Jim Cuddy breaks down 3 songs about some of his most meaningful relationships

36:47Jim Cuddy: His new solo album, relationships & songwriting

When Jim Cuddy set out to write his sixth and latest solo album, All the World Fades Away, he felt like he owed it to himself to paint a portrait of his present life, as he wasn't sure how many more records he'd have left in him.

In an interview with Q guest host Talia Schlanger, the Canadian singer-songwriter, best known as the frontman of Blue Rodeo, explains that he approached this project as if it were a "fictionalized memoir."

"What I'm thinking about now is not what I was thinking about 10 years ago," he says. "You know, I'm in the later innings, so I'm just thinking about things in a different way."

One of the major themes Cuddy contemplates on All the World Fades Away has to do with relationships.

The songs Learn to Live Alone, You Belong and Everyday Angels are about his respective relationships with his wife, an old flame and his Blue Rodeo bandmate Greg Keelor. Here's a bit of what he had to say about each track in his own words.

The highlights below are edited for length and clarity. For the full interview, listen to Q with Tom Power on your favourite podcast player.

Learn to Live Alone

It's kind of a funny song because it's kind of a pastiche of things. Early on in my relationship with my wife, Rena Polley, we lived in New York and she would go away for the summer because she worked at the film festival.

We were early in our relationship when we lived in New York and that got harder and harder — I missed her more. Now, our lives have revolved around me going away and her staying home. Obviously, that's good for us because we have independence and we find time apart, and we enjoy getting back together. But I don't have a lot of that. When I go away, I'm with a group of men — some women, but mostly men — and I'm in a bus or I'm in a hotel, I'm playing concerts. Then I come back and I'm involved in a couple and a family, which is great.

When she goes away, I think that this is going to be amazing. I think, "I can do all these things I've had in the back of my mind." I'm not even allowed to leave guitars out at home, so I'm going to have a guitar in every room, I'm going to stay up all night — and very quickly, I don't want to do any of those things. I have completely sculpted my life around being with this other person or doing my work. I get bored with myself. I want to call her up and say, "You know what happened today?" and tell her little story. You know, so it's this process of learning to live alone, but also not really wanting to be alone. 

You Belong

I like that one. I just like the way that the melody goes.

I wrote that song because it occurs to me — and it has occurred to me many, many times when I'm songwriting — that relationships that are formed around some emotional connection, when those are long over, you can draw that emotional connection up and it seems just as strong and impactful as it was at the time. And so I just like the way I depicted that.

That song, I think, sort of clearly says, "It's not like we were meant to be together." It's not about that, but it is about how important that time was. And I was also very cognizant of the fact that if you try to make those memories contemporary, if you search that person out, they may not in any way have the same feelings about that time. That would be very deflating.

[My wife and I] did have to talk about it. I mean, it's not like we didn't have lives before we met each other, and so it can't entirely be off limits to talk about. I don't do it very much and I certainly don't want to hurt my wife, but I also want to feel like I'm free to write about these things and how I felt about them. And it's not threatening. It shouldn't be threatening. 

Everyday Angels

There's a couple of songs on the record that I wanted to write to affirm my love of life. I think that [I] write a lot of melancholy songs and I don't want that to be the only theme on the record. I want it to be that I really appreciate being alive.

Anyway, I wrote this song and I wanted to create two characters. I knew it was a question and answer. I wanted a call and response, and I wanted the call to be sort of an Innocent, and a little bit vain and egocentric. And in the background I want it to be guiding, but then by the third verse getting a little irritated. It's sarcastic.

So Greg and I do share this very sarcastic and sometimes slightly cruel sense of humour. It's not always comfortable to be around us. We've had people kind of recoil, "What are you saying to each other?" So we sometimes have to be careful with that. I thought Greg would be a perfect person, not only because I love the way that Greg sings background vocals, but also because he could be a little bit of a sarcastic Greek chorus to my Innocent.

Subsequently, I've said this to Greg and he said, "No, you're wrong." And this is where we get into this interpretation of it. He said, "Jim, once the song goes out, you have to allow it to be interpreted by whoever wants to." And I said, "Yeah, but I'm telling you what it's about." There's no doubt it's sarcastic! Don't go with Greg's side. 

Anyway, I thought that was great, but I really just sent him the call and response, and he added all the other kind of beautiful Harry Nilsson, Beatles backgrounds. It was great. I mean, I love him for doing it. 

The full interview with Jim Cuddy is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Jim Cuddy produced by Glory Omotayo.