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“Greg’s a pretty simple guy,” asserts Joelle May, the Greg Cockerill Band’s publicist, as we’re setting up the interview. It quickly becomes apparent upon meeting Cockerill that May’s statement is oversimplification in itself. The Calgary singer-songwriter is poised to release his debut disc, Summertime and Heartache, an extremely well crafted selection of roots rock originals and two well placed covers. While the singer-songwriter suit fits him like hand-tailored denim, it turns out that his personal musical roots are different from most of his peers. As an admitted, former “jazz dork,” Cockerill pursued formal music studies at Ontario’s prestigious Humber College. “I loved jazz and I very much thought I wanted to be a jazz guy, but a year or two after finishing music school, I started to get a bit alienated from the music,” he says. This alienation forced a reexamination of his previous motivations. “A few great Bruce Springsteen records and Bob Dylan records later, I realized, ‘Man this is why I originally loved music.’”
Cockerill moved back to Calgary and hit the open mic circuit with a vengeance, playing live three times a week and learning new songs for virtually every jam he attended. Inevitably, he was asked to play something original. “I was kind of dared one day, ‘OK, Greg, you can sing all these covers. Can you sing one of your own songs?’” he recalls. “I had a few I was working on, so I polished them up and went in and sang them. I was just terrified the first time, but after that, I was just hooked on doing my own stuff.”
The leap from solo folky to roots-rock bandleader came soon thereafter. “I got a call from Sam Masterton [slide guitar], who I’d met at the same open mic. He had a big gig coming up, a couple of thousand bucks to play for two hours, and said, ‘let’s throw a band together.’ So the band basically came together for that show.”
With a crackerjack band, an increasing repertoire and an ever-expanding circle of contacts, Cockerill met and was dazzled by David Baxter, Justin Rutledge’s guitarist and producer. “He just blew my mind with how musical he was and his tone and everything,” says Cockerill. Baxter would produce Summertime and Heartache at The Beach in Calgary and at his own Knob and Tube studio, in Toronto. He also offered simple suggestions to improve Cockerill’s tone and sound. Rutledge and Baxter himself turn in guest performances, but it’s Cockerill and his band who really shine. His easy, natural vocal delivery evokes a slightly refined John Prine, and the band play with a maturity and proficiency that belie their youth. In many ways, this record was a lifetime in the making.
“In terms of the themes and everything I’m singing about, [it’s been brewing for a long time],” he says. “The songs are very personal to me even though a lot of them are fictional narratives. They’re still stuff I’ve dealt with and gone through. It’s kind of a record about my journey into adulthood.”
It’s ironic, given his accomplishments and the path he’s traveled, that, three years ago, Cockerill would not even have considered himself a singer- songwriter. “None of this was ever deliberate, until now,” he admits. “Everything was just a natural progression. I was just hosting my open mics and the next thing I know, I’m writing songs and playing with a band. I never thought I would be a vocalist.”
