VANCOUVER — Gord Downie’s most recent album “Introduce Yerself” was often considered his final project, but his brothers insist there’s much more to come.
“That wasn’t the end,” Patrick Downie told reporters after accepting two Juno Awards for the 2017 album alongside his brother Mike.
“(Gord) did a lot of music in his final time.”
The brothers stood alongside each other at the Junos gala dinner in the absence of the Tragically Hip frontman, who died last October of an incurable form of brain cancer.
“Introduce Yerself” picked up the adult alternative album award while Downie shared a songwriter award with Kevin Drew for the project as well.
The album consists of songs described as “love letters” to people who touched Downie’s life, from an ex-girlfriend to members of the Indigenous community.
“There’s a lot of material that he was doing all along, a lot of material he created after he found out he was going to die,” Patrick added.
“Songwriting was his vehicle. He just went to work. He was not going to leave this world until he had spoken his language.”
The brothers didn’t say when Downie’s other projects would be released.
Mike added that his brother’s “work ethic was unbeatable.”
“Gord never stopped working. Two operations, chemo, he never stopped,” he said.
“In the last two years he somehow had this idea of what he wanted to accomplish and he just went right down the list.”