May 10-16, 2007

Local singer-songwriter Joe Lapinski is a staple in the St. Catharines music scene. Without his contributions as a musician, producer, recording engineer, promoter and proud owner of Yummy Recordings, the St. Catharines live music scene would be like a shallow pond of mild excitement, half-empty with flat beer, Rush cover bands and tight stonewash jeans.

I was first introduced to Lapinski in the fall of 2000, just after moving to St. Catharines. He was performing with his band Palooka (alongside Jay Peters and Eron Stroud) at the Merchant Ale House. After eventually buying Palooka’s selftitled album and listening to “Harbour and the Bowring” and “Lights too Bright” on repeat, I knew there was much more to St. Catharines then I had ever imagined.

Lapinski started to take piano lessons when he was six or seven years old. “I ended up stopping the lessons, I don’t know if it was me or my mom, but I was spending more time writing music then playing what I was supposed to be learning,” explains Lapinski. “Shortly after my parents sold the piano, so I was unable to write music for a little while. When I was around 15 years old my friend Chris Clarke left his acoustic guitar at my place, I’ve had it ever since. I’ve always been into writing music, and I’m more into what it is that makes people enjoy and feel the way they do when they listen to music.”

Sundries is Lapinski’s newest and soon to be released album on his own Yummy Recordings imprint. The album has taken over a year to create; on top of the writing credits, Lapinski was also highly active in producing the album with Woodshed Orchestra bandleader Dave Clark assisting him. It’s a rare occurrence when you can find a musician fully engulfed in both processes of song writing and production, yet Lapinski delicately balanced both virtues, and the result is an album that is truly extraordinary. “I guess I see song writing and song production as something organic. I simply ask myself “Do I like this? Does it convey what I want to say?” I ask myself this during every part of writing and production, whether it be the creative beginnings, or the more technical aspects of engineering and mixing. In the case of Sundries, I was lucky to have a partner in crime to add his input as well. Dave Clark co-produced this one with me, and lucky enough we shared common goals and ideas. It was perfect!” proclaims Lapinski.

The songs found on Sundries sound so vivid and crisp, powerful and sincere. Not only has the album been wearing out the laser in my CD player for the last week, and it’s also been filling my stomach with butterflies on each listen. From the folk-rock shape-shifter “Habit to Shake,” to the spacey and beautiful ballad about his worn-down car, “Jetta!” featuring the playful line, “I’m finding out that you always lied to me, or maybe it’s me who pushed you too far.”

Despite the amount of work Lapinski has put into Sundries, he’s also received a great deal of help from local friends, musicians and artists. Included among the guests are Dr. Pee, Lewis Melville, Deanna Lynn Jones, Garret Lacroix and local artists Melanie MacDonald has lent one her paintings to be displayed as the album’s cover.

“My big goal for Sundries was more instrumentation, to me the drums are all I needed to get that going. Dave Clark is an extremely melodic drummer and I was able to shape the sounds of the songs around the drums. So, the initial goal ended up helping the production of the album,” describes Lapinski. “Then I decided to bring other instruments into it such as trombone, cello, clarinet, pedal steel guitar, banjo, piano and tuba.”

During one fateful rock show at the Hideaway in 1993, Lapinski had a personal music revelation that changed him forever. The lineup was comprised of Change of Heart, the Inbreds and the Rheostatics. “The first person I met when I walked in was Dave Clark, and here we are full circle... The Inbreds were on stage and Clark was telling me about them and other like-minded Canadian bands and then Change of Heart hit the stage and I’m already blown away by the music and hanging out with Dave Clark. Then the Rheostatics hit the stage playing their Whale Music and my life totally changed at that very moment,” echoes Lapinski. “I felt at the time that I could never make music like the music I was hearing at that moment, but I made it my mission to try at the very least.” P [JORDY YACK]