Said the Whale continues its West Coast pop mission on Cascadia
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2019 18:00:14 +0000
Said the Whale
When: Sept. 6 at 7 p.m.
Where: Malkin Bowl
Tickets: $34.50 at ticketmaster.ca (kids 10 and under free)
Twelve years into its career, Said the Whale have released their sixth album. Cascadia finds the band’s core trio of Tyler Bancroft (vocals/guitar), Ben Worcester (vocals/guitar) and Jaycelyn Brown (keyboards) expanding on the mix of indie rock and West Coast folk-pop they began exploring in 2007. With the Juno Award-winning band about to kick off a tour, we talked to Bancroft about icy mountain roads, life as a Canadian musician, and the special opener at the group’s Malkin Bowl show.
Q: You’re doing a second leg of the tour in December. Isn’t that a bad time to be touring Canada?
A: It can’t possibly be worse than what we did in February with Mother Mother. That was really treacherous.
Q: What were some of the more harrowing moments?
A: The routing was laid out in such a way that we zigzagged B.C., from Cranbrook to Kelowna and then back to Nelson and then back to Kamloops. We were driving 40 kilometres an hour through those mountains with ice and snow. Not my idea of a great time. But it’s all part of the job.
Q: Even after all these years.
A: And it’s a surprisingly huge part of the job. You sit in a van often for eight hours a day and then play between 30 and 90 minutes of music, depending on if you’re opening or headlining. You’re just surviving for those moments on stage.
Q: You’ve built a good-sized audience in Canada. What’s it like playing smaller venues in the U.S.?
A: Humbling, maybe? We’re also used to it. We haven’t put the same level of effort into the U.S. as we have in Canada. There’s so much infrastructure in place for bands to find success in this country, and we’re extremely grateful for that, and I think that’s played a huge role in our success here. In the States we’re outsiders and we often play to rooms full of expats. It’s fine, it’s nice to break new ground and explore new places and play for new people. And who doesn’t love a trip down the West Coast of California when the weather’s starting to turn in Canada?
Q: Do Canadian bands that are starting out now have it better than you did 12 years ago?
A: The challenges are different. One of the things that was a really big kickstart for us was CBC Radio 3, and the community that surrounded it. That no longer exists. In its place is more access to recording. More bands are extremely proficient in producing their own music. When we started, that was never something we even considered. We did our own demos, but we never thought we could actually record our own stuff. And now we do.
Q: One of your openers for the Malkin Bowl show is a local high school student. What can you tell us about him?
A: We did a tour of high schools this May in the Lower Mainland to raise money for their music programs. And in conjunction with that, we had a contest to find an opening act for the show. We got over 30 submissions from a lot of talented young artists. There were a couple of rounds of voting, and then it was narrowed down to five. And the winner is this kid Jaden Bricker from Coquitlam. He’s released nine albums already. He’s 17.
Q: Are you going to end up managing him?
A: I have no idea. He’s very talented. I think he’s going to do well.