Town Heroes performing at Glasgow Square this weekend
The Town Heroes will be back in New Glasgow this weekend.
The Halifax-based alternative rockers will be touring through the Maritimes this month, including a stop at Glasgow Square on Oct. 20, to promote the recent release of ‘Everything (will be fine when we get to where we think we’re going)’, the groups fourth album.
It is the band’s first record since it added a bass player and second guitarist to help fill out their sound and provide an opportunity to introduce more dynamics to their material in a live setting.
“It definitely lets us go in a direction that we wanted to,” says lead vocalist/guitarist Mike Ryan in a recent telephone interview, as he walked through the streets of Halifax on a rainy afternoon.
For seven years, Ryan and drummer Bruce Gillis (they’re both Cape Bretoners) had to find alternative ways to present their songs on stage. But with another guitarist and a bassist now touring with them, that isn’t a problem anymore.
“We’ve always had to pull back the reins. In the past, our live sound was completely crafted by our limitations – there were songs we couldn’t duplicate live with a two-member band,” Ryan said.
As with any album project, Ryan said the Town Heroes tried to search for cohesiveness with the material they were writing and recording.
“You try to put together a group of songs together, in a way that makes sense.”
Asked which songs stand out on their new record, Ryan said the song Babe Ruth – it’s not really about the legendary baseball slugger – is one that immediately springs to mind.
“It seems to be one that people are really liking,” says Ryan, who is the band’s principal songwriter, although he does collaborate on some songs.
“Babe Ruth is a catchy song but it’s fairly deep thematically. It serves as a metaphor for being there for someone you care about, making sure they’re safe.”