By Will McGuirk

There was a brevity to the careers of 90s CanCon acts; few made it, and if merit was a thing many more would have, but such is the grace of the boardroom. So its nice to see one act which did have merit back out and at it. Daniel Greaves and Joey Serlin of Winnipeg’s The Watchmen, are a duo now, in TO now, and on stage at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern Thursday, Aug 12 for the bar’s Hootenanny series.

Going by Serlin Greaves, the two dropped an album May 28, ‘Sad Songs for Sale’, and on the in-between, where have these ex-Watchmen been? Well all you lovers of Slow, they have been watching still, watching out over their communities, enabling and enacting; Serlin owns Vapor Music and Greaves owns Motel Bar in Parkdale. Their activism carries through their day jobs, their night jobs and into their songs and their promotions of the aforementioned.

“Teenage Heart” the first single offa the album, speaks to the mental health challenges facing the young folks of these times. The video is a call to action, with action being to support Kids Help Phone. For a tribute to Uncle Neil on his 75th birthday the duo covered “Needle and the Damage Done.” Dudes been working what they call the real superpower, EMPATHY! We dig in.

Slowcity.ca: It has been an interesting time for music. We have seen so many turn to it as a balm during these times, as a shield almost against mental health issues. Can you tell me how music has helped you through this time and any other previous difficult times?

Daniel Greaves: “I like the use of the word ‘balm’ in this question, because that’s exactly what music has been for me throughout my life. It’s been a way for me to be able to tailor my mood and help me get what I need, be it a song to pick me up or one that facilitates introspection and growth. I feel I literally need it to survive.”

SC: The PR says you and Joey contribute to your local community: in what ways do you help out - I ask as I work in an impoverished area too and there are things to do which can make the community feel better and things to do which make me feel better - figuring out which is which and which is needed can be an almighty challenge. How do you reach out?

DG: “I've owned a bar in Parkdale for the last 10 years and have also lived in the area for almost 20 years, we’re a very diverse community, from million dollar houses to hard drug addiction, I find it paints a very realistic picture of the world, where the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ are so closely entwined. It reminds me of this Tim Robbins interview I saw years ago on Letterman, where he talked about growing up on the Lower East Side in New York in the 70’s and how seeing such a range of human existence was the best education he ever had. Seeing people with so much less than you can have a profound effect and cultivate what I like to call ‘the real super power’...which is empathy. The bar regularly donates to the Parkdale food bank and my ‘lost and found’ pile has clothed many people that walk by in need, and there are many. I mostly do it for them, but I feel that I get just as much out of it. If not more.”

SC: Why is it that these issues matter so much to you and Joey, enough to form a source for your songs and to be included in the PR?

DG: “I find that music follows you around, it stays close to you. So I guess when you get a few more years under your belt, you gain a greater understanding of what’s really important and as much as this project is for us and the songs very personal, I feel they’re able to connect to people in a way that we’ve never done before. I find that now more than ever, we write songs for the listeners.”

SC: There is an activist side to the album, but you are not so much political in so far as seeking or offering solutions in the work - there is a humanity to the songs and an empathy - it interests me as there can at times be so little empathy in the world - What do you think of the idea we are coming out of the Covid pandemic with an deeper understanding of each other's plight?

DG: “It’s a lot easier to see all the bad things this pandemic has done to the world society, it’s been all over the news, numbers going up, numbers going down, just the human toll it’s taken is hard to fathom. And I know we’ll have to truly get to the other side of it before we realize that there are some attitudes that may have changed for the better. The biggest of which is that ‘we belong to each other’ as a society and we can’t separate our individuality from the collective good and I think that’s a powerful place to get to.”

SC: Are you intending to tour the record - if yes what does that look like for the band, what do you want from the road, - it's possible that touring will come with some extra worries, is that even something you want to deal with?

DG: “I’d like to think that we’d be able to take this project on the road. We all cut our teeth that way and it’s really the way I’ve understood music for most of my life: live concerts, bands on stage, big rooms, small rooms, people paying their dollars and taking their time to appreciate performance. And it is the epitome of community.”