Joel Plaskett

William Joel Macdonald Plaskett (born April 18, 1975) is a Canadian rock musician and songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He was a member of Halifax alternative rock band Thrush Hermit in the 1990s.

Plaskett performs in a number of genres, from blues and folk to hard rock, country, and pop.

Plaskett's songwriting frequently contains allusions to his home city, Halifax.

With his band The Emergency, he has toured throughout North America and Europe with The Tragically Hip, Sloan, Bill Plaskett (his father), and Kathleen Edwards.

Plaskett grew up in Lunenburg, a small town on Nova Scotia's South Shore.

His father, Bill Plaskett, is also a musician, and was a cofounder of the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival.

Plaskett learned to play guitar and write songs while listening to an eclectic range of music, from singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young to rockers such as the Sex Pistols and the Pixies.

Plaskett's family moved to Halifax when he was twelve; by the next year, he had formed his first band with friends Rob Benvie and Ian McGettigan.

Initially, they called themselves Nabisco Fonzie.

By 1992, they were a foursome called Thrush Hermit, with Michael Catano on drums.

Plaskett was the lead singer and guitarist for the Halifax-based band Thrush Hermit.

Catano was replaced by drummer Cliff Gibb in 1994, the same year the band was signed to Murderecords.

After two EPs, the group went on to release its full-length debut on Elektra in 1997--Sweet Homewrecker, which was recorded in Memphis with producer Doug Easley.

The album did not do well commercially, and they were dropped by their label.

In late 1998, Neuseiland was formed by Plaskett of Thrush Hermit, as well as members of popular Halifax bands The Super Friendz and Coyote, the Euphonic, both of which had also recently broken up.

Taking the name of the band from a Dutch children's book by Annie Schmidt called The Island of Nose, the band consisted of Plaskett on drums, Charles Austin and Drew Yamada on guitar, Andrew Glencross on keyboard and Tim Stewart on bass.

They cited King Tubby, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Ray's Chicken Pita and Willie Nelson as influences.

The goal of the band was to mix conventional song structure with experimentation inspired by krautrock, stoogian protoplasm and the subtractive mixing techniques of "version" reggae.

The band would record one more album, Clayton Park, for Sonic Unyon Records, before quitting in 1999.

The band released one album, the self-titled Neuseiland, recorded and released on March 4, 2000.

The band released an extended play, The Disappearing E.P., on December 8, 2001.

It was well received by critics, but not until the release of 2001's Down at the Khyber did Plaskett begin to enjoy more widespread acclaim.

Khyber was a harder-rocking album that featured a new backing band, The Emergency, consisting of Plaskett, drummer Dave Marsh and bass player Tim Brennan.

Together they called themselves Joel Plaskett Emergency.

The album earned Plaskett a Juno Award nomination as best new artist.

Sessions for a third release, titled Ai Yi Yi, were recorded in 2002, but never materialized in an official release until 2014.

The band's next album, Truthfully Truthfully, in 2003, was Plaskett's first all-out commercial success.

It was produced by his old Thrush Hermit bandmate McGettigan and was the band's debut release for MapleMusic Recordings.

The album featured the song "Come On, teacher," which became a hit in Canada.

The album later received an East Coast Music Award as best rock recording.

Plaskett's follow-up album was a solo effort, called La De Da, on which he played most of the instruments himself (McGettigan, however, played bass).

Plaskett consciously sought a different sound for La De Da than he did for his previous effort; he considered it a record more for himself than for commercial radio.

The band broke up after performing a farewell show on January 6, 2005.

Included in this collection were photographs and a near-complete video of their final show in 2005.

The album was released in 2005 and earned two East Coast Music Awards in 2006, as Male Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year, for the song "Happen Now."

In August 2014, the band released a digital-only compilation collection titled Rarae Aves, which included outtakes, CBC RadioSonic performances, and select demos from recording sessions dating back to 2002, on Bandcamp.

On August 3, 2017, the band's bassist Tim Stewart passed away.

After the breakup of Thrush Hermit and Neuseiland, Plaskett embarked on a solo career.

His first release, In Need of Medical Attention, consisted of leftover songs that were written near the end of his days in Thrush Hermit.