Ken Wallis Chats With Canadian Blues Rocker Spencer Mackenzie
- Ken Wallis
- 7 hours ago
- 10 min read
By Ken Wallis | The Sound Cafe Journal
Photo Credit: Ken Wallis.
In Spencer Mackenzie’s short career his garnered a bucket load of awards, including a Juno nomination for best blues album of the year.
Ken Wallis interviewed Spencer Mackenzie for the radio show BluesSource Canada. The following are excerpts from that interview, edited and amended for brevity and clarity.
He’s been rockin’ audiences for over a decade with electric performances that keep audiences wanting more. He’s matured into a veteran bluesman which proves that the Blues is in capable hands.
Ken Wallis
Spencer McKenzie has released a new album. It is entitled Empty Chairs. And let's get Spencer tell us all about the album as he joins us. Great connecting with you again, Spencer.
Spencer Mackenzie
Hey Ken, it's always great to talk to you and see ya.
Ken Wallis
Let's dig into this album a little bit. First of all, why did you select Empty Chairs as the title?
Spencer Mackenzie
There's a few singles out now and Empty Chairs is the title track, which will be coming out with the record. And Empty Chairs is a political statement piece. It was inspired by the Parkland shootings in the States that happened a few years ago and 17 children passed away. I actually had this song written a while ago, even as my previous record was coming out. And since then, there's just been a growing problem of gun violence all over the world, but in the States specifically.
It is a protest song. It's a song that says, don't give me your thoughts and prayers if you're not going to do anything. And lots of my favourite artists have spoken up about the issue.
It's something that I thought would be really deep and has a message behind it. It's definitely a song that has some punch behind it. It's not your typical shuffle and blues song.
It's a little more heavy-hearted. When I was going through the album, wanting to pick a song to name the album, I took homage to what I did two albums ago with my album Cold November. That was a song I wrote about a horrific terrorist attack. I want this album to have a title that has some weight to it.
Ken Wallis
And you chose to do one cover song from a very special artist. Tell us about that.
Spencer Mackenzie
Yeah, I did the song Don't Know Where I'm Going by Roy Gallagher. And I was a little late, surprisingly, to get to Rory's music. I was introduced to him when I was in college. And I was blown away, obviously, a phenomenal guitar player. And then as I was doing some digging on that album, Deuces, he has this song, Don't Know Where I'm Going. And it's a bit of a folk, folk acoustic vibe. It reminds me of that old song, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out.
Of course, Clapton does it. It gave me that old-time folky energy. It always stood out with me cause I love that type of music, even though I don't normally release it. As the years went by, I was looking for a cover for this record. And I was like, hey, that tune is pretty cool. How about I do it in the style of Roy Gallagher or like a blues rock in your face thing. It's just an acoustic guitar and a harmonica he did it with, but we amped it up for it to be a fast-paced, energetic, in-your-face blues rock song.
Ken Wallis
Another song that I really like and really has a lot of meaning is Frozen Hearts. Tell us about that one.
Spencer Mackenzie
Yeah, Frozen Hearts is a single that came out a little bit ago. That song has significance with residential schools and in indigenous native peoples and telling their story. Lots of people don't know, that the last residential school closed in ‘91. From my perspective I’m spreading the word. We were inspired to write that song when they found a lot of those unmarked graves. And it was something that hit my heart and my dad's heart as well, because he's my co-writer on some of my music. And it's a song we sat on for a while. And brought up a lot of those things I learned in school and a lot of that history I learned.
So we decided to write that song about it. But again, similar to Empty Chairs, this is an angry song, but maybe not angry, but more like a call to action. So we wanted to make it a real, a real rager, real screaming guitar, real nice backup vocals, real energetic chord progression. And I've been hearing some good things about that song and I'm very happy about it.
Ken Wallis
And then the album closes off with the tune Evil. Tell us what that's about.
Spencer Mackenzie
Evil's a little more of your standard classic blues story. It's about everybody told me stay away, everybody told me she'd make me pay. That type of old adage of you need to get out while you can but you don't listen. And there's some great songs in the middle of this record, but I wanted a high-energy song at the end. I did this cover on my previous record called No Good. It's a track by this artist, Kaleo.
He was a phenomenal, phenomenal act. And after I wrote it, I was like, this song seems like that one. just after years of playing it. It's not really a copy, I'd say, but it has that energy to me when I play it. And so I was like, that song always does really well. I'm going to put that as a closer to bring people back. Because the beginning of the album starts a little heavier than in the middle of the album. And I would say that Evil track is a combination of both.
Ken Wallis
I was fortunate enough to see you when you very first started out. And everyone still talks about the fact that you're still quite young in the blues world. As I always say, you may be young, but you play like a veteran. This album to me shows a lot of maturity in your songwriting. How do you go about writing your tunes?
Spencer Mackenzie
I really appreciate that, Ken, you've been seeing me forever and I've known you for as long as I've been playing, so it makes me really happy to hear you say that. I would say that, and it's funny because I've done some guitar player interviews, and I've mentioned this in there as well. They're like, what else about the album would you like to tell us about?
And it's really great that you say that because I write with my dad, Richard McKenzie, he's co-writer. Although he only has about a few songs on this record, 'cause as I get older, and he gets older, he kinda likes to pass the torch along, which is great. We had some political songs which we wrote together and then we had a few others that he had stockpiled. I think there might have been, I can't really remember off the top of my head, I think there might have been three or four that he wrote and I wrote with him, but then the rest are all songs I wrote and I think it comes from learning from him and just articulating the older I get.
When you're 18, it's a little trickier to articulate what you're seeing on the screen or what you're going through in life. And it's nice now to have that experience. I've sat down and written songs before, and they might have been good, but I have a bigger vocabulary now, or even a bigger vocabulary of feelings, right?
And so, if songs could get a little more intricate, which is really nice, especially going into the studio too, because you can approach things from many different angles. This album is definitely a lyrical one as much as it is a guitar record. And especially with those songs like Empty Chairs and Frozen Hearts. It's either my dad comes to me with a song or I am done writing a song or close to done and I run it by him. And sometimes, he would come to me with maybe something like a poem, really, because he's not a musician per se. Empty Chairs has like a verse in it, maybe some of a chorus. From there, there's still a lot of song to write. And then so I think I've grown that way because sometimes he just comes to me with just a page. And then other times he's like, I couldn't sleep and I wrote 3 pages.
Ken Wallis
So you also had a very special producer.
Spencer Mackenzie
Yeah. Ross Hayes Citrullo of this great band called The Commoners. Ross did the previous record, Preach to My Soul. I wanted to go more in a blues rock direction, more of Joe Bonamas, Gary Clark Jr., like even more classic rock energy. And Ross was more than game to want to do that. And then also, his process was a lot different. Like lots of great blues records that I still listen to all the time, like From the Cradle, by Clapton, were done live off the floor. They were done after a band has been playing together for years on the road and then also decades before then too. And Ross we're going to do it, go ahead, and then catch that magic. And that's great.
I wish I'd be able to be touring 24/7. But the cool thing with Ross is that I come in with my songs and we do pre-production and we also record them acoustically and we workshop them and it's him and I and it's really special. And then obviously, I've bounced them off friends, I bounce them off my dad, I write with my dad. And then the process is a lot different, and why I like working with Ross is we've just took in a lot more time.
He has his own space, and he produces in his own way as opposed to like having to get together to rehearse in a rehearsal studio, pay for the studio time, spend the big coin and be stressed on that day. As opposed to with Ross, we do a couple of days with the band for pre-production, getting them feeling good. Then we track for a couple of days. And then after that, it's track guitars for a few days, which is a big thing now. And then also touching up some vocals for a couple of days. And so we try to go for a sound that's as live as possible, especially with the band. you could really, in this genre, if you've done something like that, it really, done too much editing, it really shows.
So having that magic that day is important and that's what we got. But then as far as making a guitar record, one of the most favourite parts is sitting there after the fact and going, okay, I want to play this solo or I want to do that. And I see greats like Joe Bonamassa in the room with Kevin Shirley or like John Mayer in the studio with like a great producer, maybe like Steve Jordan or something, and then going, okay, what are we thinking for this solo on this and like that's some of the most fun work I get to have with Ross.
Ken Wallis
And you've got some very special release dates coming up.
Spencer Mackenzie
Around the the time this album coming out, I'm in my great hometown, Ridgeway. vI'm in Ancaster at the Memorial Arts Centre. I'm coming to Toronto. I have a few dates in Quebec. I have a date in, London, and then also Kingston. And if I've missed any off the top of my head, you can definitely go to my website, SpencerMackenzie.ca. Yeah, but I think that is the bulk of it, yeah.
Ken Wallis
So, most importantly, where can fans purchase, and I emphasize purchase, your album?
Spencer Mackenzie
Yeah, well you can go to SpencerMackenzie.ca. And that'll take you to a great spot where you can purchase the CD, LP, any type of related merch there. And then also, you could go to the iTunes store. And then also streaming, obviously.
Ken Wallis
Yeah, well we don't really wanna mention streaming.
Spencer Mackenzie
Yeah, no, yeah.
Ken Wallis
I saw a great cartoon the other day, it was a trio of musicians. in the studio and the guy is saying, Hey, we got our check from Spotify today. How do we split 17 cents three ways?
Spencer Mackenzie
Yeah, it is a really big problem. I'm for the music getting out there, but I think they kind of, jumped the gun a little too early on what that model looked like.
Ken Wallis
I agree 100%.
Spencer Mackenzie
Like there's the the lead singer of a band called Vulfpeck, like a nerdy jazz pop group. He's very, very popular though. He was on the news for an album he had called Sleepify, where people streamed, well, they had like a really good following. He has a good point. He said if people had a subscription, like a subscription-based service could be good, but not for everything. Like imagine if you had a subscription-based service for the grocery store. It just really wouldn't work, would it?
Ken Wallis
No, exactly. Yeah.. Well, Spencer, it's a great album. I've enjoyed it and I'm sure everybody else, once they get a hold of it, they will as well. And I really want to thank you for your time.
Photo Credit: Ken Wallis.
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Ken Wallis is a respected broadcaster, educator, and lifelong music advocate whose career spans more than five decades in Canadian media and the blues community.
A former Director of On-Air Promotion at CHCH-TV and retired Associate Dean of Media and Entertainment at Mohawk College, Ken has played a pivotal role in shaping both cultural programming and the next generation of media professionals.
A passionate champion of the blues, he is the creator of BluesSource Canada, now airing on INDI 101.5 FM and syndicated internationally. Ken continues to connect artists and audiences through his deep knowledge, integrity, and enduring love of music.
Alongside Juno Award–winning artist Steve Strongman, Ken co-founded the Escarpment Blues Society, where he now serves as President, supporting local musicians, venues, and blues education across the region.
At The Sound Café, Ken brings deep knowledge, rare access, and a lifelong commitment to telling the stories behind the music.
