ABOUT
DAVID DEACON
IT STARTED WITH
An Endless Passion for Music
For Discovery, for People, for Life...
He’s a singer-songwriter, poet, former champion racecar driver, painter, entrepreneur, and an example of how to live life, really live it. Now in his 70s, David Deacon’s fifth album, Good Day Good Night (due Oct. 6), is a collection of stories that reflect on the crashes and burns and dust-yourself-off recoveries we all experience to varying degrees. He tells them with the intensity of someone who has often paid a big price for his choices: They have a visceral realism, a sort of inevitability, a touch of humour, and maybe even a fondness for the losses.
From the lead track and bluesy first single, “Soldiers of the Universe,” to the anthemic “Moments of Joy” and wistful focus track “And They All Sang Along,” David’s sound is distinct, his gravelly voice and delivery not unlike Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Robbie Robertson or even Louis Armstrong.
Good Day Good Night is David’s second album this year, following the late-winter release of the 10-song Four, his first full-length since 2000’s Stranger In The Morning, which came after 1996’s The Iron Clock and his 1994 debut, Over The Line (the first two with his band David Deacon & The Word).
“I’m doing music again is because I decided I wanted to write more songs, whereas before I did a lot of spoken word, as it was much closer linked to poetry,” says David who has been writing poetry since his youth.
“I enjoyed that, but it was a bit esoteric for listeners and was also driven by the fact that I had a lot of talented musicians I worked with and really nobody thought I was,” he chuckles. “They always said, ‘We really like your spoken word, do that; don’t sing.” He laughs, knowing he’s in good company (see Leonard Cohen).
Three of the songs on Good Day Good Night were recorded back in the aughts, including the ballad “Lullaby To Cecilia,” written for his eldest daughter; the boogie blast “The Penthouse Electric Attic Blues;” and his version of the aforementioned Dylan classic. “They are all interlopers on this album that I really liked, but they never got heard,” he says of putting them out now.
Three of the songs on Good Day Good Night were recorded back in the aughts, including the ballad “Lullaby To Cecilia,” written for his eldest daughter; the boogie blast “The Penthouse Electric Attic Blues;” and his version of the aforementioned Dylan classic. “They are all interlopers on this album that I really liked, but they never got heard,” he says of putting them out now.
David is a true example of following your calling, no matter the risks.
Born in Toronto, he left his studies in philosophy at St. Catharines, Ont.’s Brock University to pursue creative arts in Paris. While he found his skills improved in both writing and visual arts, when he returned to Canada he struggled to make a living. No matter, he got another itch: motorcycle racing. But one day, on a practice run for motorcross outside Ottawa, he had a massive crash.
David is a true example of following your calling, no matter the risks.
Born in Toronto, he left his studies in philosophy at St. Catharines, Ont.’s Brock University to pursue creative arts in Paris. While he found his skills improved in both writing and visual arts, when he returned to Canada he struggled to make a living. No matter, he got another itch: motorcycle racing. But one day, on a practice run for motorcross outside Ottawa, he had a massive crash.
“I was basically D.O.A.,” he says. “I ended up with 11 hours of neurosurgery, a plate in my head, pins through five breaks in my right femur and three in my left shin bone. Just a mess. So I quit racing bikes, and a couple years later I started racing cars.”
Heading into another risky venture is not the path most people who almost die might take, but it was the right one for David.
“When I was in the hospital and I’d survived, I said to myself, ‘If I had died, I wouldn’t have regretted a single minute in my life.’ I said to myself, ‘You know what, man, you gotta live the rest of your life like that. You gotta live it so that if that day happened in five years or 10 years, or however many years, that you actually stayed that engaged in your life.’ So that’s what I’ve tried to do.”
He went on to win the Canadian endurance racing championship in a Porsche RSR, then BMW sponsored him to race the M1 in the States and then to race for their factory team in 1981 at the 24 hours of Le Mans (he was the first native Canadian to do so). Two years later, Canadian Tire sponsored him, Jacques Villeneuve Sr. and Ludwig Heimrath Jr. to race Le Mans again.
“I kept doing it until the fear and the consequences did overwhelm me because I finally got married and with the prospect of having a kid, I thought, ‘I don’t think I should do that anymore.’ So I got into other dangerous things like music,” he jokes.
Of course, the 20-year gap between albums was filled with other creative endeavours, including his painting and poetry, but mainly as a successful entrepreneur. At one point, he was general manager of the Porsche division of Volkswagen Canada Inc. and founder of the Rothmans Porsche Challenge Cup Series (1986-1991). He and his brother started Azure Dynamics Corp., a very early developer of hybrid electric technology. He also got hired to turn around Semcan Inc., an environmental solutions company.
But it has been a life of big ups and big downs. What of the “big price” for his choices, besides the motorcycle crash and plate in his head? There was a car crash, two divorces, going broke in his 50s, and, as he puts it, “the lonely winding road of artistic pursuit in three disciplines.” He adds, “There is more, but maybe that’s enough?”
His hope now with his big return to music?
“With the broad streaming platforms that exist today, I am hoping that the strong local geographic following I had the last time around can turn into a broader following everywhere,” says David. “I would love to be playing for the next decade and figure, at this point, I’m sort of on house money.”
Good Day Good Night is available from Slammin Media and distributed worldwide by Believe.