SPILL FEATURE: EVERYONE DESERVES A HOME – A CONVERSATION WITH CHRIS BIRKETT

EVERYONE DESERVES A HOME

A CONVERSATION WITH CHRIS BIRKETT

I am speaking with producer, arranger, and sound engineer Chris Birkett on a Zoom call through the wonders of technology. While I am comfortably at home, he is at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto at the Labour Day Union March. A march to which he was invited.  Where else would he be? Birkett’s first solo record was part of a compilation, One Voice, One Love, a charity album with all proceeds going to CARE international Charity For Africa. The fact that his first solo offering was for a very worthwhile cause should not surprise anyone.

The list of artists with whom Birkett has worked is simply staggering, a list that includes Peter Gabriel, Sinead O’Connor, Sting, Trevor Horn, and many more. He was signed by Tony Visconti and has released several solo records over the years. Given how busy this man is, it is astounding that he found time in his busy career to record his own music. But he did and one song he has recorded, “Everyone Deserves A Home” earned him a very special award, MPP Chris Glover’s Community Recognition Award.

Although he was born in London, England, he has made Canada his home since 2012. “I try coming here, to the CNE, every year. You see some good live music here, and we always go to the shopping place, and I usually buy a drum or some musical instrument. It’s a tradition. And, I got my Canadian t-shirt on,” he said proudly.

Birkett is very humble and modest, but the fact remains, he has written a song that has struck a chord with people, and he is being recognized for it. “I released a song, “Everyone Deserves A Home”, it’s about affordable housing, a crisis we have here in Toronto. I wanted to draw attention to the fact that not enough affordable housing is the chief cause of homelessness. I had played at one of the New Democratic Party (NDP) rallies the previous year, so Chris Glover knew my work. I sent him the song, and he thought it was pretty good because I was trying to raise awareness.”

Glover thought it was more than ‘pretty good’, and the award proves that. Birkett found himself the focus of news stories, including Global Television’s News. “I play this song at concerts, and I advise people to call their MPs and MPPs to say we need affordable housing in this city. A one-bedroom apartment in Toronto starts at $2300. No one can afford that. So, what’s happening is that kids are forced to stay with their parents and that causes all kinds of problems, and they can’t get into the housing market. And those who can’t afford the rent end up on the streets, and it is a big problem. To pay $2300 for rent is off the scale, so I am using music to communicate this idea. I just feel very grateful that I can use the universal language of music to communicate these ideas.”

STREAM “EVERYONE DESERVES A HOME” AND MORE CHRIS BIRKETT MUSIC VIA SOUNDCLOUD

And Birkett is not stopping his fight to raise awareness with that single. “I am currently writing another record about the same issue, its called “The Forgotten Homeless” and it focuses on the homeless issue. We have 12 singers from all different nationalities, shapes and sizes and they all sing a line each. It is for the Woodgreen Housing Association [Toronto’s largest non-municipal affordable housing provider].”

Birkett has also worked with other artists who use their music for social change. “I started working with Buffy Sainte Marie in 1993, and she opened my eyes to the indigenous issues. I was living in the U.K. when I started working with her. I had been working with Sinead O’Connor and the record company phoned me up and said, ‘we just signed a legend, and we want you to produce this legend.’ They told me her name and I said, ‘who’s that’,” laughed Birkett. At that time, she was not known in the U.K., but working with her really opened my eyes, especially about colonization. People were exploited, taking resources, and literally legalized slavery. It is coming to light, but we still have a long way to go yet. I wrote a song, “Do You Know Me”, which is about kids working in third world countries making cheap stuff for us to buy.”

And it was through working with Buffy Sainte Marie that he met his future wife, filmmaker and director, Joan Prowse. Prowse’s documentary is an extraordinary look at Buffy Sainte Marie’s career and life (Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life, 2006). “Joan did the official documentary on Buffy, and I met Joan at Massey Hall. I was playing guitar for Buffy on her third album for Island records, Joan had been calling me a couple of years previous to talk about Buffy, and then I finally got to play in Toronto, and I met Joan in the green room, and the rest is history. A love story that started through music.”

For Birkett, homelessness is very personal. His own story includes living on the streets for a time when he was young. “I ran away from home when I was 19, because I had a very miserable home life. My father married this lady, who hated me and my sister. We grew up in abject misery, so I got out of there as soon as I could. I got on the train in London, went to every audition I could, and ended up homeless. Sleeping outside. My life completely changed when I got a job at a gas station in Southeast London, and I was working the night shift. One morning, about two in the morning, this guy comes in and says, ‘are you Chris Birkett, the guitar player?’ I said ‘yeah’, and he said ‘we are a soul band and we are looking for a guitar player and we have an 18-month tour of Germany. Do you want to join?’ And I said ‘yeah!’ We left the next morning at seven o’clock. Everything changed from then. We became the backup band for Rufus Thomas and other artists from the Stax era.”

“I tell people music changed my life. I made my first guitar when I was eight years old, pieces of wood from the garbage, as I didn’t have any money. I had to play, but most of my peers growing up ended up in prison. I grew up in a really rough area of London. The only reason I didn’t go to prison or get into trouble was because I sat at home with my records and tried to learn the parts. Music really saved my life.”

And with his music, Chris Birkett is making changes, helping and inspiring others.

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