THUNDER BAY - For many bands, transition can be jarring, stifling, even terrifying, but change can bring introspection and for the east coast rock band, Wintersleep, a return to what transformed the indie rockers into an international success.
Last spring, Wintersleep released its sixth studio album, The Great Detachment, and have set out on an 18-date cross-Canada tour that will land them back in Thunder Bay on Nov. 27.
It’s been more than six years since Wintersleep has stopped in Thunder Bay and guitarist Tim D’eon said he and fellow band mates, Paul Murphy, Loel Campbell, Jon Samuel, and Chris Bell are excited for their return.
“It’s been a really long time since we’ve been there,” D’eon said in an interview with the Thunder Bay Source. “We’re going to do what we do. We always give it 100 per cent and it’s going to be a pretty rocking show with a good mix of old and new.”
Wintersleep’s latest album, The Great Detachment, is their first studio release since switching to Dine Alone Records in 2015. According to D’eon, most of the material for the album was written and recorded before making the switch in management.
The sound of the new release, which has been described as introspective and contemplative by the band, harkens back to earlier recordings, including the Juno award-winning album, Welcome to the Night Sky, released in 2007. D’eon said the band never set out to recapture the success of earlier work, but they did physically return to their roots at the Sonic Temple Studio in Halifax while working on the new album.
“It also helps that we recorded it in the exact same studio we did Welcome to the Night Sky and the second record as well,” he said. “I think that might have lent itself to the music a little bit, but it wasn’t a conscious decision.”
“We really wanted to do some stuff live off the floor,” D’eon said of the recording process. “It kind of had this wall of sound kind of vibe going on. Most people would say that is a crazy way to record, but we decided to try it anyway.”
The Great Detachment’s lead single, Amerika, which was inspired in part by the poetry of Walt Whitman, has received extensive radio play and reached number one on the Canadian music charts. The accompanying music video, directed by Scott Cudmore, has also been nominated for a music video award in the United Kingdom.
The song, which speaks to a time when the United States was just becoming a new nation, and the music video that includes several lines from a Donald Trump speech while on the campaign trail, speaks even more to current events, which D’eon said was unexpected.
“It’s crazy, the timing of all of this,” he said. “The song has been around for three years, long before any of these shenanigans were announced. It was a total coincidence, but it’s kind of cool timing.”
Before heading into their latest tour, Wintersleep took a brief break following an extensive European tour in the summer. They also said farewell to bassist, Mike Bigelow, who was with the band since 2007 and amicably departed in August. Chris Bell will be joining the band for their upcoming Canadian tour.
“It’s definitely a lot of work to get somebody to fill in,” D’eon said. “We have so many records and so many songs now, and trying to learn so many songs quickly can be hard. But we’re really happy getting Chris in here.”
Unfortunately, Rush bassist, Geddy Lee, was unavailable to jump on board with the tour, despite being featured on the track, Territory, on the latest album.
“We didn’t think he was actually going to do it,” D’eon said of Lee recording with the band. “We got a hold of his manager and put it out there and it turns out he was a fan of the band and said he had some time to work on this. We went back and forth with some ideas and it was really cool.”
Wintersleep has made the transition from their indie-band status in Halifax to Canadian music mainstays. With six studio albums, followers around the globe, and having opened for acts like Pearl Jam and Paul McCartney, D’eon said they don’t really focus too much on labels, but they still look inward to where they came from and are always looking to support up and coming musicians in Canada, because they’ve been there before.
“Whenever we go on tour we try to bring somebody, we got chances back in the day to open for bigger bands, so we always try to find an indie band that is just starting out and who we really like their music,” D’eon said.
Wintersleep will be performing at Crocks on Nov. 27 with guests Fake Palms.
