Hospital Music marks Matthew Good's fourth release as a solo artist and is being hailed by critics and journalists alike as his most personal album to date. Chronicling his life since White Light Rock & Roll Review in 2004, Good has faced many challenges, all of which he tackles in the new album. Cancer, separation and mental illness are all common themes.

Good will be in town on October 16 for a gig at Centennial Hall.

T.D.: First off, about Hospital Music, and going through all the press with it, what has been more emotionally-taxing for you, writing the actual album or having radio hosts and journalists alike make you recount all those feelings that the album was based on in the first place?

M.G.: To tell you the truth, neither. It was just something that ultimately had to be the product of the experiences. So I guess confronting them as recording material or even talking about it, to me it's not bothersome at all. I don't think I would have written something as forthright if I was concerned about it.

T.D.: Vocal samples are a particularly evident part of the album. Are they meant to be metaphoric in any way?

M.G.: Well, somewhat, I mean, all of those are recording on a cassette deck by us in back alleys and streets on Vancouver's lower east side, so I guess because the song they're used on, or within the kind of context of the album and its relation to the city, I think they represent that.

As far as being metaphorical is concerned, at the top of “Champions of Nothing” obviously I have that girl repeat those words, and as the old saying goes, ‘hate is a strong word,' so I flipped it around, and all that is, is a tape recorder backing up behind it so in some senses I guess you could say that, but in others I tend to, when I'm micing acoustic guitars, stick microphones out windows, and I track ambient street noise and whatever else goes on the street while I'm tracking guitars… It interjects a really interesting element to a lot of things I find.

T.D: Now Hospital Music has been called by many your most personal album... why did you decide to have two covers on it?

M.G.: Probably the Daniel Johnston cover because I respect him and feel a bit of a kinship given what he's gone through, and also there's an irony in it that a man that's gone through what he's gone through and suffers from what he suffers from can still write a song like that.

The Dead Kennedys cover more had to do with thinking about maybe a time when things were a lot simpler, and not caught up in all the bullshit that you get caught up in when you reach a certain age. I remember being a teenager listening to “Plastic Surgery Disasters” and that being my favourite song off of it, so when I chose to do that song, I found a way that I thought would represent Biafra's lyrics the best way without seeming forced or too much like the Dead Kennedys, and thankfully it ended up being nothing like them.

T.K.: Speaking of Daniel Johnston and that struggles that he's faced, and the struggles that you've faced, why do you think psychological disorders are so taboo in popular culture?

M.G.: They've been in taboo in popular culture for forever; it's because it's the unknown. When you have an injury can be seen. When you have cancer, the effects of it can be noted. But when you have a mental illness, it's very difficult to diagnose it; it's very difficult for people to understand it. A person standing in front of them that, for all intensive purposes looks fine, has this neurological problem, and the brain of course is the least understood part of the human body. When it comes to mental disorders, so little is known about them that people tend to disregard it out of hand, saying it's something that can be conquered personally, without the aid of anything. It's like telling someone that needs triple bypass surgery after a heart attack ‘you don't really need surgery... you can just will it to be better'. It's very much the same line of thinking and it's obviously complete bullshit.

T.K.: So in a sense, through writing this album and doing this press and talking about these kinds of things, do you feel like you're taking up a torch in a sense and bringing awareness to this kind of stuff?

M.G.: Well, as a person that suffers from it, I'm just talking about my own personal experiences, but obviously I believe that there should be more attention regarding them, and regarding them in our health care system.

You could have a person go to the hospital because they're having basically a manic episode or something like that, and those kinds of things are relegated to a certain degree by those who see them because we don't have the facilities or the time to invest in it. [It is not] until something dramatic occurs, until someone tries to take their life or gets so bad that something happens, in which there's no other choice but to involve yourself. It's kind of unfortunate that it has to come to that before action is taken.

T.D.: To what extent do people in the public eye have to have a public and private persona?

M.G.: That's largely a construct of the media, where people placed in certain situations because of notoriety feel they have to be protected because if they open themselves up it'll become fodder for others. I don't really believe in it. I think that if you have something to say…then you should do it and be afforded the luxury to do it just like every other person without intruding on your privacy. If you choose to share things with people then that's fine, but I think that people should at all times employ a modicum of civility with regards to how they deal with anybody whether they happen to be famous or not.

T.D.: Hospital Music marks the last album that you have to deal with your record label. You'll be out of your contract now. There was also a post on your blog about the Radiohead album. Do you think that's where the industry is heading?

M.G.: I think it will be. I mean, in Radiohead's case, they've made a considerable amount of money personally, so they can kind of afford to do what they're doing right now. I believe in bands digitally offering their music directly through their website but it's a little difficult to allow people to set the prices. What if no one wants to pay anything? Suddenly a part of your living is gone. So for new bands, or for bands that are basically subsiding on a middle-of-the-road sales career, that's a pretty difficult thing to do.

T.D.: There's almost a sense of morality that people have to…

M.G.: Well absolutely, it's not even a morality. It's people's respect for intellectual property, but, again, we don't really live in society where people consider that. They think these things materialize out of thin air and that any jackass can do it.