JB-  You've recorded some music with some big names.  Randy Bachman (from musical group The Guess Who) is the one that comes to mind.  He's a Canadian legend.

Joel-  Yeah, he is.

JB-  What was that like?

Joel-  That was really a good experience.  I've recorded with him - I've played on his album and he's played on mine - but we also have toured together with his group in the last year and a half.  So it's been really inspiring to see someone of his age, who's been through things he's been through musically, to still be learning.  He almost has the mind of a little kid and he just keeps learning things all the time.  One time we were in the studio, recording for his jazz album, and I was sort of noodling around and getting to record the next take and he comes running out of the control room and is like, "Oh, what did you just play there?"  And, "I don't know, something like this…"  He's like, "What is that?" and he figures it out and goes back into the control room!  He's been playing for like 50 years and he's still so interested in the guitar, like so fascinated by it. 

JB-  Still discovering it…

Joel-  Yeah.  That's inspiring because a lot of people just… I mean, when you've sold that many millions of albums you can kind of just rest on your laurels.  You can just kind of use your legacy but he doesn't do that.

JB-  If you could perform on stage or just record a song with somebody, who would it be?  Who are your musical inspirations?

Joel-  My biggest musical inspirations these days are like people like Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell.

JB-  What sort of weird habits do you have when writing a song or going through the creative process?

Joel-  Oh my.

JB- What's something that you just have to do?  Or something you've found you do quite a bit?

Joel-  This is something that's not very weird.  What I've realized recently is I have to put a time limit on things.  So these days I work in 60 minute cycles.  Because I write and I also do visual art.  I will not work for longer than an hour on any one thing.  And it's just doing great things for me.  I guess what I realized is I can't tell time when I'm working.  I have no sense of time whatsoever.  So I could work for seven hours on something and my eyes could be just totally bloodshot from looking at the computer, and I'm feeling sick and nauseated and I don't know why.  All of a sudden I realize that, "Oh, I've been working all day."

JB-  And you haven't eaten and you…

Joel-  Exactly.  So your back is sore, you're starving to death and you haven't drank any water.  So that kind of stuff, that's really important to me - to put these kind of limits on my body.

JB-  After the hour what do you do?

Joel-  Meditation.  I sit between every 60 minute session just to sort of get myself centred again for the next thing.  That really helps.  I sit for 20 minutes and then go to the next one. 

JB-  Good thing you don't have an office job, hey?

Joel-  Yeah.  I feel very fortunate to be able to do what I do.  I'm just barely able to make a living doing this and I'm very excited about being able to do that.

JB-  Tell me about your connection with The Sound of Music album cover.

Joel-  (laughing)  The Sound of Music… oh my!  You're good!

JB-  Jeremy knows how to research!

Joel-  Good for you!

JB-  You weren't expecting that were you?

Joel-  No.  I would say the most obvious story there is the poster that I made.  The poster basically was me - my head - on what's her name's (Julie Andrews') body?  And I had somebody put it all over the place in the town of Edmonton and I got a lot of response from it.  And what that was was an experiment because I was doing my masters at the time and it was on the promotional aspect of singer-songwriters and how they promote themselves in an ambiguous way as opposed to other kinds of genres who cannot do that.  And I wanted to see how far out I could get as a singer-songwriter and still have people react in a positive way.  So that's what I did.  It was gender-bending and kind of a weird picture and we got a full house too!

JB-  Do you think the full house was related to the poster?

Joel-  I have no idea if it was or not, but it was one of the first really good shows in Edmonton.  And a lot of people responded well to it.  A lot of people came up to me and said, "Hey, I saw you on that poster."

JB-  Maybe did they think you were a cross-dresser?  (laughing)

Joel-  Yeah, exactly.  I think everyone sort of knows that picture so they sort of knew what was going on.  You know, I'd like to see someone like (musical group) Nickelback try that, I don't think they'd get away with it.

JB-  No, I don't even know if they'd have the balls to… well, you never know.  Who's to say?

Joel-  (laughing)

JB-  Don't they have those Sound of Music sing-a-longs?  Maybe they thought they were going to that?

Joel-  Maybe!

JB-  Either way, you said it was a good show and that's all that matters!

Joel-  They didn't seem disappointed so that was good!  (laughing)

JB-  Now the holidays have come and gone.  Tell me about "Buy Nothing Christmas".

Joel-  People should go (to the website) and check it out.  It's buynothingChristmas.org.  I'm kind of on the board there.  Buy Nothing Christmas is related to Buy Nothing Day.  It's kind of the holiday aspect of Buy Nothing Day.  Basically it's suggesting to people that instead of bowing down to the materialistic aspect of Christmas they could actually make their gift and take that approach and not have to "buy into" (the holiday).  Also, if people did this it could really change things.  It's an interesting, pretty provocative concept.

JB-  Are you telling me that you don't buy things at all for Christmas?

Joel-  I try not to.  If I can I try to make things.  I make things all year.  I make music.  For me, I make things all year, so it's not hard.  That website actually has a lot of suggestions on it that are pretty creative and interesting.  It makes gift giving a lot more interesting because, you know, you've put all this time and effort into it.

JB-  When all is said and done what's the one memory you hope Joel Kroeker fans have of his music?

Joel-  I know what it feels like to be moved by music and I'm hoping that's what they are getting from it as well.  I'm hoping that people are moved by it.  You know, that's all I can ask as an artist.

JB- So if I were to track you down in one year, what do you think you will be doing?  What are your hopes for the future?

Joel-  Hopefully this next album will do all kinds of exciting things.  I'm expecting it to.  And it will have been released by then.  That's sort of what I'm putting a lot of my focus on these days.  I'm writing a children's novel right now.  I'm pretty excited about that.  So those two things are probably what I'm focusing on most right now.

JB-  Tell me about the novel.  What prompted you to do that?

Joel-  I started writing children's picture books and submitting things here and there and got a couple of things happening that way.  I just decided to try writing something longer.  I took a children's writing course a little while ago and just got really excited about it.  It kind of reminded me of what it's like to just write freely.  In terms of writing prose it's a completely open book to me because I haven't really shared it with anybody.  It's fun to start over again.  It's almost like when I first started writing music.

JB- When can we expect to see that?

Joel-  Oh geez, I have no idea.  I'm hoping to finish it by summer.