THE TREWS
Thursday, November 6
Gateway (SAIT)
"We are such a live band," says Colin MacDonald, vocalist-guitarist of Antigonish, Nova Scotia’s latest rock sensation, The Trews.
"We tour constantly. The only time we’re not performing onstage is on our travel days. We hardly take any time off." This past year has seen The Trews tour campuses and well as landing some high profile opening slots for Three Days Grace, Theory of a Deadman and Big Sugar. "We’ve literally crossed the country twice in the last two months," says MacDonald.
Such devotion to the cause has not gone unnoticed. The Trews have recently received a well-earned hearty slap on the back in the form of a dubious musical accolade. Colin’s own tour diary maintained at www.thetrewsmusic.com proudly declares, "We’ve become the ‘Can Rock’ opening band of the year!" And that’s just the for starters.
But, it’s not all about life onstage for these longtime friends. Colin’s brother John-Angus MacDonald (lead guitar) and pals Sean Dalton (drums) and Jack Syperek (bass) are in the process of releasing their debut full-length album House of Ill Fate, an independent effort that will be distributed through Bumstead Records. Appropriately enough, Colin predicts that the success of the first few songs off of the new album will dictate the destiny (ill or otherwise) of his band’s future business prospects.
"The fate of the next single will determine what tours we’ll be doing next year. Hopefully, people will want to hear more of us after that." If not? "We’ll go home and try to collect the pieces of our long lost social lives."
Social ties and home-cooked meals aren’t the only thing The Trews have forfeited in their five years together. Not so long ago they were involved in a brief split over the use of their original name, Trouser. An easily settled dispute that, according to Colin, saw the lads arrive at a new and improved appellation.
"We used to be called Trouser, then in February of 2002, we received a cease-and-desist letter from another indie band named Trouser. We decided then to change our name to The Trews, which I think is a much better name, anyways. I mean Trouser – it just sounds so Atari."
Now residing in the scenic Niagara Falls area, The Trews are always thrilled to see truly loyal fans from their home province at every show they play, and Calgary is no exception. It seems that whenever The Trews come to town, Nova Scotia natives emerge from the woodwork to display their support for these burgeoning hometown heroes.
"We love playing Calgary," says MacDonald "I couldn’t believe how many familiar faces were in the crowd the last time we played there. The crowd was at least a third Nova Scotian."
This means a lot to the band, whose simple rock ’n’ roll mandate is to play the music that they’d like to hear. This means taking their influences (which included such bands as The Beatles and R.E.M) and attacking their music with passion.
"I hate having to define our sound, but I once heard someone describe our musical style as – ‘blue-eyed soul that rolls into raunchy rock and roll.’ I think that sums it up nicely." |
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