Vancouver rock band Hedley is entrenched in preproduction, demoing and writing furiously for its sophomore album, "Famous Last Words," with a projected studio time of April or May. A deal is being finalized with Greig Nori (Sum 41, Autopilot Off) to produce it. The pair met for the first time this week when singer-guitarist Jacob Hoggard arrived in Toronto to write with the former treble charger frontman.
Besides writing with his bandmates, bassist Tommy Mac, guitarist Dave Rosin and drummer Chris Crippin, Hoggard has also been collaborating with Sean and Dane (a.k.a.
the songwriting team of Sean Hosein and Dane Deviller), Steve and Anthony (a.k.a.
Steve Smith and Anthony Anderson), Ben Dunk, Brian Howes and Dave Genn. "I'd like to double the amount of songs we need. I'm thinking we'll get to about 15 or 16 for the record," says Hoggard, who writes on both guitar and piano.
"I've got upwards of close to 100 chunks of songs that I've written, just myself on piano." After touring non-stop since 2005, Hoggard has made great strides as a songwriter, singer and musician. "I think I've kind of found a lot of my strengths lyrically.
I've been drawing a lot more from personal experience, be it tragedy, romance -- tragedy, tragedy," Hoggard laughs. "Vocally, I'm singing a lot stronger now. I've noticed that the songs that are the most important to me are a bit more calm and reflective, like (new ones) 'Old School; and 'Can't Go Back' -- like 'Trip' and 'Saturday' off our last record.
That's one thing I've definitely noticed is my natural strengths are in that style of song." While Hoggard is known for his quick wit and crazy sense of humour, he says that side of his personality doesn't usually seep into his lyrics. "I hope it can come in an effective way, but I don't think it's gonna be a Weird Al record," he laughs.
"I think my most favorite songs ever written are songs that can really tug at someone's emotions, either in a sad way or love kind of perspective. Those are my favourite songs to write -- maybe some of the cheesier ones." Since releasing its 2005 self-titled debut album, Hedley has racked up sales of 155,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan Canada, and a handful of hit singles, "On My Own," "Trip," "Gunnin'," "Street Fight" and "321.
" That's impressive for a band that had no history together before it went into the studio. Mac (ex Flybanger, Everything After), Rosin (ex Day Theory, Everything After) and Crippin (ex Bif Naked, Everything After) were all experienced players and had been in the rock band Everything After, which lost their singer. Hoggard had played with his high school mates in Hedley, but after he reached the top 3 in 2004's "Canadian Idol" decided to return to the band but with totally different musicians.
With the new line-up, Universal Music Canada signed Hedley. Hoggard demonstrated a knack for writing hooks on the early Hedley demos he posted online with the original band while he was a finalist on "Canadian Idol," so it didn't take much to hone his songwriting skills. He just needed some guidance.
He co-wrote with Howes (DDT, Closure, Hinder), Genn (Matthew Good Band, 54.40), and Jim Vallance (Bryan Adams, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith). "The biggest turning point for me was when I got the chance to work with Brian," says the 22-year-old Hoggard.
"For me, never having written with anybody else or watched anybody else write a song, it was really exciting to see how he approached it, and what made sense to him and what didn't make sense to him, and where I was kind of just going off into la la land musically. "When we were writing, I'd say, 'What about this line -- blah blah blah -- and he'd be like, 'That doesn't make sense.' And I'd be like, 'Ah, I guess you're right.
' A lot times I'd write whatever came out of my head, which is always a fantastic exercise, but when it actually came down to me writing songs about specific things and getting the point across, it was very important for me to analyze it and go, 'Well, that doesn't make sense.'" For this new album, Hoggard says he brings the shell of the song -- the concept, the melodies, the chords -- to the writing session and then works on the arrangement with his collaborator(s). "They each have their own style of writing and so, for me, in order to achieve a certain level of consistency as far as the direction we want to take with the music, I have to be able to assert a certain perspective of writing at times and not at other times to balance it out," says Hoggard.
Of the new songs, Hedley previewed some on its last tour earlier this year. Two slow ones, "Old School" and "Can't Go Back," were both written with Genn, and will definitely be on the album, says Hoggard. "'Old School' is [about] every man who has ever worked and who has ever been a young guy in a gong show and complete party maniac -- not even a complete party maniac, but just a guy as a kid who went nuts and had fun and has grown up now and has a mini van and 4 to 5 kids.
The song is pretty much about the reminiscing of the days of yore. "It's funny how 'Can't Go Back' can be juxtaposed with 'Old School,' which has the key line 'nothing's as real as our old reckless ways,' and is almost, in a sad way, saying, 'How in the hell did we get here?'" says Hoggard.
"It's really about missing the old crazy days, and then 'Can't Go Back' is really more poignant going, I got to stop hurting everybody else around me because I'm just living like a loud retard." Hoggard, who has recently given up many of his loud retard ways, wrote "Dear Blank" with Sean and Dane, and was inspired by a band joke to draw up a Hedley form letter to apologize to "fill in blank" for "fill in blank." The song was actually written before he underwent his co-called personal behaviour adjustment.
The first line is "Dear Blank/ I'm sorry I blanked your blank. But you'd understand if you knew how much beer that I drank." The chorus is "No, I don't owe you anything.
To hell with 'I'm sorry.' You're like a bullet to my brain/I'm done/ you can't kill my fun/ I don't owe you anything." "There's been a lot of things that have changed my perspective on a lot of the ways I approached living and life and interacting with people and the way I presented myself," says Hoggard.
"You can almost draw a really very thick red line in my timeline of songwriting between the songs I was writing before I underwent drastic change." The other new song Hedley tested out live is "Circus," written with Steve and Anthony. "'Circus' is about a girl who has been hurt, but won't be made a fool of and the millions of girls that get hurt and burned, but stick with the guy anyway," says Hoggard.
He also wants to put "Brave New World," a Hedley song he wrote before he was ever on Canadian Idol, and definitely one of the better ones from the first incarnation of the band. "I'm having a really hard time with that song," Hoggard admits. "You always hear, for example, Zach de la Rocha writes a record and then scraps it because he's just not happy with it yet.
I finished the song and I'm still not really happy with where it's at, so I want to redo a bunch of stuff on it. It's a song that's really important to me, so I've been really taking my time. I really want to see it make this record.
" As Hoggard works hard for the next while to get these songs and others in shape for the studio, he knows he wants to call the album "Famous Last Words." "I'm really going to dig my heels in on this one," he says, noting that some execs at Universal Music Canada don't seem too keen on it. "I think the more people that talk about it being called that already, then it will be like, 'Oh, too late.
' [laughs]. It's an old Supertramp record title as well.
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