Luke Doucet on sex worker rights, gun control and performing at Mavricks

It’s flattering to be considered for an award by your peers. But for Luke Doucet and Melissa McLelland, the pair of singer-songwriters who make up Whitehorse, trophies are not the be-all and end-all, especially in a vague category such as Adult Alternative Album, for which the Hamilton-based duo was nominated at the Junos in late March.

“The artists who get nominated,” Doucet tells BarrieToday, “might tend to think of themselves as ‘serious’ in their song craft and ‘bold’ or ‘challenging’ in their production approaches, although I’d say they (we) are no more serious nor challenging than any other categories. In fact, hip-hop production—and by extension, pop and R&B production—is by far the bolder and more adventurous.”

Whitehorse plays Mavricks Music Hall in Barrie on Friday, April 20, having been part of the music scene in Canada since joining forces in 2010. Doucet extols the other nominees in the category. “Gord Downie (who died last October), Timber Timbre, and Terra Lightfoot, especially, are artists I have known and admired for a long time. I often relate to the artists in this category and my heroes are frequently represented.”

(Downie, incidentally, won the award posthumously for Introduce Yerself).  

Doucet and McLelland put out their first album – a self-titled effort – in 2011, following it up with The Fate of the World Depends on this Kiss, the next year, then three years later, Leave No Bridge Unburned. Their most recent CD, Panther in the Dollhouse, contains songs of which Doucet is especially proud.

“Boys Like You, Pink Kimono, Nighthawks, Die Alone… These were the emphasis tracks. I quite liked Gracie but probably just for personal reasons. I like the narrative,” he says of songs which may be on the programme at Mavricks.

Doucet and McLelland have also lent their off-stage efforts to alleviating the plight of sex-trade workers in this country, with the ultimate aim of decriminalizing sex work.

“I… think stigmas and taboos around sexuality are rarely good for anyone. People will love… who they want and as long as we’re talking about consent between adults, I don’t see the problem. When sex work is pushed into dark alleyways, people like (B.C. serial killer) Robert Pickton have a much easier time preying on their victims—who tend to already be among the most vulnerable people in our society: the very young, women of colour, indigenous women, and drug addicts.

“Prohibition never works,” he concludes, “and the prohibitionists appear to believe they can eliminate social blights by decree. People suffer as a result.”

With gun control south of the border a hot-button issue, Whitehorse has been known to perform Neil Young’s Ohio in tribute to students killed by National Guard troops at Kent State University in 1970. Asked whether the two will play the song at Mavricks, Doucet answers cryptically, “We may.”

For Doucet, too many people have died at the point of a gun in recent months, and tougher gun laws are needed stateside. 

“The U.S. has homicide rates of six per 100,000. The rest of the Western world has homicide rates of one per 100,000. The U.S. has more than one gun for each citizen. It is foolish to deny that there is a causal relationship between these things.

“Trump, for all of his blustering insanity, has hinted at a willingness to entertain gun law reform. What are the chances his Republican peers would ever stand up to the NRA and move in a progressive direction? I think we know the answer.”

For more information about the Whitehorse show at Mavricks, 46 Dunlop St. W., Friday, April 20, click here.