Bob Mersereau is a long-time broadcaster for CBC in New Brunswick. His specialty is music, and can be heard each Wednesday on Shift on Radio 1, talking about the latest east coast sounds.
His book The Top 100 Canadian Albums was a national best-seller, and the new Top 100 Canadian Singles comes out this October.
Bob fills us in on his new book, the latest sounds he’s been listening to and more …
1. What are you up to these days, musically or otherwise?
I’ve just finished writing my second book, The Top 100 Canadian Singles. It’s a follow-up to The Top 100 Canadian Albums book, which came out in 2007. Same idea, I had 800 people across the country (including Mr. Lewis) vote for their favourite Canadian singles of all time. You’ll see the results in October when the book comes out.
2. How did you get into the music business and what was the first major lesson you learned once you got your feet wet?
I started in radio in high school, at Fredericton High, which at that point was the biggest school in the commonwealth, 3,000 kids. Another student and I started a closed-circuit radio station for the cafeteria, to play records before school, at lunch, and after.
The first lesson I learned was that most people don’t like my taste in music.
3. What song or album have you been listening to most lately?
I listen to so much it’s very hard to keep going back to one thing. As a reviewer, I have to move on to the next thing as quickly as possible, or I get backed up. Having said that, I’m still enjoying last year’s Great Lake Swimmers album, and I listened to the new Tom Petty live album over and over several times.
4. What’s your favourite way to waste time or relax?
Well, there’s music of course, but that’s almost like work for me! While I listen, I often play scrabble or mah jong on Facebook.
5. The Internet and social media are allowing artists to get closer to their fans than they ever were in some respects. What are your thoughts on this?
It’s removed the weird fan aspect, the idea that if you want to know more about a music group, you’re too much of a nerd, or a potential stalker! It’s really just an update of the old fanclub idea, but those stopped being cool long ago, so now we can once again be part of a like-minded club. The instant ability to reach out makes it even better. Twitter is a bit much though. I think it works well for mid-level or grass roots artists, like we have in Atlantic Canada.
6. If you weren’t in the music industry in some capacity, what would you be doing today?
Well, my main job is actually in news, that’s what pays the bills, so I’m a hobbyist. It’s pretty hard to be a professional music writer in Canada, especially on the east coast. There can only be a handful.
7. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned recently?
I’ve spent much of the past few days searching out rare visuals to use in the Singles book. It’s so thrilling to find all these old picture sleeve 45s and 12-inch singles and promo CDs that are out there, I love finding the artwork, it’s such a fabulous bonus in the enjoyment of music. Found a real cool sleeve for Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl from Spain, I think it was.
8. If you could hit the “delete” button on anything related to music (a song, artist, trend, whatever), what would you delete?
Idol and its spin-offs. It’s just not for me; I could care less about a talent hunt with such a limited scope of interest. A battle of the bands, sure, but they are mostly about packaging a potential pop singer. Like, we don’t have enough mainstream pop singers?
9. What’s your favourite thing to drink (alcoholic or otherwise)?
Chocolate milkshakes. I limit myself to the rare one, and it never fails to satisfy.
10. Finish the sentence below and please elaborate on what you mean:
The east coast music scene … continues to grow in a solid and sustainable way.
We have a very small population base, and have to support an overabundance of talented musicians. Luckily, for the most part the industry here has worked towards a good combination of performing and local music sales, rather than chasing the stardom dream. That has bred loyal audiences and fans, and a small but stable star system which can also help launch artists onto a larger stage (think Plaskett) which is still modest but career-building.
11. What’s the next thing you want to accomplish, musically or otherwise?
Well, I guess I’ll have to think up another book project. Top 100 Atlantic Canadian Songs, perhaps.
Check back to EastCoastNoise.com next Friday for a chat with: Nova Scotia singer-songwriter Carmel Mikol
