‘Living On The Road’ With Fraser Wayne and The Desert Eagles
Songwriter Harlan Howard said the essence of country music is “three chords and the truth.” For Ontario legend Fraser Wayne and their band The Desert Eagles, that “truth” is a kaleidoscopic view of the world through the window of a van.
Their newest single ‘Living On The Road’ explores the innate beauty of traveling across highways, taking in all the beauty the world has to offer.
Fraser Wayne has been a mainstay in the Toronto and Montreal music scenes for over a decade. Arriving in Montreal in 2014, Wayne found themself in garage rock group The Fuzzy Undertones. After cutting their teeth, Wayne moved back to Toronto and formed The Desert Eagles. Pulling from a variety of influences, the band brings a down-home, open spirit to Wayne’s songwriting.
‘Living On The Road’ is a love letter to the DIY ethos and the beautiful tradition of playing shows with your friends. With its catchy tune and country backing, the song celebrates the simple moments. From smoking cigarettes on some long, lonely highway to crashing at a friend’s house for the night, it’s clear that Wayne loves every moment of chasing that rock and roll dream. Wayne wrote the song after spending a lot of time traveling around Northern Canada and taking in the natural beauty of the landscape. Wayne recalls, “I would spend hours and hours watching the ships roll into the Vancouver harbour, hanging out with new friends, and attending or playing local gigs at The Heatley. These scenes make it into the lyrics, showing Wayne’s knack for distilling memories into musical moments.
In the accompanying video, Wayne and co. visit truck stops, tailgate in front of mountains, and strum guitars in the middle of the road. This day and age, it’s hard to be an outlaw. But in their own special way, Fraser Wayne & The Desert Eagles have forged their own path. And I hope they’ve got many years of ‘Living On The Road’ ahead of them.
“The rituals are the glue that keeps everything together!”
While “the road” can be a real community event, it can also be isolating. How do you find balance while traveling across the country?
I guess I often rely on familiarity to get me through the isolation, and to keep that ever-teetering balance in check. I drive a 2016 Dodge Caravan with a DVD player and a flip-down screen, so I always bring my favourite comfort movies with me to watch on lonely nights (usually a mix of Friday The 13th, Halloween, Stand By Me, All Dogs Go To Heaven, and a few others, depending on the mood). I always have a few books on hand – usually a novel and something non-fiction, so I can toggle between escaping into stories, and learning about a vast array of subjects that keep me ticking! I keep my raccoon Squishmallow with me at all times for comfort and company, and the entire van behind the driver’s seat is usually stocked with snacks, DVDs, Polaroid photos, trinkets, gifts, cozy blankets, pillows, and a big jug of fresh spring water from my hometown of (you guessed it) Springwater, Ontario haha. I feel like keeping familiar things close by while I’m on the road allows for the van to feel like more of a home to me! I don’t mind the isolation, but I really do live for that community aspect of the road!! Meeting new people, sharing my songs and stories, drinking a few beers, dancing and enjoying the social aspects of the road can be so freeing… especially from the multitude of farm work and odd jobs that I consume my time with when I’m not living in the van haha.
Do you have a favorite truck stop?
Speedway Gas on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Reserve! It’s not too far from Kingston, Ontario, and it’s kinda smack dab in between Montreal and Toronto, so I’ve been going there for years at this point, and have become familiar with the staff and some of the locals. They have cheap gas, cheap smokes, a great selection of marijuana products, plus a fantastic fry shack (and sometimes they even give you coupons for the fry shack if you buy some weed – like what a great friggin business plan). It’s literally the perfect truck stop haha. I talk about it so much and have shared so many photos from that place over the years, that it’s become this “if you know, you know” hidden gem kind of place. It seems like lots of folks in the Montreal / Toronto music scene stop there now, especially on their way to the Oscillitarium Music Lab festival on Wolfe Island! The single cover for ‘Living On The Road’ was actually shot in the parking lot by Liam Cosby, and I even have a few other photos that Liam took there on the inner sleeve of the record. Highly recommend for anyone driving up and down the 401!
Do The Desert Eagles have any road trip rituals?
Oddly enough, this upcoming tour with Mike Frazier will be the first time this incarnation of the group will be hitting the road together! So I’m sure by the time we get back home, we will have a few new little rituals under our belts, but nothing set in stone just yet! That being said – I think when I’m travelling alone, I really rely on a good breakfast and coffee to start the day. I literally can’t function without a good fuel-up in the morning. If I am able to find a cute roadside diner or a good truck stop with friendly staff, that can really turn a bad morning into a great day! I like to spend the afternoons by a lake or other body of water if possible, reading a book or hanging with friends. But more often than not, and usually due to time restrictions and the endless road, I find myself driving long distances while belting out my favourite tunes and drumming on the steering wheel haha. I need to eat dinner a good 3-4 hours before the show or I will get nervous and sick. I still tend to get really nervous before gigs (even after doing this for 10+ years now) so I enjoy having exactly 2 beers before I play to take the edge off, and I try my best not to dig much deeper than that throughout the rest of the evening haha. I don’t smoke cigarettes regularly anymore, but I do enjoy going out for one after my set. That’s definitely a ritual that’ll be tough to completely turn my back on! When the night has died down, I really enjoy getting cozy in the van with a movie, and then starting it all over again in the morning. I fully rely on these systems, or I would easily crumble from the pressures and stress of living on the road. The rituals are the glue that keeps everything together!
How does ‘Living On The Road’ fit into the upcoming full-length?
Conceptually, this song would fit with the ‘Into The Light’ aspect of the record. These songs are deeply personal, and the subject matter truly reflects the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of a healing journey. The album is dark at times – sad and nostalgic at others – and filled with layers of rumination on relationships, loneliness, heartache… But towards the end of the record, we start to see the cracks in the darkness, and the light starts to shine through – concluding with ‘Living On The Road,’ and the title track, ‘Follow The Darkness Into The Light.’ This song, and the music video in particular, really juxtapose the sincere joy and freedom I feel on the road, with the longing for friendship and connection. It’s almost as if living on the road allows me to leave the darkness behind, even if temporarily – and “the road” is used as a metaphor, both literally and figuratively, for the path that is needed to be taken into the light. This record has really allowed me to move on from some dark and scary chapters of my life, and I am forever grateful to those who contributed to it – Pat Lefler aka Roy, and Brandon Bak at The Sound Department in Toronto for your sound wizardry, excellent suggestions, and spiritual guidance – Liam Cosby, Dorrie Mack, Jake Hochman, Nic Waterman, Frederique Valois, Jolie Smith and Roy for holding it down and supporting me through the chaos of trying to record this entire record in 2 days – and last but not least, a huge thank you to the analogue angels Freddie and Dime for helping me compile and shoot the footage for the music video – y’all are the best and I am forever grateful. This video doesn’t directly fit into the whole short film aspect of the album, but it still does connect to The Cowboy and The Spectre and the overarching themes in the other videos and songs.
Headline photo: Fraser Wayne (Photo by Liam Michael Cosby @born.to.rust)
Fraser Wayne & The Desert Eagles Linktr / Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
Good Gourd Records Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / Bandcamp
