In Conversation With Colin: The Damn Truth

Canadian band The Damn Truth evolved from the lively music scene in Montreal, their songs are full of hook-laden riffs courtesy of lead guitarist Tom Shemer and impassioned vocals delivered by singer Lee-la Baum. Formed in 2011 The Damn Truth have spent the past four years touring the UK and Europe and have shared stages with ZZ Top, Styx and Glenn Hughes.

Tom and Lee-la recently spoke to Colin Palmer for The Rock Vault radio show from their home in Montreal.

The couple first met while they were both embracing the hippy culture at a music festival in Israel where their musical and personal relationship first blossomed. “Tom and I met naked around a bonfire, I was playing Almost Cut My Hair and Tom joined in and started jamming with me before we had even introduced ourselves,” explains Lee-la. “So the album Deja-vu brought us together.”

The latest self-titled album released earlier this year is The Damn Truth’s fourth full length release and marks the next level in their relationship with legendary Grammy Award winning producer Bob Rock (Aerosmith, Metallica, Bon Jovi, Michael Bublé)

Rock has encouraged the band in all areas of playing, writing and developing the band’s signature sound; evident in the power of Lee-la’s vocals as heard on the mystical Led Zeppelin meets Jefferson Airplane song The Willow and the full-on bittersweet swagger of Better This Way.

“Better This Way is a very personal song and a very emotional song” says Lee-la. “When I sing it, I have a very vivid picture in my mind and I think a lot of its beauty is that I think a lot of people will have different pictures in their mind when they hear the song. It takes you to that nostalgic realm of growing up and whatever that has to deal with, I love the idea that people can see what they see and feel what it makes them feel. So I think the biggest part about it is the nostalgia, and in the recording process I was really excited for this song because Bob wanted to bring in some backing vocalists and that’s something I had never worked with before. They were so amazing in the studio, and adds so much depth and so many layers and I was very happy with the outcome.”

Tom continues, “The song was a departure from what The Damn Truth usually does and honestly, when I wrote it I didn’t really know if it was going to make the cut. I even showed it to the band and it got mixed reactions from the members. But when I showed it to Bob he saw something in the song and said we have to record it and it was exciting because we don’t usually touch songs like this as a band but it’s fun to play live and it was fun to record.”

The lead single All Night Long is one of the heaviest songs on the album but evolved over time. “That song started with a riff,” explains Tom. “I had a demo of the riff and thought wow this is really fun to listen to while driving. It reminded me of when we had a chance a couple of years ago to play with The Sweet in the UK, and I’m a big glam rock fan and it reminded me a bit of that vibe which I love.

“It took a while and we came up with the lyrics and I was pretty pleased with it and then we went into the studio with Bob Rock and recorded all the tracks for the song. We’re a band that plays everything together in the studio, so we played the song and were very happy with the way it was sounding and then it came to recording the real vocals…”

Lee-la continues the series of events, “I step into the studio and get on the mic and sing two verses and suddenly I hear Bob on the other end saying ‘Lee-la would you come into the control room for a moment’. Now that never happens, he doesn’t usually stop things from happening so I already thought that something was wrong. He just looked at me and said ‘you know what, I just don’t buy it – I don’t buy the lyrics.’ I was shocked, it was the first time anything like this had ever happened.

“He basically said he wanted us to go on the tour we had arranged with Glenn Hughes and come back in a couple of months, re-think the song and try to re-write the lyrics…and we did it, and the song is much better because of it.”

Master producer Bob Rock has been inducted into Canada’s Music Hall Of Fame and has been recognized with over twenty JUNO nominations in various categories related to producing, engineering, composing and performing.

“I think that maybe in terms of production the reason why we wanted to work so much with Bob was some of the records he has made are our favourites,” explains Tom. “There’s a certain vibe or energy in the world right now with younger producers where all music sounds the same. Even though we touch on Led Zeppelin and Crosby Stills Nash and Young and you can hear the influences but it’s not a copy. With Bob, he totally understands that sentiment that we’re not here to create a Led Zeppelin 2.0 or to be a Crosby Stills revival band. If you listen to our record, we’re not copying anybody and I think that’s becoming very rare to find with younger producers.”

Excerpts of this conversation appeared on the April 29^th edition of The Rock Vault.

The Damn Truth return to the UK in November 2025 with special guests Parker Barrow including Cardiff’s The Globe on Sunday 23^rd.

Colin Palmer