They’ve been nominated for a 2009 Western Canadian Music Award, toured extensively, including gigs in New York City and Austin TX during the South by Southwest Festival [SXSW], made the CMJ top 200, and had their album chart as high as 1# on college radio in Canada and the US. They are four unshorn young cats from Saskatoon known as The Sheepdogs, and for an independent DIY band, they are borrowing a page from BTO and “takin’ care of business”.
Steadily pumping out albums and EPs since they formed in 2006, The Sheepdogs have just released their latest harmony-drenched, prairie-indie-meets-southern-rock flavoured opus, Learn & Burn. Ewan Currie (lead vocals & guitar), Leot Hanson (guitar), Ryan Gullen (vocals & bass), and Sam Corbett (vocals & drums) may look like a bunch of shiftless, shaggy-haired layabouts, but don’t let that fool you. They have unassumingly become one of Saskatchewan’s biggest musical exports, and they show no signs of slowing down. I caught up with The Sheepdogs to talk about DIY recording, taking Saskatchewan music on the road, and making gobs of fat cash with polkas and pyramid schemes.
CRAIG SILLIPHANT: Did you set out to have that classic southern rock sound or did it just happen organically?
EWAN CURRIE: It was always a conscious effort to make music like the music that we loved. We started by examining it and figuring out what elements were involved [like types of melodies and using harmonies]. After that it was just about executing it with some grit and soul.
CS: In the past, you’ve worked with guys like Ross [Nykiforuk] to record your albums, but this time around you took a more DIY approach?
RYAN GULLEN: [We wanted to] expand our creativity in the recording process as well as to tailor a sound more suitable to our last albums. Last fall, Ewan bought Protools and we began demoing new songs and trying out different ideas. In July, we subletted a space and set up for two months recording or working on the album as often as we could, trying different things and emulating some techniques used in the ‘60s to make our album sounds more authentic, or at least more accommodating to our style of music.
EC: Our previous albums were made in a professional studio, which was good because we were still figuring out how to go about the recording process and were able to rely on Ross Nykiforuk and Randy Woods to handle all the technical aspects. Once we had those albums under our belt, we were able to try recording ourselves on our own time. Being afforded as much time as we desired to really embellish the tunes in any way we wanted was incredibly liberating.
CS: Are there any themes that reoccur, lyrically or musically across the new album?
EC: If there was one reoccurring theme, it would be a sort of stream of consciousness. Oftentimes I’ll get lyrical ideas just from various words and phrases from my thoughts throughout the day, in dreams, maybe even from conversation. A song like “Learn & Burn” is sort of a collection of things that would run across my mind in a given day. I like a lot of songs that tell a story or are about specific things in a literal way, but I also really like when lyrics are open to interpretation, and sometimes it’s more the general impression they give or mood they create than the actual literal meaning that I’m into.
CS: What are your plans (and advice) for promotion of the new record?
RG: We’ve always been in the mindset that the best way for us to promote albums and the band in general is to get out there and continue to build a fan base organically by bringing out music to people and making fans one person at a time. In September we spent a month in Toronto doing a residency at The Dakota Tavern playing a weekly show to get our name out there and showcase leading up to the release of the album. This has helped to get our name out to the industry folks that normally we wouldn’t be able to, being that we’re at a bit of a geographical disadvantage in Saskatchewan. We are working with a publicist out of Halifax as well, trying to have more publicity and reviews of our album in advance of our shows.
CS: Where are the upcoming tours going to take you?
RG: Touring at the moment involves numerous tours --> CS: Are you finding that your name has been getting out there more? Do people know the words to your songs at the out-of-town live shows more often, that sort of thing?
EC: It gets a little better each time we go back on tour; we’ve had some Ontario shows where people have driven from five hours away on a weeknight to see us play, all just because they heard us on the internet. Once in Banff, we had a pair of young hippy couples that traveled all the way from Vancouver Island to see us play.
RG: We’ve seen a definite increase in people knowing about the band and coming to shows, versus just randomly seeing us at a bar or hearing about us through friends in town. This is a hard gap to bridge, but with promotion and continual touring, it has seemed to help. We had fans come out in Saskville, NB which is a small university town. When you are able to have this happen, you know that you must be doing something right in that regard.
CS: Now --- entertain me with crazy tour stories!
EC: Our van was broken into three times in a five month span, including twice in one week.
RG: Trying to think of crazy things seems to get harder and harder as we are becoming more accustomed to encountering weird people, or things not working out exactly as planned. For the first couple of years touring, we would always come back with crazy stories. Now, sitting here trying to think of things is kind of hard. Not that they have lessened by any extent, but more that they all just kind of blend together as part of the touring experience. We did, however, have a celebrity sighting at our showcase in Austin during SXSW [The Sheepdogs played the Red Gorilla Festival, a side festival that happens at the same time as SXSW]. Chris Kirkpatrick of N’Sync fame was in the crowd for our show. It was pretty funny, although I think he spent more time trying to pick up ladies than listening to the music. We thought about inviting him up to join us for some choreographed dance moves, but were too starstruck to offer [laughs].
CS: As an indie band, what do you think of the concept of non-sanctioned downloading? Do you feel it rips you off, or are you happy as long as the music gets out there?
EC: I take the ‘I’m happy people are listening’ approach. I don’t think it’s stopping anytime soon, at least folks are looking for [our music], and it seems like people who find your stuff on the internet and come to see you play are always the most eager folks when it comes to buying merch.
For us, success has always been having things run smoother, seeing shows [and album sales] get better, and [finding] more people who seem to dig what we’re doing as much as we do.
RG: I think to an extent, online exposure and getting music into the hands of people is extremely helpful for independent bands. It definitely doesn’t help the bank in the immediate sense, but definitely in the long run will help out. At least I hope...
CS: What other ways can a band create revenue with their music?
EC: Learn polkas and play dances.
RG: Pyramid schemes.
EC: Seems like the big way bands do it nowadays is licensing music to commercials and video games. We have had our music used in film and TV a bit. We were even in a movie, a made-for-cable flick called Intimate Strangers where we were the band in the bar for one scene. Not exactly Jeff Healey in Roadhouse.
CS: How do you measure your success as a band?
LEOT HANSON: A rock n’ roll ruler.
RG: In your downtime you have to continually check yourself and remind yourself why you keep doing what you’re doing, because it takes a lot of sacrifice to be a musician putting out original music these days. When you’re at home, away from playing shows and being in other towns, it’s hard to know who is listening to your music or who’s talking about you, which can [make it] extremely tough to measure success. For us, success has always been having things run smoother, seeing shows [and album sales] get better, and [finding] more people who seem to dig what we’re doing as much as we do.
CS: Are you pretty goal-oriented as a band, or content to take it as it comes?
RG: From the minute the band was conceived, we had lots of long term and short term goals. Not all are met, but we’ve met a lot and continue to create new goals and reach new levels. Goals have always been a good way to measure success and motivate ourselves, although they can be equally as frustrating and detrimental to band moral if things don’t work out. We have always had a big picture goal, which is pretty much just making a decent living from writing, recording, and performing music.
CS: What does the near future hold for The Sheepdogs?
EC: Every time we go on tour we try to apply the lessons learned from previous tours. We keep trying to refine our approach and make each tour more successful and manageable. Musically, we’re very pleased with how easy and convenient recording our latest album by ourselves was, not to mention we like how it sounds. Our plan is to keep self-recording as much material as possible. A lot of bands really drag their heels when it comes to putting out new music these days. In one 18 month span in the ‘70s, Elton John put out five albums! We’re trying to do one a year.
RG: I read recently that most bands in today’s music industry have a life span of eight months, so to be together for five-plus years is a pretty big accomplishment in itself.
For more information, vist https://www.thesheepdogs.com/
By Craig Silliphant for SaskMusic. Photos courtesy Shannon Heather, Adina Applebum, and The Sheepdogs. Originally published Jan/Feb 2010.
Sheepdogs Appear at Louis Pub on March 26th for "On A Cold Road" A CBC Live Concert Recording Presented by CBC Radio and SaskMusic
Featuring Three of Saskatoon Best and Brightest Live in Concert!
SLOW DOWN MOLASSES, MAYBE SMITH, THE SHEEPDOGS
Hosted by Grant Lawrence
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