Tim Durling’s latest book is On Record: The April Wine Album Review. It is the first book dedicated to the legendary Canadian band’s catalogue, with each studio album being discussed by panels of fans, as asked by Tim. So, I am honored to be included among in it. I recently spoke with Tim about On Record, April Wine, and putting this book together. As well we touched on Tim’s future plans.
You can order On Record: The April Wine Album Review on Amazon. It’s 222 pages of perspectives, recollections, and information on each of the band’s 16 studio albums. Tim’s doing a lot of promo to reach April Wine fans, and you can catch him on his channel Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, as he features deep-dives on each album over the next few months, as wll as appearing on various other Youtube channels, and in online publications.
Tim: I’ve done Grant’s Rock Warehouse so far, and I’ve done John Clauser’s channel, My Music Corner, and I’ve got a bunch of other things booked. So, the usual channels I go on, like The Contrarians and things like that and reaching out to other people and saying, see if you’re interested. So yeah, any exposure, I appreciate any chance to talk about it. I appreciate it. And for people to share on social media, it seems like a simple thing, but none of us have the exact same friends base or reach. So, all it takes is somebody to see a post that would have never normally seen a post and go, Oh, there’s a book about April Wine. It’s a simple thing, but it can mean a lot.
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You’ve always done books, like you mentioned before, books on bands that don’t normally have anything written about them. Is that a large part of where this went, because there’s not a lot of books on April Wine other than Myles’ book or Ritchie Henman’s.
Yeah, there really hasn’t been any books that have been sort of studies into the band’s music, and I like being able to fill in that void. So, you’re right. Most of the books I’ve done have been bands that have hardly any books written on them or almost no books written on them. I mean, Myles’ memoir, Just Between You And Me, that he put out in 2016 is kind of the story from April Wine from his perspective, but I wanted something to go into each one of the studio albums, talk about all the songs, just like a lot of my previous books have been, and I think every classic rock band deserves to have something commemorating their career in this way.
Do you learn much from talking to everybody because you’re not doing interviews with band members and people that were actually there. It’s kind of just a fan analysis type thing.
Yeah, absolutely. The books that I’ve done like this have totally been based on Martin Popoff’s Album-By-Album series that he did. I just thought that What a great format to use; just like having a bunch of people sitting around a table and somebody poses a question, Hey, I think this is their best album, what do you guys think? And then everybody gives you their opinions. And so, I kind of adopted that concept. That’s certainly what I did for Y&T, for Kansas, and for Night Ranger, and for this April Wine one. And I find I learn a lot from talking to fans, especially fans that were either fans longer than I have been and have been there, can remember when albums came out and going to see them on that tour, or even younger fans that just discovered the band a few years ago. Sometimes they’ll hear stuff that I’ve heard for years but never picked up on. So, yeah, I’ve learned something each time around I’ve done one of these books, I’ve come out of it knowing more about the music or having a deeper appreciation for the music than I had before.
You have a wide variety of people, obviously, there’s, (I don’t know), how many people ended up in the book!? (Tim counts 29). I imagine, because I have probably a favorite five or six albums. Is it easier to find people that say, “Yeah, I’ll talk about Nature of the Beast, and I’ll talk about Harder…Faster”, and then when you get to certain albums, you’re kind of struggling to find people that have a good recall?
Yeah, absolutely. It’s like when I did my Night Ranger book, everybody wanted to talk about the first three albums, and I had a little bit of a harder time getting people to talk about the more recent ones. When I did the Y&T book a lot of people wanted to talk about Black Tiger and Mean Streak. So, with this book, it was no different. It was no problem getting people to talk about Stand Back or Harder…Faster or Nature of the Beast.
I did have a hard time finding people that wanted to talk about, say, Walking Through Fire or Roughly Speaking or Forever for Now, but I was able to fill it up to get a sufficient amount of people per chapter.
I could have talked about a few of those, but I think those three probably sit at the bottom of my April Wine list. I imagine you want to find people that have something positive to say as well!?
Not necessarily all the way through. It is great to have some differing opinions; we all hear these things differently. But, hen you’re really into something, I think that’s when the best content comes up, because if you’re really passionate about an album and passionate about a song, it’ll come out because you’ve listened to it so many times and you’ve analyzed it and you you’re like, Oh, I love this mid-section right here. I love the harmony vocals there. I love this verse right here, the way Myles sings it – or whatever. So, there are some dissenting opinions in some of the chapters.
Certainly, I would say in the in the first album chapter, you know, there’s a overwhelmingly, I don’t want to say negative, but it’s not that high on many people’s list, that first album. But there are some people that like that early stuff and that’s great.
Yeah, it’s a hard, I wouldn’t say a hard one to get into, but it’s definitely for particular tastes, right!?
I find that if I want to listen to the first April Wine album, it’s more of an intellectual exercise, like I shall now listen to the first April Wine album as opposed to I got to hear that debut album. It’s like that.
Obviously you’re doing a lot of promotion and that for this. Have you gotten any feedback from anybody connected to the band?
No, I really haven’t. At this point, the book’s been out for a couple of weeks or so. So, it’s still quite new. I have posted on, not the official band’s Facebook, but the fan page is there. And a lot of people have seen that. I know Dave Cameron liked one of my posts, so Dave Cameron’s pretty well connected in the April Wine world. People know that name. I don’t think that there’s anything particularly… it’s not about dirt – it’s just a bunch of fans and our opinions on these albums.
As far as beyond the reviews and the comments and stuff about the albums, you did a list of songs the band covered with the originals in that.
Yeah.
Was there anything you could have put in the book? One thing I really liked was your (and it’s a whole other topic), was your review of the live show, recently.
That was a really happy accident, because obviously I started this book quite some time ago, long before the Triumph reunion was announced and long before it was announced that April Wine would be opening for it.
I was so glad that it happened the way it did, and I got to see that show, because being completely honest, I was sort of in the background thinking, Boy, the idea of April Wine playing without Myles. It just seemed so strange to me because, he was the main voice, the main songwriter, one of the main guitar players. In a lot of ways, Myles was the sound of April Wine. So, the idea of somebody else doing that, I don’t know!? I’ve seen plenty of shows with replacement singers, but it just so happened that I really wanted to go see this Triumph reunion and April Wine were opening. And I came out of it, I was convinced that this music is in good hands now. Marc does a great job with the vocals. He doesn’t try to sound like Myles. I like the fact that they didn’t do what, say, Journey and Foreigner did and tried to find somebody that could sing like Myles because he’s got such a unique voice.
They just got somebody that could sing very well, deliver the songs. I will say that he’s really, I get the feeling that Marc has really taken time to study Myles’ guitar parts because when it came time for the lead parts, he had them down. And that that I would go see them on their own now. I would go see a full headline show from this lineup.
I saw him last year as part of the BTO thing and I was kind of the same thing. I kind of thought there’s one guy that’s played on albums here. I was, not skeptical, but I just…. But Marc brings a lot of energy to it.
Yeah, very much. And they talk about Myles a lot. He just sings those songs very well. That that opening set went over very well for the Triumph crowd.
As a matter of fact, I think that the crowd sang along louder to April Wine. But I think that also has a lot to do with the fact that, Triumph – I love Triumph; they’re one of my favorites. In Canada, they’ve got like maybe three or four songs that get a lot of radio airplay, whereas April Wine have maybe a dozen. So, like people just know those songs, right!? And they’re marginally not as heavy as Triumph. So, it kind of makes sense that it’s got more radio friendly appeal.
Triumph were great. But I just noticed that people were into that April Wine show from the get go, and you could hear them all singing along from the moment they started with “Oowatanite” til they finished with “Roller”.
So, was there anything you wanted in the book, you just didn’t get around to or anything kind of like a list of stuff or anything?
Not really, I tried to make sure I covered every officially released song. So if we got to, for instance, B-Sides, I put them in context of the album that they would have been affiliated with if they were a B-Side from On Record or Electric Jewels or whatever. Songs that are on live albums that weren’t on any studio albums. I think I just about got everything covered.
So far, I haven’t looked at and gone, Oh, I wish I had mentioned this or that. No, I’m kind of happy with the way it turned out.
I know all these things get brought up in the discussions from album to album, but there was no list of like related albums or just band personnel in general.
No. I think I try and cover the changing lineups as they occurred. I know one thing that, maybe some people thought I should have covered but I didn’t, was solo albums. I did talk briefly about the two blues albums that Myles did post-April Wine, because I find that those are probably the closest people were going to get to another April Wine album. It is kind of sad that Roughly Speaking, will probably go on to be their last album. And it was I mean, first of all, it was really short and I didn’t mind some of the songs. I just wish they’d made more music.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate they went from 2007 until now, not recording. I think Styx went for the same period of time until they finally put something out.
Yeah, Kansas did the same. They were16 years before they started putting out albums again. I suppose now, I don’t know. I can’t imagine there being a new studio album of newly written material, but you never know. It’s a good band. I will say that with Brian at the lead. And this music people still want to hear these songs.
Regarding your own favorite albums. Did you have any chapters you were looking forward to?
Sometimes it’s the albums that aren’t my favorites that I most look forward to because I really want to hear, because I always think that This is a good band. I just don’t happen to care for this particular album here. But somebody must like it. So, it’s always good to hear back when someone says, “I kind of like the late 60s vibe here…I kind of like….” I guess the two main ones would be the debut and Forever For Now. When it comes to, say, Harder…Faster, Nature Of The Beast, those are well-loved albums…Stand Back. So, I know it was no problem to come up with people that wanted to talk about those and were really passionate about them. But I kind of almost look forward to those lesser albums. And I’m interested to what people, think of them, especially if they’re albums that in some cases, I know that people have discovered them in recent years because of YouTube and being on different shows. One that I find has really risen amongst people that I communicate with is Back To The Mansion. I think that’s a really good latter day April Wine album.
I think once you get over the fact that it’s not a hard rock album.
Yeah, it’s not it’s not. Attitude was a pretty pedal to the floor, borderline heavy album. Frigate not quite so much, but there are a few songs on there.
But yeah, Back To The Mansion is nothing like that. Back To The Mansion really has more of the spirit of something like even lighter than say Powerplay. There are great songs to be found on there. I love that Brian sings two songs. It’s just it’s a really strong album. And I had no problem with them doing that blues sort of thing with Roughly Speaking, I just wish it was a longer album. The whole thing’s about 25 minutes long; so it’s barely an album.
I like the guitars on the album, but yeah, it’s too short. And it took me a long time to get into it. Same with Back To The Mansion, when it first came out, I was kind of like, It’s good, but, there’s no like, Frigate had “Look Into The Sun”.
Yeah, there’s nothing really driving on there. And that’s another thing I remember, because I got into the band when Attitude was a new album. I mean, I’d certainly heard of them for years before, but when I first started buying the albums and listening to them, it was when Attitude was out. And then Frigate came out just a year later, which was pretty rare in the 90s. So I remember thinking, Okay, we’re going to start to get some, a bunch of albums from them in pretty short order. Obviously, that didn’t happen. And I just think that’s a shame. I think there was a lot of talk about albums coming out, but it just it didn’t seem to happen. And I think I understand why, because obviously, there’s more money to be made on the road.
Have you read the other April Wine related books, Myles or Ritchie’s?
I’ve got to get Ritchie’s book. I don’t have it. I have Myles book, and I enjoyed it. When Myles talks about growing up, you know Myles was born in Woodstock, New Brunswick, which is my hometown. I was born there. Myles did not live there, and that’s the important difference, but still the Maritime provinces. So, I can picture a lot of things he was talking about when he was growing up. It’s pretty amazing, considering that band started in Waverly, Nova Scotia, made their way to Montreal, and then they had albums all over the world. They toured all over the world, and they did quite well for themselves.
Are you getting feedback on this outside of Canada?
Yeah, I’ve sold a lot of books to to folks in the States that I’ve talked to, and in the UK. I think it’s really important, and one of the goals of this book is to let people know that they didn’t just have those six albums on Capitol Records, from First Glance to Walking Through Fire; there’s a quite a career here, quite a distinguished career. The fact that First Glance comes out, lot of people might have thought that was their first album, but then in Canada, the next thing that comes out is their first Greatest Hits because they’d been doing it for almost a decade at that point. So, it’s a rich catalog to go back and discover. And I think people would be really surprised if they only know, say, those Capitol years, the big songs, how eclectic those earlier albums are.
Do you plan on doing anything further as far as the band goes down the road? Do you see any kind of follow up as far as April Wine goes? I’m just saying this because I know there’s not a lot out there on them.
I’m thinking that I don’t know what else there would be, unless somebody approached me and said, We’d like you to do their biography, and then I’d have to do some serious research. I’d have to borrow a lot from existing material, like Myles’ book. And, it’s my understanding, like some of those guys, like Gary Moffet, they just don’t want to talk about it. But somebody should; there really should be because it’s an unlikely story. The whole idea of them traveling from Halifax to Montreal, and they really didn’t have an invitation. It was sort of a nicely worded Don’t call us, We’ll call you, that they got from the guys that ended up starting Aquarius. It could have been a totally different story. So it’s unlikely, but they just they kept at it. They kept putting out records. And sooner or later, they made their mark. It’s interesting because, yes, in Canada, April Wine are kind of an institution as far as classic rock, and they’re mentioned up there with the biggest of names. Around the world it’s not like that, they’re sort of almost a mid-tier band if people remember them at all. And I think more people need to know about the band and know just how many albums they did, how much music they made.
What else do you have in the works?
I’ve got another book that at this point is proofread. It’s pretty much written and it’s proof-read. And I’ve been kind of on this schedule where I put a book out in early summer and then I put one out in the fall.
So, this next one will be coming out in the fall. I’m not saying who it’s about just yet, but it does follow along with a lot of the books that I’ve been already doing. I will say that it’s the next book that I’ve got it’s like my Sammy Hagar and my Fleetwood Mac books in that it’s all me. It’s an album by album, but it’s all me. And then I’ve got a couple other bands in mind. I don’t see any reason to stop.
I’m always looking around like, OK, so who do I really like!? I got to really like whoever it is before I commit to doing a book. And who also isn’t well represented in having something to pick up and read about them. I’m a huge Rush fan, but I don’t have a Rush book in me and there’s so many great books already written about them. So, it has to be something that really gets my interest when I’d really like digging into writing about these bands. And all right, Finally, I get to write about this band or I get to say what I think about this band and how great this album is. And more people need to hear it rather than saying, I think Moving Pictures is a great album. Well, so does most of the world. So, yeah, I’m going to keep on going, I think.
Is it getting easier to do? You started writing books, what, five years ago now or less?
Surprisingly enough – Yeah, it’s been about four years. It’s crazy in that time, I’ve got seven. And my good buddy, Matt Phillips, that works for his company’s Go North Design. He’s worked on all of my books. I’ve kind of got a system down, not a science, but we’ve both gotten better at, now that we’ve got a system, it’s working very well.
And I also want to thank my good friend Andy Campbell for doing the proof-reading, because that’s very important to me. I do not want to have grammar errors or spelling errors or factual errors. A good proofreader will find things that not just things that, it could be grammatically correct, and it could be something that if you’re a huge fan of the band, you’ll understand, but I’m trying to write my books for everybody.
So, I don’t want someone to write something that’s like an inside joke. And it’s like, Well, I don’t even understand what that means. So it’s like, Can you explain that a little more? That’s why there’s some editorial notes in there and stuff like that.
Do you have anything planned other than this just for a bookstore or anything like that?
Well, I do. As far as my channel, Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, every time I put out a book, as you know, I do a ‘deep dive’ series where I go through every one of the books. You’re in an upcoming one. And actually, what I’ve done this time that’s different than before, I’ve got two co-hosts per episode. So, I’ve got two people that are in the chapter for the albums. And so that’s going to take me into September because that’s 16 weeks.
And yeah, I’ve got actually in Woodstock, which I only live about a half an hour away from there now. I am doing an in-store for first Saturday in July at a local bookstore. So that’s coming up.
I’ve been doing, I’ve done Grant’s Rock Warehouse so far, and I’ve done John Clauser’s channel, My Music Corner, and I’ve got a bunch of other things booked. So, you know, the usual channels I go on, like The Contrarians and things like that and reaching out to other people and saying, see if you’re interested. So yeah, any exposure, I appreciate any chance to talk about it. I appreciate it. And sharing on social, for people to share on social media, it seems like a simple thing, but none of us have the exact same friends base or reach. So, all it takes is somebody to see a post that would have never normally seen a post and go, Oh, there’s a book about April Wine. It’s a simple thing, but it can mean a lot.
