As founder and leader of both The Paperboys and Locarno, Tom Landa has been a driving force in the Canadian music scene for well over 30 years. How did a Mexican-born lad, who relocated to Thunder Bay, ON in his teenage years, end up in Vancouver, BC heading up two of the most enduring and vital bands in Canadian folk roots music? Well folks, that’s what I came here to find out, and talking to Tom in his home on Vancouver’s West Side, I get the answers straight from the horse’s mouth. The story starts with him telling me about how The Paperboys first formed.
The Paperboys
“I was living in Ontario and I actually moved to Vancouver with the specific purpose of starting a band. In those days, the way that you would do that was through musician wanted ads in the Georgia Straight,” Tom says, referencing Vancouver’s venerable ‘what’s-on’ guide. “So that’s what I did. I put in ads looking for an accordion player, a fiddle player, a bass player and a drummer, etc. Not everyone in the band came together that way, but most of them did. A couple came through word of mouth, but mostly it was through musicians wanted ads.”
I ask Tom, if he had a clear concept for the band, in terms of the kind of music he wanted to play, and he is unequivocal in his response.
“Yes, I did! At the time – and still today – I had a real interest in traditional folk. I was heavily influenced by Spirit of the West. There were a lot of other bands from the West Coast that I liked, like 54-40, The Grapes of Wrath, Roots Roundup and The Hard Rock Miners. There was a whole roots rock music scene here, and I was drawn to those bands and that kind of music. The vision was singer-songwriter music with the flavour of Celtic, Bluegrass and Old-time music.”
It wasn’t long before The Paperboys got noticed and started to get booked to play in coffee houses, folk clubs, pubs and clubs in BC, and across Canada and south of the border. I am curious to know what Tom attributes The Paperboys’ rapid rise into the public’s awareness to.
“It was a question of right place, right time because two or so years after we started, Celtic music became really popular in Canada. I can’t think of any other countries where Celtic music was getting played on Top 40 radio. Sleepy Maggie, that tune by Ashley MacIsaac with Mary Jane Lamond, was being played for weeks on end. There was a slew of other bands like The Rankin Family and Great Big Sea, and we were their contemporaries. We never got signed or had their level of commercial success, but we were still their contemporaries. So, we hit it at a time when the country decided ‘yeah we really like this’. Back in those days all you had to say was ‘Celtic’ and people would hire you. We played in a lot of pubs and bars at first, because that music gets people in a good mood. It also gets them drinking, so it was an easy thing to get people to book you.”
We reminisce a little about the halcyon days of the 1990s, when the popularity of Celtic music surged right across the country. Before we get swept away on that wave of nostalgia, we turn to the question of why it became so popular, and Tom shares his thoughts on that with typical clarity.
“In a way, I think it was because it was a bit of an antithesis to grunge. On the one side, you had music that was darker and heavier, angsty and on the other side, you had music that you could do a jig to. I think people were searching for the alternative. It’s the same reason why the Bare Naked Ladies also had a lot of success. That super happy kind of stuff that they used to do in the early days was very different from grunge. I think people always like an alternative. Also, Canada is a country that has a lot of people with Irish, Scottish and English roots and I think that helped too.”
The Paperboys started with a focus on Celtic music but always had an eclectic approach and incorporated lots of other musical styles. We discuss how their music has developed, from those beginnings over 32 years ago, to the present day.
“Over time the band became better and I became a better songwriter and musician and singer. In the beginning, I would say that there was a lot more perspiration and inspiration than talent. We worked hard. I think that I have a good work ethic and some gumption and I just kind of went for it. We persevered and as we went on we got better and started writing better songs. The turning point was the album Molinos. That’s the record that won a Juno. Listening back to it now I cringe when I hear it! I’m just like ‘take it off I can’t listen to this’. However, if I get outside of myself and try to have a different perspective listening to it, then I get why it was popular. We took a lot of chances so it was an adventurous record. That is when we started adding more Latin flavour and more Cajun-influenced stuff. We started broadening our musical tastes and influences. By the time we got to the next album, Postcards, we were adding a lot more Latin songs and I sang more in Spanish. I wasn’t going to be content with doing the Celtic thing forever. Then eventually that led to adding a horn section. Now when I write, I do it with that sound in mind. I am playing with musicians that have a varied musical palette and who like all different kinds of music. When I bring new music to them, I can say ‘let’s go more Latin with this one’ or ‘more New Orleans’ and they get those references. Whereas I think in those earlier days we didn’t have that breadth of musical knowledge.”
Our conversation drifts on to the topic of The Paperboys’ longevity and I express admiration for Tom being able to keep the band going for over three decades. He’s impressively humble about this remarkable achievement.
“I’ve learned a lot over the past 30-odd years being a leader in The Paperboys. Learning how to share: how to share ideas, how to share the spotlight, share conviviality. It really is all about friendship. You have to be in a band with your friends. If it is just a working relationship, then it’s more like having side players in your project and I have never wanted that. I have always wanted to make music with people that I am inspired by. There will be times when you get on each other‘s nerves, but you work through it. I am extremely lucky in both bands, especially with The Paperboys and the lineup that we have now. It has been pretty consistent. Geoffrey has been in the band now for 25 years. Sam, Nick and Kalissa have all been in the band now for 15 years. We work really well and oh my God we laugh. I have never laughed so much – I mean like bellyaching laugh – as when we are on the road. We keep it light, we make fun of everything and of ourselves all of the time. So yeah, humour is a big part of it.”
Tom’s Advice
I wonder out loud what Tom would pass on from his vast experience to anyone just starting out in a band.
“My advice is that you have to check your ego at the door for sure and you have to be willing to work with people. I think that even in a band of friends there is always going to be a leader. But good leaders will also let other people lead, let other people express themselves and feel like they are not just side players, that they are an essential part of it.”
Music business types and critics love to put music into categories in order to be able to describe and market it. I speculate that The Paperboys must give those sorts of folks nightmares. That prompts the question of how Tom himself describes their music now.
“I often say it doesn’t make sense on paper but it makes sense when you watch the show. I always start with roots music, with a bit of Irish, a bit of country, a bit of Latin, a bit of Mexican folk, a bit of ska and then people start looking at me thinking ‘wow how is this going to sound!’. But when they come to see a show it all comes together really naturally. Geoffrey always jokes that if you don’t like a song, just wait a few minutes and there’ll be one along that you do like” he says, referring to long-time bandmate and Spirit of the West founding member, Geoffrey Kelly.
“It changes, it’s varied, it’s eclectic – but not in a weird sense where we’re just trying to be different. This is all stuff that comes to me naturally. These are all musical styles that I like and I listen to. I am bi-cultural because I was born in Mexico but lived most of my life in Canada so this music is organic. I am not trying to superimpose something over something else just for the sake of doing it.”
That gives us a convenient jumping off point to talk about how Tom began to explore his Mexican musical roots – and how that led him to start Locarno.
Locarno
“When I left Mexico it was not a good situation and that is why I left. When I first got to Canada when I was 15, I just really wanted to fit in to my new culture. So that meant doing my best at straightening out my accent and trying to fit in and learning all about the culture here. Eventually I got back in touch with my Mexican roots through music and, oddly enough, through a band from L.A. – Los Lobos. They made a traditional Mexican record called La Pistola y El Corazón and that’s what really brought me back home so to speak. Through listening to that, I just became more curious about the music that was on the record. Eventually that led to me to getting a Canada Council grant to study a specific folk music in Mexico called son jarocho. So when I got back from studying, I was really inspired and I had all of these songs – traditional songs as well as songs that I had started to write. Then I was faced with ‘well do I try to incorporate this with The Paperboys or do I form a new project’, and it just felt like the right time to start something new. I thought that it might have been just too much of a 180 diving straight into Mexican music with The Paperboys. So I created a new project and at first it was just a recording project. It was just Joby Baker, who did the record with me. Now I have people who’ve been in that band for 15 years and our third record just came out. Locarno has become the vehicle for me to express myself in the musical language of Mexican folk and Columbian and Cuban music. We are blessed that we have some fabulous players here on the West Coast. I also sing almost exclusively in Spanish. I think there is just one song I sing in English right now. It very much became a project to represent that side of me and to scratch that musical itch.”
It boggles my mind to contemplate how Tom can run two bands at once – especially when you consider that The Paperboys are entering their 34th year and Locarno their 16th. Like most things though, he seems to take it all in his stride.
“There’s times when The Paperboys don’t do anything for two or three months and then other times when we are really busy and Locarno doesn’t see the light of day. So now it’s a balance. I have to say that I am super grateful that I have not only two different ways of expressing myself, but also of making a living. It makes it so that nobody gets burnt out. It can be tough and this has meant that we can take a step back from it. So it’s been really nice to diversify in that way.”
By now you should be getting a pretty clear picture of Tom’s incredible motivation and work ethic alongside his well-developed organizational and leadership skills. It won’t surprise you then to know that he has still more irons in the musical fire.
“We also created the BC World Music Collective. It’s a number of people who were born elsewhere in the world and now make their home specifically in British Columbia. That project has people like Adonis Puentes, Celso Machado, Tonye Aganaba, Kurai Blessing, JP Carter and everyone in Locarno. I also have another musical project, which is me and Kalissa doing duo stuff.” Kalissa Landa is Tom’s wife and musical partner in both The Paperboys and Locarno.
If you think that’s more than enough to be getting on with for now, then you clearly don’t know Tom Landa. There are yet more strings to his bow. He runs a booking agency called Cubbyhole Artists which has a substantial roster that includes Steve Dawson, Joachim Cooder, Coco Jafro and Doug Cox & Linda McRae to name but a few.
“It just came out of necessity really. With The Paperboys I had done a lot of the booking myself and we also had some different agents over the years. Every time we stopped working with an agent, I would always take the reins back and start booking the band myself. So, since I was booking The Paperboys and Locarno and also the BC World Music Collective, I thought ‘well now I am booking three different artists’ so I just had this idea of making it more official. Instead of saying ‘Hey, it’s Tom calling’ to book whatever band, I formed the agency. I think we started in 2016, so we are coming up to 10 years and now there’s a roster of 12 artists that we represent. There are four of us in the Cubbyhole team and that has become something that really occupies my time.”
Phew! That’s a lot of stuff going on for one guy, right? Well, as they say in advertising, ‘but wait there’s more’!
“We also manage three of the artists on the Cubbyhole roster. In the past I started the Vancouver Celtic Festival. I ran that for seven years. I also formed and now run the World Music Festival with Robin Layne from Locarno. I am the artistic director for an event which is part of Latincouver, which supports Vancouver’s Latin American community. So yeah it’s insane!” Tom says and laughs heartily.
“Things happen when you work hard towards a goal. There’s always a bit of self representation involved, especially when you first get started. Some people get really good at it, and some people don’t, or they never want to do it. I have always had my finger in the music business pie but now it’s more in an official capacity. I really do think of the business part as my day job and the music as my evening job.”
Before we part ways, I ask Tom what he has coming up and you’ll not be surprised to know he has just ‘a few things’ in the offing.
“I just released a Locarno record a couple of months ago so that’s still pretty new” he tells me, referring to their new release Colibrí Calíope. “We are doing the press junket – trying to get as many interviews as possible and that kind of thing. Locarno has some dates coming up and so I will work on promoting that record for the next little bit. Later in the spring I am going to try to get The Paperboys together and make a record. Making records has become quite fragmented because Nick lives in Victoria and Sam and Ben live in the States. So we’ve done the Covid thing, where we send each other tracks and play on those, but it’s my goal to get everybody into the same room and play together because that’s what we do best. Hopefully The Paperboys’ new record will be ready by this summer. I have just brought in a new agent with Cubbyhole, and I want to see it grow. Eventually the goal for me is to oversee Cubbyhole but not have to be involved in the day-to-day. Musically I want to write more. I want to do a solo album or a duo album with Kalissa. Overall, I just want to try to keep writing songs that resonate with people. Being a musician is a lifelong learning process. You’re never going to master it. You can become incredibly good at it but that’s what makes it fantastic – you can have this thing for the rest of your life, this thing that you’re always working towards.”
Rather than being run ragged and stressed out by all of this activity, creativity and productivity, Tom is deeply contented with the niche that he has carved out for himself and his comrades-in-arms. It definitely is a labour of love.
“I am not really looking to be a crossover pop sensation. I am satisfied with what we have achieved and where we are right now. We go out on tour and we play 300 to 600 seater venues – and quite often sell them out – and that is really enough for me. I am truly happy with where we are at. We have played at just about every major folk festival in Canada and a whole bunch in the States and in Europe, so as a roots band we are about as successful as it gets. I’m grateful for being able to do this thing for as long as I’ve been doing it. This industry changes a lot and you have to adapt with it. I’ve done my best and have tried to evolve as much as possible. I have some concerns about where the music industry is going. Like it really worries me that a lot of festivals can’t make a go of it, even with grants and funding, but there’s always going to be a need for live music. Even in an era where everything is going online and towards AI, people will still crave to hear live music. So I am just really grateful that this is what I do and that I am still able and healthy enough to do it. I still love hitting the road and being on tour and getting to know new places. I feel really fortunate and really lucky to still be here.”
I’m sure there are many of you who, like myself, will respond with ‘and we’re really lucky to have you!’ As they might say in Mexico, es un buen hombre. Or as we would say back in Newcastle upon Tyne, that Tom Landa, he’s a dead canny lad!
