The making of World Container turned out to be not only a great professional working experience for Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie, but also a personal one.
Downie's five-year-old son had just had a body cast removed -- after breaking his femur while running down a hill -- so when Downie went back to Maui at the end of the recording sessions to work with producer Bob Rock, he took his boy with him.
"He couldn't walk," said Downie, a father of four kids, aged 11 to eight months. "And he'd been in a body cast for two and a half, three months. The long and short of it, it was a very rewarding time in my life.
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"We spent every waking, sleeping moment together. We were together for months, just like that (crosses his fingers) in Toronto. And then we had a newborn as well so I was like, 'I'm going to take Tarzan (not his real name) to Maui.' And we swam at this place called Baby Beach every day, which is this sort of long stretch of beach totally protected by a reef, so it's basically like saltwater (bath), and it just goes forever.
"And we swam every day and we walked the beach every morning and just hung out. The first couple of weeks, we'd eat at Anthony's every morning, have breakfast, and he's just a charming, little guy. So he did well there in Maui."
