“A Day in the Life” of Toronto creative Eamon McGrath by Errol

Joel Levy — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 15:08:06 +0000

My name is Errol. I have four legs and a tail. I live in an apartment in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood with my brother Angus, and with my human, who is a musician and writer named Eamon McGrath. He always talks about this book he just wrote, called Here Goes Nothing, but I can’t read. I also can’t turn pages: I have paws.

Living with an artist is very hard. They always seem very busy and distracted. Eamon is always working on a song, or a new book, or on the phone talking loudly to clients or agents or managers. At the age of 32 he claims to have written over 500 songs, but that number seems really high to me because whenever I look at the floor in the living room, I only see two bowls of food. Usually he forgets to feed us because he is working so much in his studio, all day, making strange, scary sounds. What’s he doing in there? Why isn’t he outside the room, paying attention to us?

– by Errol the cat

This is how Eamon starts his day. I sit on the floor next to the bed and look up, quietly asking if he’ll feed us. Most of the time he just ignores me. Then I get sad and play with the yarn for awhile until he wakes up.

When Eamon gets out of bed he immediately makes a coffee. Like, immediately: as in, doesn’t even notice that we’re here. We yell and yell and yell at him and he just ignores us some more. Some days it’s more difficult than others.

He walks right by these two bowls of food and doesn’t fill them until he’s drank two cups of coffee. Someday, I might like to try coffee; but I’ve seen the kind of damage it can do to human litterboxes, and I’d rather not suffer the same fate for my brother and I with ours.

After he feeds us, he opens this jar. I’m not really sure what this stuff is. It looks like catnip, and it seems to have the same effect on Eamon as catnip does on me. Maybe someday he’ll give me some.

This is when Eamon goes into the room to make his weird music. I just watch from the door, more often than not, pretty confused. He calls it “work”, but it seems pretty fun. Hours and hours and hours and hours go by, and he just presses these black and white buttons and picks up his guitars and I’m never really sure what the whole meaning behind it is. After all these years, I still have no answer.

After he’s done working, he gets ready to go out the front door of the apartment. That is a strange and mysterious world to which I have never been. As he’s getting ready to leave, he usually puts some music on his “turntable”, as he calls it. Every day it’s something different, and each sound is as strange and scary as the one before it. If only I could escape this life of torment and captivity.

This is the book Eamon says he’s written. Apparently someone named “ECW Press” had something to do with it. That doesn’t sound like any other human name I’ve ever heard, but humans are pretty weird, man. I’d love to open it, but like I said: I have paws. I just kind of shuffle the whole book around the floor until I get bored.

At this point in the day, as I know he’ll be gone for hours, I just go and hang out with my brother on the bathmat for a bit. Then maybe we’ll move to the couch. Might go sit on the bed too, who knows. Hard to say.

This is the vehicle Eamon takes to work. He had to get a day job because apparently some crazy virus has made it hard for humans to find steady work as musicians lately. That’s my yarn there, on the floor.

What ‘hood are you in?

I live in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood in the city’s west end.

What do you do?

I am a musician, writer, and record producer with a 10+ year touring history, eight full-length records, two books, and countless production credits.

I was a founding member of July Talk and co-wrote and performed on their self-titled debut album which has since garnered gold status in Canada.

I play over 250 shows a year on three continents, in countries as diverse as Canada, Mexico, the UK, the majority of continental Europe, and Japan.

What are you currently working on?

I just released my second book on ECW Press called Here Goes Nothing, and a single called “Sparkle & Bleed” on Calgary’s Saved By Vinyl record label. I have been writing and recording non-stop all year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and have worked on over 10 new recordings since January. I just finished two production sessions for two Toronto songwriters and am working on the follow-up to Here Goes Nothing as we speak.

Where can we find your work?

Here Goes Nothing is found across Canada anywhere books are sold and can be ordered directly from ECW Press online.

My music and merch is available in CD and LP form for curbside delivery across Toronto, or available to order internationally online from Saved by Vinyl.

I am on Instagram and on Twitter.

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“A Day in the Life” of Toronto creative Eamon McGrath by Errol