Interview: Medictation (members of Leatherface / Yesterday’s Ring)

Trekking through a joint North American tour in the winter of 2008, including a number of shows in frigid Québec, members of Leatherface and Yesterday’s Ring began hatching plans to work on some music together.

Four years later, with both Leatherface and The Sainte Catherines calling it quits, the opportunity finally presented itself, and Medictation was born. Featuring the late Dickie Hammond and Graeme Philliskirk (of Leatherface), and Hugo Mudie, Fred Jacques and Julien Blais (of Yesterday’s Ring / The Sainte Catherines), the start-up band began sending demos back and forth over the ocean.

With Mudie and Jacques concentrating on their Mircales project, Medictation was put on the back burner for a while, with plans to announce the band at The Fest last year. Sadly, Dickie Hammond passed away in October, and the future of the record was uncertain.

Now, with the blessing of Hammond’s family, the debut Medication album, Warm Places, (Hammond’s final recording), is available on Paper + Plastic Records.

We spoke with Graeme Philliskirk and Fred Jacques about the origins of the band, dealing with Dickie’s passing, and what the future holds for Medictation.

Bad Feeling: How did this collaboration come together?

Graeme: It was all Hugo’s fault, wasn’t it Fred?

Fred: Yeah, he kept going on about doing something, he was sick of watching hockey all of the time and was bored! (Both laugh hysterically)

Graeme: Sorry Hugo! No, seriously, we put together the Leatherface / Yesterday’s Ring Tour of Canada / US, 2008. We discussed, some stupid, crazy ideas about trying to record or do something going forward. This was for Leatherface & Yesterdays Ring.

Fred: We had done a split 7” for both bands for the tour and it seemed a good idea to try and progress this, at the time.

Bad Feeling: What was that tour like? You played a number of small cities throughout Canada on that run.

Graeme: Yesterdays Ring were great, totally on it every night. I knew and heard of The Sainte Catherines, and I liked them a lot. We had some competition going on afterwards, so the socks had to be pulled up! Haha!

Fred: We were really pleased to do the tour and then down into the US, it was just good times!

Graeme: We did play some great venues in Canada, it’s just we agreed to tour in the middle of February, which was another stupid idea, ha. I mean, it was six foot of snow everywhere? It’s a good job we come from the North East of England, so we fit in pretty well!

Fred: There were a few shows we really thought we wouldn’t make it because of the snow but we did!

Graeme: I hope I get the chance to do it again and cover the West, but I think it will be in warmer months!

Bad Feeling: What was the songwriting process like for this record?

Graeme: A great starting point was that Dickie had a few ideas he wanted to do. So he put them forward, it got us running quickly.

Fred: We had the idea to write half of the songs each, then record them, but Miracles, a project both Hugo and I are in, got really busy. We told Graeme and Dickie and said it was going to be difficult to work on everything, and we wondered if they would mind just to keep demoing?

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Graeme: This really wasn’t a problem for us. I was setting up my studio, so it was just material to work on, Dickie and I enjoyed it! We would come up with a few ideas, Paul Reed, a friend of ours, helped with the software side of things and introduced the drum module to me. This was great of Paul; I then started to arrange the ideas, songs, put bass lines down, then play them back to Dickie. Dickie loved it, I would get him to put down guitar parts again, finish the idea off and then send them over to the boys.

Fred: It was pretty amazing getting all these ideas, with guitars, bass and drums on; we were touring with Miracles and Hugo and I would stick down ideas and get them back to the UK.

Graeme: It was really exciting knowing something was coming back, I would ring Dickie and tell him to get down to the Studio, ‘coz the Boys are back in town, haha. We would sit and sing this after listening to their ideas, haha!

Bad Feeling: What sort of artists did you guys bond over?

Graeme: We didn’t actually bond over any music or listen to anything, which is strange, I suppose, because you often listen to something and suggest things. It was really ideas in communication by email or Facetime, etc. That’s how the lyrics from “Memories of Youth” came together, a genius stroke by Hugo there, I might add!

Most of the working titles of the songs, I came up with. I would tell Hugo why I called the idea that, then this would get his head into overdrive; in fact most of the working titles stayed and remained the actual titles of the songs today.

Bad Feeling: Was there a certain sound / era you were trying to evoke with Medictation?

Fred: No we didn’t actually set out anything to sound like, we just took each song as it came, did our best for ourselves and each other and that was it, done!

Graeme: It was what it was, no messing apart from fine-tuning of things. No doubt you can hear Dickie’s style of playing, but Fred had his also, it worked! There were the odd thing when we were demoing that reminded us of some old stuff, but that’s for us to know, haha.

Bad Feeling: How did Dickie’s passing affect the record? Was there ever a thought of shelving the record entirely?

Graeme: I think it all went through our heads at some point for a second, but then you realize it’s the shock! Apart from the fact Dickie made me promise if anything happened to him, I would make sure the record got released, he loved it and was so proud of it! So I kept my promise!

Fred: It had to be done for Dickie, this was all he had ever known. We had to delay it for a short while, but it’s happening now.

Bad Feeling: Has there been any talk of playing live? Either as a one-off or a tour?

Fred: Yes we have talked about it and we are expecting to do something.

Graeme: We will be talking about it at a later date for sure, it would be great to get out and play these songs!

Bad Feeling: Are there re-release plans for any of the earlier Leatherface albums?

Graeme: Frankie and I have spoken about this and there is a possibility of this happening, what when I’m not sure at the moment.

Bad Feeling: What else is on the horizon for you?

Fred: I know Graeme is working on a new project but he wont tell me anything other than that, ha.

Graeme: Yeah, Fred’s also working on a new project, we may even look at recording some new stuff together again, fingers crossed?

Fred: Yeah, for sure!