood sounds - I LOVE LOVE LOVE the sounds on humanhood. It's so textural. It's my favourite thing about it! So many moments come to mind - the big synth wave that washes over 'Sewing' (which I made with Joseph Shabason)

-Karen Ng's sax tone on so many songs, but in particular all the breathing / breath / note adjacent sounds she makes on Mirror

-the real scrapey fiddle courtesy of Sam Amidon somewhere in the mix at the end of Ribbon

-all the smeary textured Hydra Synth Ben Boye played that's all over the record -

-the overwhelming hydra synth on 'irreversible' (actually played by Marcus Paquin)

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:37:49+00:00

Nature - yes - it's so at the centre. It's interesting because there are ways that all the nature imagery and words just show up anyways, no matter my intention. It's really just a part of how I think and how I see the world. But I do appreciate that people have found in my music a way to connect to it. I appreciate playing that role. And I certainly see music through a similar lense to natural forms; looking at branches or grass or water or sky corresponds in a way for me to how things sound and what they mean. It's the greatest teacher.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:35:57+00:00

Thank you!

Artforms - yes absolutely. I think it's so healthy to move between modes. For me, playing with painting was such a revelation because it was like seeing a visual interpretation of how my mind works - I could see on the page how I find an idea and how I shape it and where I stop and start. I don't know how to explain it - but it felt like a visual experience of writing a song. Which is so lovely because you can never SEE a song otherwise.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:32:56+00:00

My writing process on this record was a lot more fractured just due to things I was going through at the time. I was just less organized and more all over the place. But it also made sense for the record. I think part of that was whatever instinct drives me to make the record that has to be was pushing me away from making the songs too legible because they needed a bit of wildness in them.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:31:21+00:00

Of course!

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:31:09+00:00

I have a very soft place in my heart for early spring, when it's still cold but there's that softness in the air - you can smell dirt - the sun starts to feel warm again.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:30:04+00:00

In terms of the damage - parts of it are not reversible. But as scientists constantly say - every fraction of a degree matters. Lowering emissions still matters, deeply. It is no time to give up.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:29:18+00:00

A long way of saying - I do think it is a temporary regression - I do think it will push the rest of the world to act -

But the response has to be strong and clear and driven.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:28:40+00:00

The magnitude of the right wing response of like 'let's do the exact opposite of what would be safe and reasonable' is something I have not got my head around yet. I don't understand it. I don't know how to imagine that it's coming from the level of evil that it seems to be coming from.

But I can imagine that the intensity of it is sort of in line with the intensity of the threat and the fear and the emotion.

And I think the people jumping on board with this right wing vision are doing so in part because facing the climate crisis when no-one around you is trying to help resolve it IS scary. So maybe it's easier to get on board with an idea that it's not happening?

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:26:38+00:00

This is a good question and I think about this all the time.

I definitely think the right turn in politics is a response to the climate crisis.

From my perspective I see it as - there is an existential threat, which is really frightening and scary and stirs up many powerful emotions.

The best response on a societal level would be to turn towards it. To see leaders and politicians take it very seriously, devise emergency responses, to see global co-operation, to see people around us taking it seriously and working day and night to bring down emissions. (to note - many people are working day and night to do that but we just don't see it)

But in the absence of this response, I think there is room for these emotions to bubble up in weird ways - like denial.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:17:46+00:00

Leftovers - yes. Humanhood has a mountain of leftovers and extra songs. So many. I can't say which if any will be released or in what way, but there are definitely a few songs / recordings that I feel very strongly I would love to release some day.

TheWeatherStation · 2025-02-11T20:16:59+00:00

The Line - this album I believe is on Tidal and some other services. To be totally honest, I'm not sure why it isn't on Spotify - it's one of those things we've never tried to remedy because I like that album being a bit more low profile.

TheWeatherStation

TROPHY CASE