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The first single, "What Makes You Think He's Lucky," has just been serviced to rock radio in Canada and will be worked by Sam DeAngelis, MapleMusic's new director of national promotion. The song is a fierce rocker whose verses feature Greaves' familiar voice, but the chorus is a shout/scream-style with the help of Higgins as well.
"We all know Danny's voice. He's still an excellent rock vocalist," says MapleMusic's general manager Kim Cooke. "The wildcard in all of this and the risk is that they would turn in music that's interesting and contemporary, key point, because he's a veteran act. And we think he did."
The album is licensed through Toronto's SUMO Productions, a division of The Management Trust, which handled The Watchmen's career and now represents Doctor, in addition to Gord Downie, The Populars, Sass Jordan, and Jenny Gear.
SUMO put out The Watchmen's full-length debut, 1992's "McLaren Furnace Room," before the Winnipeg-formed band signed directly to MCA Records Canada (now Universal Music) and later EMI Music Canada. Greaves and Higgins wanted to go that same route in order to retain ownership of the master and also leave them free to shop to labels outside the country and seeks other opportunities such as movie soundtracks. But more importantly, to Greaves, he says, is that they wanted to record and release the album immediately.
"I knew that the whole shopping it to majors thing could have happened because I really believe in the music," says Greaves. "I think it's the best stuff that I've done and I think it sounds like what stuff sounds like now in an artful crafty kind of way, but I just wanted it to happen now. I knew if we waited, we'd probably just be starting to talk about producers or something."
When Greaves and Higgins started writing material together, The Management Trust's Jake Gold played some bass-and-vocal demos to Cooke of MapleMusic, "I said, 'Would you do a record with Danny?' and they were totally into it," reports Gold. "The demos didn't sound anything like the record. It was based on the fact that they knew how great Danny is."
Cooke says Gold was a big supporter of MapleMusic prior to when he even joined the company. The Tragically Hip, which Gold managed for 17 years, has been part of MapleMusic's online retail site since the beginning, and six weeks before 2002's "In Violet Light" came out, Gold asked the company to build The Hip Club web site. Later, Downie licensed his second solo album, 2003's "Battle Of The Nudes," to Maple, and then the first, 2001's "Coke Machine Glow," too.
"It's just been a really good business relationship," says Cooke. "Then, one day, Jake made this approach - 'Hey I'm gonna make this record. Do you guy want to be a part of it?' It's a bit unusual, but we kind of signed on sight unseen, or music unheard, based on the people involved."
After hiring producer, engineer and mixer John Whynot (Colin Linden, Blue Rodeo), they enlisted guitarist Jamie Edwards, who played keyboards and second guitar for Our Lady Peace , and drummer Dan Cornelius, who also played with Higgins in Rocket Science/The Royals, as well as with Sass Jordan, Alannah Myles, Acid Test, Lei, Rubbersnake, and others. They cut the album in just 15 days.
Greaves and Higgins considered several band names, including Enemy Stone, 7, and McInroe, but after putting them through some test marketing with friends, decided on Doctor. "I like the fact that it's this omnipotent word that everyone knows across the world and I don't think people have associated with rock 'n' roll before," says Greaves.
Curiously, the Doctor bio issued by Maple makes no mention of the musicians' pedigree, in other words, no nod to The Watchmen or to Higgins' past. It doesn't even say that the pair met when Higgins subbed in with The Watchmen for a U.S. tour when bassist Ken Tizzard took time off to spend with his wife and first-born child. Asked if that's because it's hard to get a second shot in an industry geared toward a younger generation with young artists, and Greaves says, "To me, newer is better; newer is cool."
Asked specifically about the bio omission, Cooke admits, "That was conscious. The whole idea here is not to concentrate on the past. Everyone knows Danny's name. We're certainly not denying it, but neither do we want to give Doctor coattails specifically on The Watchmen."
Cooke believes The Watchmen fans will find out about Doctor and that if radio isn't aware of who its singer is it won't matter. "We think they've made a good solid contemporary sounding rock record and we think we've got probably three tracks that we could take to radio and have some success," says Cooke.
The video, to be directed by Christopher Mills (Modest Mouse, Mandy Moore) on June 18, will only feature Greaves and Higgins. "It's a rock duo. It's me and Rob," says Greaves. "As far as the live representation, we're going to have a guitar player and a drummer (Edwards and Cornelius respectively). Whether they'll be part of the band, probably not. Rock duo's are cool. I think that's what sets us apart."
Booked by Ralph James of Toronto-based The Agency Group, Doctor has already played two shows and plans to tour extensively. Of interest, Evan Dando was the first person to see the band play live when he happened to be rehearsing last week in Toronto with MC5 at the same practice space. "He was quite complimentary," says Greaves. "He was hanging around for a few hours. He was working too, but was poking his head in."
While the original Watchmen line-up reformed for a surprise song at Thornley's Mod Club show (Tizzard is now part of that band) in Toronto May 27, Greaves doesn't plan on resurrecting that material during Doctor's set.
"I don't think it does this project any good," he says. "This is what I'm doing. This is it. There's nothing else."