LP - Ron Sexsmith - Hangover Terrace

On the title Hangover Terrace: “One day my band and I were travelling to the London Palladium and we passed a place called "Hanover Terrace" to which Don Kerr (drummer in Ron’s band) quipped "Hangover Terrace". Anyway, I had a sort of lightbulb moment and felt right away that was going to be the title. It speaks of this hangover I feel from the last few years of pandemic and life knocking us around.” 

On London: “It was the first time I'd recorded in London since 2007, and I didn't realize how much I had missed spending quality time there. Working at Eastcote with Martin Terefe again felt really free. I'd forgotten how spontaneous his approach to recording could be. Every day I'd walk to the studio thinking about whichever song we were gonna do and I'd try to reimagine each one going a different way than I originally intended and usually by the time I arrived I was ready to try out something new.”

On producer Martin Terefe and the players on the record: “Well, Martin's very open-minded and instinctual. He doesn't have knee-jerk reactions to things. The studio complex is filled with musicians wandering in and out of the various studios, so you never know who's gonna end up on your record. Some of the musicians had played on earlier albums of mine like Claes Bjorklund and Ed Harcourt and it was great to work with them again.

But there were also a few cameo appearances such as the great Robbie McIntosh (McCartney, The Pretenders etc) who played on 4 tracks and even noted producer Chris Kimsey wandered in and ended up singing a bit of one tune.

One of my fave moments was when my neighbour's daughter Nora Joy Stephens (from Stratford where I live) flew over to sing on the final song of the album. She has a lovely voice and is a fine songwriter herself.”

On inspiration: “It just sort of happens by nature of where I am in my life. I'm always in a different place emotionally which I think is true of most people. I walk every day, and it gives me lots of time to work out things in my head. I never worry about repeating myself. The 31 year old Ron from my debut album could not write these songs and the 61 year old Ron could not have written those songs. Life hits us at different stages and gives us new perspectives, regrets, insecurities and new dreams to contemplate and set to music.”

On songwriting “I still write as I walk but I think it has changed in subtle ways. I think I'm much better at troubleshooting whenever I get stuck on a verse or something. Some songs still take weeks or months to write while others take only hours or days. I find I work more on piano than I used to but usually I just go to whatever instrument is closer to me.