As far as unlikely musical collaborations go, Andy Kim and Kevin Drew’s isn’t that big of a stretch. They both croon from the heart about love and relationships and craft delicate pop gems. It just happens that there’s a few decades between them. But, as their new album, It’s Decided, indicates, together they’ve found a special kind of musical chemistry that just doesn’t come around very often. And the magic shines through.
Kim, a pop star in the late ’60s and early ’70s behind hit songs such as “Rock Me, Gently,” first met Drew, of Broken Social Scene fame, when he performed at one of Kim’s annual holiday concerts in Toronto.
Apparently, something clicked. Meeting with them at the Rivoli during a day of promotions for their new album finds a pair as thick as thieves.
“It’s about relationships,” says Kim. “This album, really, was made because we wanted to hang together.”
As someone who wrote songs in the famed Brill Building in the ’60s, where the production engineers wore a suit and tie and singers rarely knew the musicians backing up their tracks, the entire process was a welcomed change for Kim.
“I’ve never even been in a band,” says Kim, of why making this album changed his life.
“Every time I made a record, not so much strangers, but these musicians would come and play and be gone. I’m not hanging out with anybody, so this was a brand new experience. It allowed me to create within a family.
Before Kim came along, Drew says he was in a slump, worn out by the pressures that came with years of directing the massive, organic movement that is Broken Social Scene. And suddenly here’s this guy and he just wants to work with Drew.
“People ask me why I would work with Andy. It’s because he saw the creative constipation that I had at the end of my 10-year career with just so many people, so much responsibility,” Drew says. “And he just went, no — cut through everything — and said, ‘That’s that. Let’s go do that. And I said, ‘Oh you want me, well all right, what are you doing tomorrow?’ ”
The pair worked on songs for the new album along with Drew’s regular writing partner Ohad Benchetrit before heading into the studio with Dave Hamelin (the Stills) at the controls and a steady stream of guest artists eager to work on the unique project. The album was released Feb. 24 on the Arts & Crafts label, and the pair will be playing the Field Trip music festival in June.
“When I listen to the album today, I am so thrilled it has my name on it,” says Kim.
“It was a lot of time and effort and creative intelligence put into this, and you mix it in with the spirituality. I just hear it all when I’m listening.”
