![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i1220.photobucket.com\/albums\/dd449\/MTRBWY\/175760_10150138730196060_6894381059_7902042_4003784_o.jpg\" "\\"Trews")
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“We\u2019re an eclectic rock band, there\u2019s something for everybody, it\u2019s a melodic, hooky, heavy, meaty, beaty, big and bouncy\u2026”<\/p>\n
The Trews have been around for the best part of 10 years and kicking ass and taking names in their home country of Canada.\u00a0 The crime against humanity is that they should be doing it all over the world, and it will happen, one day soon.\u00a0 They have found love here in Australia, so much so that they are about to spend the best part of two months here bringing their electic mix of rock to the masses.<\/p>\n
We spoke with The Trews singer Colin MacDonald who was fresh off the stage from The Viper Room in LA to discuss their upcoming Australian tour, their newest album Hope & Ruin and just who they get their stage tips from.\u00a0 This really is a cool band you should check out!<\/p>\n
Over to Trew…<\/p>\n
For those that aren\u2019t familiar with The Trews, how would you introduce yourself to someone hearing you for the first time.<\/strong> You have such a great association with Australia, how did all that come about?<\/strong> You\u2019re now heading back in September \/ October for a new run of shows, what can fans expect this time around compared to the previous dates?<\/strong> You\u2019re doing a mix of rock shows and acoustic shows while in OZ, how much different is an acoustic show compared to your full blown rock show?<\/strong> And which do you prefer?<\/strong> How was the Viper Room show last night?<\/strong> How is the US market are you still working on that?<\/strong> Hope & Ruin has been out for 4 months now, how has the reaction been to it?<\/strong> The album is such a great mix of songs and I found it hard to compare it to anyone else which is a good thing, but if you had to site some influences, who would they be?<\/strong> How did you get involved with Gord Sinclair from the Tragically Hip who produced the new album?<\/strong> I have to ask, I read you toured with the likes of The Stones, KISS, Robert Plant, Guns N Roses and more.\u00a0 Not bad company to be in, how many times a day do you kick yourself when you\u2019re playing with bands of that calibre?<\/strong> Did you pick up anything from these artists that you now use with the band?<\/strong> With almost 10 years together as a band, looking back is there a defining moment that stands out?<\/strong> Just lastly, do you have a message for your Australian fans?<\/strong> From:<\/strong> Canada<\/p>\n Band Members:<\/strong> Colin MacDonald \u2013 Vocals, John-Angus MacDonald \u2013 Guitar, Jack Syperek \u2013 Bass, Sean Dalton \u2013 Drums<\/p>\n Website:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.thetrewsmusic.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n Latest Release:<\/strong> Hope & Ruin (Bumstead Productions \/ MGM)<\/p>\n
\nOh, we\u2019re an eclectic rock band, there\u2019s something for everybody, it\u2019s a melodic, hooky, heavy, meaty, beaty, big and bouncy\u2026<\/p>\n
\nIt just sort of started like, we\u2019ve been big in Canada for some time and we\u2019ve been over the years trying to break in, like doing more gigs in the United Kingdom and doing more gigs in the US and stuff and Australia came up last Fall, and we wanted to go, we\u2019d never been to Australia, and we ended up hooking up with a co manager down there by the name of Geoff Trio who kind of manages our band down there in Australia with our manager in Canada Larry Wanagas and he really liked our band and brought us down and just started booking us gigs around Australia and we had a lot of fun.\u00a0 The was in September of last year and it went pretty good, the crowds were modest but enthusiastic and then we decided we were going to give it another shot in February of this year and we just went down and just played residency gigs in Sydney and just played basically 5 nights a week all over Sydney and started to get a little bit of a following and then we got a single added to a radio station Triple M and that seemed to do pretty good and that seemed like a good time to come back especially if there\u2019s a little bit of visibility with the radio and what not and that\u2019s sort of how it started.<\/p>\n
\nI think we\u2019ve been on the road a lot even since then so our show\u2019s getting pretty tight, pretty good, you know it\u2019s always good but getting even better and I think, we\u2019re always really enthusiastic to play and we always have a great time live, and I think you can just expect a good time.<\/p>\n
\nWell the full blown rock show is just a lot more raw energy, the acoustic show is more listenable ha ha, it\u2019s just more laid back, it focuses more on the songs and the arrangements and the harmonies and in the electric show it\u2019s a lot more visceral, its all about rocking and we\u2019re trying to combine both elements into one show now as opposed to having one acoustic show and one electric show, trying to have both during the gigs, that would be pretty awesome.\u00a0 We like doing both of them, obviously the acoustic show is a lot easier on our ears but we like doing both.<\/p>\n
\nIt depends where we\u2019re at, right now I\u2019m really tired, I was just in Los Angeles the last 3 days playing, we played a really loud rock show at the Viper Room last night and I have to play another rock show tonight, and my voice is kind of hurting so I think I\u2019d prefer an acoustic show tonight but I don\u2019t think I have a choice in the matter.<\/p>\n
\nIt was cool man, we\u2019re not a very big band in America but we definitely had a good enthusiastic crowd out and we really brought it, we\u2019re the kind of band that prides itself as being as good in front of 30,000 people as we are in front of 30 people, its like we don\u2019t differentiate, all shows are go shows, there\u2019s no shows and no show, and we try to bring every time we\u2019re up there even if there\u2019s no body in the bar and so it was like we had a small but good crowd so it was fun.<\/p>\n
\nYeah we\u2019re still working on it, I mean some parts of the US really dig us, its just that it hasn\u2019t happened all over the US yet and that\u2019s frustrating but it\u2019s also a reality we just deal with and still try to have fun and still try to make good music and still try to turn people on with our shows.<\/p>\n
\nUp here it\u2019s been great, the album\u2019s got a vibe to it, sometime I think a bit of a melancholy vibe, I always kind of understand an album in hindsight, I\u2019d be like, wow, I was obviously going through something when we made that album and you don\u2019t realise at the time because you\u2019re just making and album and writing songs and they just end up a certain way.\u00a0 The reaction has been great and the singles have done really well up here and the crowds are certainly different so we\u2019re happy. ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i1220.photobucket.com\/albums\/dd449\/MTRBWY\/Trews_CoverArt.jpg\" "\\"Trews")
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\nOur influences?\u00a0 We\u2019re a very eclectic band, I think maybe because we\u2019ve been doing it so long and we just get bored easily and we just want to make whatever kind of music we\u2019re feeling at the time you know and sometimes I\u2019m really just into folk music and singer songwriter music and you know like some days I\u2019ll want to listen to Louden Wainwright the 3rd<\/sup> and REM and other days I\u2019ll want to listen to Nirvana or Black Flag or Black Sabbath or Metallica, we\u2019re kind of a schizophrenic band, maybe we\u2019re schizophrenic people ha ha I think that we just bore easily and it\u2019s our main gig so we just pour everything in to it and results may vary.<\/p>\n
\nHe\u2019s been a long time friend of the band, we\u2019ve always really liked Gord, he\u2019s an extremely talented person but also very kind person and we\u2019ve always liked him and he used to come to our gigs forever, he\u2019d come to Kingston and we\u2019d invite people out to the gig and he\u2019d always come out, and we were always really big tragically hip fans so having him come out was a really big deal for us as we always looked up to his band and he just hung out and hung out and last year he called my brother and said, if you guys want to come out to the studio, they own a studio out of Kingston Ontario called The Bathouse, he said if you guys want to come out and do some demos, the studio is free and if you don\u2019t mind I\u2019ll just hang around and see what you guys are up to and we can jam or collaborate or whatever, ok that sounds cool.\u00a0 We went out there and started jamming and he picked up a guitar and just started jamming with us and next thing you know we were hashing out song arrangements and getting ready to record, it was really awesome and we ended up making this really organic album, so yeah.<\/p>\n
\nNo, we have never toured with Bad Company, ha ha I\u2019m just kidding.\u00a0 Oh it\u2019s amazing you know, we spend all our time just wanting to be a band like that so we\u2019re really happy for us but when we see someone that\u2019s so great we just try to work harder to be that you know, so it\u2019s a combination of being obviously it\u2019s awesome to rub shoulders with people you grew up admiring them and you\u2019re like \u2018wow man, they\u2019re so good, we better work harder.\u2019 One of the people we just toured with I thought was amazing was Kid Rock, he is an amazing live performer and he\u2019s someone I never really listened to before touring with him and we ended up doing an arena tour with him up in Canada and he was just incredible , just such a great performer and he made us really wan to step up our game and so it\u2019s a combination of being like ;\u2019Oh my god I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m meeting Robert Plant\u2019 and also at the same time like \u2018Oh my god I can\u2019t believe we haven\u2019t written a song as good as \u2018Going To California\u2019 yet\u2019 and so it\u2019s humbling and its cool and its every feeling you could imagine meeting someone that inspired you to pick up a guitar.\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty heavy.<\/p>\n
\nEspecially with Kid Rock, we\u2019ve never really watched ourselves or anything and he was taping, like he had a big entertainment system back stage while we were playing and he really liked our band and he couldn\u2019t come out and watch us, he\u2019s such a famous guy that it\u2019d be hard for him to stand out in the crowd, so he\u2019s would be watching our shows backstage on a TV and he would give us a DVD of our show every night so we would go back on to the bus and driving to the next gig we\u2019d watch our show you know and it was a great way to improve and there\u2019s no better critic of yourself then yourself because otherwise you\u2019re relying on very subjective feedback, either the person is very drunk and everything sounds good or the person hates you for some reason besides your music, just doesn\u2019t like that style which isn\u2019t objective either, so we can sit back and criticise ourselves and be happy with things as well and better our show.\u00a0 We\u2019d watch nightly, every night and watch ourselves get better and that was really cool.<\/p>\n
\nYeah I mean, we got called to open for The Rolling Stones in 2005 for a private show at The Phoenix in Toronto which is a club that only holds 1,000 people and it was amazing, and we watched sound check and I stood in front of Mick Jagger and he sang \u2018Dead Flowers\u2019 and \u2018Sway\u2019 and that was pretty amazing and that meant a lot to us for sure.\u00a0 The other time I remember being on Much Music when we were younger.\u00a0 Much Music is like our MTV and they told us that our single was number one in the country and that was on national television and that was a cool feeling and yeah, so, these are the kind of moments that you keep dear.<\/p>\n
\nCome on out to the gigs and keep coming out so we can keep coming back because we love Australia and I feel like there\u2019s a kinship between us Canucks and you Aussie\u2019s so I\u2019d love to see you come out to the gigs and have more and more reasons to come back.<\/p>\nEssential Information:<\/span><\/h2>\n