A disc of dreamy lullabies and late night songs weren’t on anyone betting cards for guitarist Séan McCann until the birth of his sons.
Chronicling the beginnings of his journey through fatherhood on the solo debut Lullabies For Bloodshot Eyes, Séan writes in the liner notes “Their arrival prompted a fundamental change in my disposition, and for the first time in my life, someone else mattered more to me than I did…and I was terrified.”
How soon after the birth of your sons, Keegan and Finnegan did you envision Lullabies For Bloodshot Eyes?
Almost directly after the birth of Keegan. I never envisioned myself writing lullabies – for kids or adults - at all in my previous life. When the boys were born, it just set in motion a whole other bunch of gears in my writing brain, pulling out a series of topics and subjects that I wanted to divulge into.
“Somewhere (for Fin)” and “Don’t Cry (for Keegan),” open and close the album.
Keegan has a keen understanding of what I do, and it’s starting to sink in that Daddy wrote a song for him. It’s a special thing for him…it’s his song, you know? It’s going to be a legacy for him, and Finn, when they’re older and understand what this record meant to me and how much they mean to me while affecting my work.
People don’t necessarily associate kids or a lullaby record with some of the topics you’ve approached. Usually it’s all sunny dispositions. You’re singing adult themes at times with a lullaby melody.
There are 2 lullabies on this record that are written for my boys, the rest of the record is very much for adults, although the kids and babies can absolutely get a lot out of it. I think adults sometimes underestimate children’s brain power. Children can be quite deep. Keegan hears very heavy lyrics sometimes, and he’s very quick to ask what they mean. I don’t know the answers, or pretend to know the answers.. It’s great to see his young brain wrap his head around the lyrics.
Keegan once said to me, “Daddy, when you die, I want to die on the same day as you.” And I said “What? What do you mean?” And he said, “Because I don’t want to be alone.” We haven’t had the death talk or anything, it’s just his way of working through where do people go when they die. One might say he’s too young to talk to that question, but you know, I feel the same way, If he ever should die, I’d like to go with him. It forces me to think about those issues that are going through his mind. He’s stimulated me a bunch of times and allowed me to think about issues I never had to think about before.
There are very few things I thought of the same way after Hannah was born. I am amazed at how she understands her place in the world.
Yeah, Keegan knows somewhat that he came out of Mommy, and I said, “Well, I had a part in this, too, you know? And so he asked, “well, what part? Mom made me, not you.” “No, no, I planted the seed,” so, of course, two weeks later, he’s all “So, how exactly did your seed get in Mommy?” I want to keep putting them off, I want him to stay 4 years old.
You were the first Great Big Sea member to have kids, so I’m sure the rest of the band treated you like a guinea pig in that regard.
We used to tour for a month at a time, but now the most we could all stand to be away is about two weeks. The cracks start to form in the band, we all have young kids, and they need their dads. We get it all done, it just takes a bit more trips.
Songwriting for you has changed since you became a father. In what other ways has it affected Great Big Sea?
We would all be down at the pub, and I would be leaving first, but I didn’t want to go. I thought, it’s not a bomb, it’s a baby, just give it some love, and it’ll be fine. But it IS a bomb, it’s a life-shattering event that you’re never quite prepared for it happening. When Keegan came along, I thought, “Oh, it won’t affect my time, it won’t affect my writing, but it affected every single aspect of my life in the most positive way that I ever could have imagined. I now write at different times, I write early in the morning, I rehearse and record late at night, I’ve learned how to take naps. Nobody tells you that stuff. I’m writing more now than ever before, I’m spending precious moments writing and I don’t waste time. I’m more focused. I don’t have that luxury to go to the cabin for a week and write a bunch of songs. It’s yielded a higher quality of songwriting for me. If you want something done, just give it to a busy person, they won’t make as many mistakes or take a long time because they can’t afford to, so I’ve had to approach my writing that same way.
This year’s Juno Awards were hosted by your hometown of St. John’s. Did you bring Keegan to any of the festivities?
A bit. We love the Barenaked Ladies’ Snacktime – it’s one of the CDs we listen to on a daily basis in our house – their music is so genius, so brilliant, their smiles and personalities really come through on the album. Keegan and I were driving around town one day during the Junos, and ran into Kevin (Hearn) and asked him if he wanted a ride. He got in, and I told Keegan who he was and he was just stunned and floored. Kevin started singing the “Popcorn” song, and I thought Keegan was just going to cry he was so happy.
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