A bit sheepish about success
Porch rockers glad for industry nods, hope for more U.S. exposure
Many years from now, if alien archeologists unearth evidence of the early 2010s in Canadian rock music, it might be safe to assume The Sheepdogs were the most popular band in Canada.
Consider the evidence: The cover of Rolling Stone, the headlining shows across the country, their appearance on Project Runway, recording with Black Keys drummer and Justin Bieber antagonist Pat Carney, the chart-topping album, the hit singles, the three Junos.
But of course in our modern times of instant gratification, it’s hard to say for sure exactly what success is, especially in the current Canadian cultural climate. Even the members of the Saskatoon quartet can’t seem to quite figure it out.
“I think the level that we’re at right now in Canada, it’s about maintaining it,” lead singer and guitarist Ewan Currie says. “But if we can break through a bit in the United States, it’s a different ball game.”
Exactly one year ago, Currie was sitting in a coffee shop in Austin, Texas, where The Sheepdogs were set to premiere songs off their upcoming major label debut album to hungry A&R and media at the South by Southwest music festival, contemplating that very U.S. exposure. It had been a just over six months since the band’s Rolling Stone cover and fans of both rock and magazines hoped that triumph would herald the resurrection of blues rock.
“Now it’s all Nickelback and their cookie-cutter knock-offs and that’s why bands like The Black Keys are so important for popular music,” Currie said then. “We want to be there with them.”
A year later, sitting less than a kilometre away from that same coffee shop, Currie is a bit more cautious. Describing what he calls an “insane” 2012, he says the band is “always tempering”’ its expectations.
“That goes back to our early days of expecting things to suck,” he says. “Now we know things aren’t going to suck but there’s certainly moments where you’re disappointed. But mostly it’s been awesome.”
For those outside of the insular world of porch rock that both birthed and championed The Sheepdogs, it may seem like the musicians have fallen off from the audacious hype that catapulted them to a point of national pride — the Cinderella story of artists toiling for years in dive bars before a twist of fate allows them to get their shot at fame and fortune. But the reality is, they never stopped.
“We haven’t had a month off in two years,” Gullen says. Sipping a heady cocktail mixed with heavy hand by a sympathetic Canadian bartender, the 28-year-old says the group has been studying how Canadian luminaries handle both national fame and international hopes.
“You have to think you can only tour Canada so many times. I think bands like The (Tragically) Hip, Blue Rodeo and Sloan, they’ve done it but it’s tasteful. They don’t do it every three months.”
With that in mind, Currie lays out their modest U.S. plans.
“In America, we’re much less known — its way bigger and there’s way more country to cover in terms of population,” he says, “It’s not as easy going but we’re chipping away.”
It’s a far cry from their braggadocio aspirations of U.S. radio dominance. But, as the singer points out, it’s a more realistic vision for a changing landscape in modern popular music — a landscape that left nearly every rock band but the Black Keys on the outside looking in at the resurgence of electronic dance music and hard pop acts like Rihanna.
“We have all these stations that are, like, ‘We like you a lot but you’re a bit too heavy for us.’ ” Currie recalls of the group’s meetings with U.S. radio programmers. “There’s not a lot of rock that’s breaking through in a big way in the U.S.”
And it’s not going to get easier as music fans splinter to even more narrow casting. A fact that leaves bassist Ryan Gullen vexed.
“You go to Saskatoon you’ve got one rock station,” he says.
To that end, The Sheepdogs have much to look forward to when they return to the world of all-encompassing rock radio this weekend when the Junos take place in their home province of Saskatchewan. Unlike last year’s Junos, when the group was in Australia touring with John Forgery, The Sheepdogs will be both attending and performing at this year’s ceremony.
“Literally all we wanted to do is to play on the show. It’s in Regina, that’s all we want,” Gullen says.
Currie is looking forward to the performance for rather more personal reasons.
“My grandparents can’t really make it to the shows,” he says. “But something like the Junos is a familiar entity that, not only can they watch us but they know what it is. It’s also an old-timey format so they can relate to it.”
Having already won three awards last year, the group is nominated for another three (rock album of the year, single of the year and group of the year) at this year’s ceremony. Add to that a heavy touring schedule and a new documentary, Beware of the Dogs, about to do the festival circuit, it’d be fair to assume that, grandmothers aside, the The Sheepdogs are risking the kind of forced overexposure at home they were complaining about in the U.S. market. But Currie keeps his perspective. “Every time you think you’re overexposed,” he says, “there’s always someone to remind you that they’ve never heard of you.”