I was listening to ‘Heart of the Problem’ tonight. It’s such a fun song with a lot of intriguing layers and a great message. But let’s get into the musical aspect first. This song has a lot of great moments in it. First the hauntingly great background vocals brought to you by my good friend Sheila Abramoff, sounding like the B-52s’ Kate Pierson. She is great to work with and our voices fit so well together.

There is an awesome violin and guitar solo. The strings are by Clarissa Klopoushak who is a first rate violinist and, at the time, played in the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. I love violins and I was floored by how great this sounded. Guitars are by Tim Holman; what else can be said? Tim always brings his ‘A’ game and this time was no different.

Dean Dynna slammed out some amazing bass as on most of my songs. Matt Luciuk played trumpet, flugelhorn and what we nicknamed the Swedish trombone, which is—trade secret!—flugelhorn through a pitch changer. It was a real treat for the ears to hear this guy’s playing and he was a total gentleman in the studio. Rebecca Flamman came in and joined us with some really sweet saxophone, then my friend Reid Andrea played us some actual trombone which was awesome and gave us some extra bottom end oomph. Devin Kopp did the drums and was great as usual. My favourite part comes in at the end of the bridge: a can’t miss.

Stylistically this song has a lot to offer. You can hear flavours of school band, James Bond themes, rock, pop, jazz, classical and all with a hint of pervading ska feel. It has tons of energy and rhythm and a lot of people have given it a great response.

The subject of the song is the crucifixion. Whether you believe or not, could you imagine being there and witnessing that? It’s mind boggling, what that means to humanity and how it affects eternity. ‘Someone else’s pain is for each of us the same’; that line’s talking about the pain Christ suffered. It affects all of humanity but it’s up to us personally whether we accept it or not. Sorry if I sound preachy but it is very thought-provoking. Anyway, ‘Heart Of The Problem’ is a terrific song and I hope you all enjoy it.