Prime Time Live

My Melodious Match with the Actor Who Doesn’t Just “Play” a Musician on TV

SP: “You’re right, a lot of it is shit, but those who do something special get recognized – they get a following…”  

This was how my interview with Sebastian Pigott, actor-cum-rocker-cum-writer, most acclaimed thus far, for his role as Kai Booker on CBC’s Being Erica, ACTUALLY began. In spite of my best efforts to propel towards the questionnaire that I had spent days researching and devising, I couldn’t help it – what can I say? - I’m a sucker for a good music debate. Luckily for me however, it would seem that Sebastian’s interest was equally peaked by this proposition, as it didn’t take long for him to merit a rebuttal, after I made the following cynical assertion:  

RCP: “The biz is completely over-saturated with talentless wannabes as a result of both the accessibility of technology and the move towards socially-oriented modes of publicity which have empowered (and this is not necessarily a good thing) everyone and anyone to feel like they deserve to be heard, or worse, they’re entitled to be famous.”

SP: “But, if you do something special in anything, it rises to the top. We’re currently encountering a new landscape - a time for real opportunity - and a new order has already started to arrange itself. Taking out the middle man with music and journalism can only be good for artists.”  

While I was willing to accede the final element of his above argument (ie: that eliminating “the middle man”, as he put it, is likely a step in the right direction), these early comments of his, coupled with the fact that his “big musical break” came about as a result of a six-week long stint on the reality tv show, Canadian Idol (ie: something no “respectable” musician would ever conceive of doing…or so I thought), indicated to me that he was clearly a traditionalist: someone who purports the notion that if you do something well, and you work hard at it, you will be rewarded for your efforts.  

Shortly after uttering the above-documented rebuttal, he went on further to suggest that promotion and the “elevation of oneself” are the PRIMARY keys to success; this, only offered more support for my aforementioned characterization of him as in my view, luck (and looks) ALWAYS play a necessary part in the equation.  

Accordingly, I surmised that Pigott was a tad overly optimistic, if not a little naïve, but I was also willing to admit my own jadedness was likely clouding my judgment. In his defense however, it didn’t take long for me to discern just what an amazingly charismatic and inspiring individual he is; qualities I sincerely hope he never loses. And, upon learning more of his and his brother’s circumstances, I came to the realization that I may have judged him prematurely (at least, in regards to my traditionalist assumptions of him).  

Pigott, like anyone else in his position would, merely based his opinions of the entertainment biz, on his own and his brother’s lived experiences: while Oliver got a “wham, bam, thank you mam” songwriting deal from BMG in his early 20s, just a year and a half ago, Sebastian designated himself as “professionally unemployed.” So, as much as I hate to admit it (man I hate being wrong!), I suffered from a little, “foot-in-mouth” syndrome when I started to come down hard on the idea of him being an “overnight success;” a topic which was raised in conversation as a consequence of our mutual acknowledgment of the lack of information concerning his career, readily available on the web.  

However (and this time, in MY defense), it’s not as though he literally showed up out of thin air reciting monologues and penning songs - the story, I’m sure the traditional media would have you believe. In fact, his first gig took place at Jimmy’s Bar in Portugal, at the tender age of 10. As he tells it, he and his bro opened for a 50s cover band called, The Pink Cadillacs, and were compensated a whopping 5000 escudos (roughly 40 bucks Canadian). Suffice it to say, he has come a long way since, but importantly, it wasn’t without paying his dues - just like the rest of us – either. In an interview he conducted in accordance with his appearance on Canadian Idol in 2008, he recalled his experiences of being in highschool bands: “nothing tests you [as a performer] like having to hawk tickets to friends, being the last band to get on stage, and realizing nobody's listening.” 

Irrespective of our contrasting dispositions, our mentalities did (well, do) harmonize in regards to one very important aspect of musicianship: that being, the choice in remaining indie. As we were over-viewing some necessary formalities for this piece (namely, the release dates of his disc, music video etc.), he proudly (and without any prodding on my part) apprised me that his entire album, including all pre- and post-production costs, did not exceed the $2000 mark. Moreover, he was awarded a Videofact grant for the filming of “Rich Man” (to be released officially on Feb 14th, 2010 at Rancho Relaxo, Toronto), meaning this whole secondary career of his, so far, has set him back very little in regards to pocket change. But as a December article in The Toronto Star so rightly observed, slick production (and its associated $100,000 per song price-tag) is really no longer a requisite for recognition: the brothers’ version of “Alien Like You”, the track Sebastian performed on his final episode of Being Erica, has already attained top five status in Cdbaby’s music charts.  

Aside from his desire to maintain control over his own masters, and publishing rights, Sebastian justified his decision to remain indie, to me, in the following words:  

SP: “These days you get more debt when you end up going with labels, as it’s in their interest to spend money – this comes out of your tab. But I mean, the big record companies are also struggling. They are not able to pour money into acts like they did before, so they’re looking for ‘approved commodities’ to take on the road that they don’t have to worry about. Far more often - and it’s becoming this way more and more - it’s about the people who go out and play shows - building fanbases in more of a grassroots way. Like I said before, it’s a new landscape and no one knows how to navigate it yet. As we saw with Kai, music is getting marketed through TV…There’s definitely more to come. We haven’t seen the end of this evolution/revolution.”  

Because he made mention of the drug-addled rockstar he recently portrayed on tv, I felt it presented the opportune moment to question him about how he felt about the long-standing association of rock’n’roll with a sex and drug-laden lifestyle. He summarized his views like this:  

SP: “An artist is someone who goes through as much as they can. They go to these places within themselves and explore things, and everything in life is a part of that. To condemn drugs out right is shortsighted, but they’re pretty goddamn dangerous too. Long-term, I haven’t seen anyone who’s benefited from them.”  

 To play the devil’s advocate momentarily (anyone who has followed my career knows I’m straight-edge), I made mention of the dialogues which suggest that bands like The Beatles, for example, wrote their greatest works, while high. Though Sebastian acknowledged that said artists’ consumption of narcotics may have allowed them to undercover and express previously unchartered aspects of their creativity, he remained firm in his view:

SP: “Real working musicians who succeed long term get off of that shit. Most musicians and artists, in general, encounter that stuff in various ways, but it doesn’t lead to any longevity or genuine creativity.”  

As our interview came to a close, it seems we were once again destined to be drawn back into a musical debate. Because Sebastian’s casting onto CBC’s Being Erica was largely a result of his memorable ascension into the Top Eight on last season’s Canadian Idol (apparently he completely bombed his audition for the role), I couldn’t help but wonder what his real thoughts were in regards to reality television and its place in “star-making” (if it belonged there, at all). For that matter, considering the standpoint that I postulated at the very beginning of our discourse, I’m sure it’s no stretch for any of you to believe that I’m equally skeptical as to whether rockstardom is even possible anymore. While Sebastian originally maintained a defensive position to my rather radical claim, the more that I explained the rationale informing my view, the more we came to see eye to eye (or I should say I brought him over to the “dark side”).  

His initial argument:

“Doing Canadian Idol was a huge help to me – it definitely helps to attain huge levels of fame – but no, I don’t believe that rockstardom is dead - look at what Lady Gaga has done in the last year, it’s brilliant - the whole package has been brilliantly conceived.”  

A little revised:

“(To achieve rockstardom) - it just needs to be done in a creative way. I was actually trying to think, in the last couple days, where do I hear new songs anymore? I don’t listen to the radio anymore, people aren’t buying albums anymore – it’s all singles…”  

Okay so maybe, you’re onto something:

“You may be right, it may be an era that has passed – this remains to be seen. ACDC, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, The Beatles, Nirvana – the titans of each era - where’s that today?”  

Well Sebastian, that is a question for which I too have long searched the answer. The only reasonable conclusion I’ve been able to come up with is this: it was NEVER really the labels who held ultimate sovereignty in the music marketplace. No, like any other business, music is sold as a commodity which requires a buying public. While I could wildly wield my finger at all of the various sources that are to blame for the public’s increasing disinterest in actually consuming music legitimately (and legally), at this point, it really wouldn’t accomplish much. The diagnosis has been prognosticated, and I, like most musicians (and industry folk alike), at this point, really just want to get some sort of cure enacted. Whether or not THAT’S possible, to steal a line from Mr. Pigott, “it remains to be seen” 

With that said however, I do strongly believe that if we wanna stand a chance in hell to combat the complete and utter disintegration of everything artistic (and therefore everything worth value) in our world, the starting point is to stand behind TRUE artists like Sebastian and his brother who are not just talented, and fairly nice to look at (if I do say so myself), but moreover, multi-faceted, intelligent, and genuine.  

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