This Saturday (Feb. 21) will mark the second Golden Sound Festival Winter Block Party (fourth event overall) and perhaps no bigger act has taken the stage than this year’s headliner, Head of the Herd. The Vancouver duo hit it big with their hit single “By This Time Tomorrow,” a duet with Mother Mother’s Jasmin Parkin that vaulted into the number one spot on Canadian rock charts and received significant airplay during the NHL playoffs. The song’s immense popularity took guitarist Clayton Frank by surprise at first. “The interesting part is that when we initially demo’d that song it was meant to be our bluesy story-telling deep cut,” said Frank. “(Later) it became more of a bigger rock song, and even then we definitely didn’t think it would be the big home run single that it became at the time.” What followed was a bit of a whirlwind of big shows and large audiences as the band played over 100 shows in less than two years. A tour as the opening act for Guns n’ Roses is tops among the highlights for Frank and lead vocalist Neu Mannas. The key for the impressive rock combo will be how they follow up their early success. The group doesn’t have a major tour booked at the moment, and Frank admitted that he and Mannas are starting to look ahead to future records. While there will certainly be pressure to follow up an album that brought them such a great deal of success, Frank isn’t concerned and believes the lessons learned from their first hit will help guide them moving forward. “‘By This Time Tomorrow’ surprised us by being one of our favourite songs and not something we envisioned as a single, I think we’re just going to use that as a reminder to write things that we get excited about and things that we really like and try not to focus on what might be a hit song on the radio,” he said. Head of the Herd is scheduled to headline the Rockwater Grill and Bar’s lineup at Sound Fest and will take to the stage at approximately 11:30 p.m.

Golden Star