Coming off their first festival as headliners, Canada’s latest musical success story, The Sheepdogs, proved every bit the affable, old school-style rockers they’re labelled as before their Keloha set Sunday evening.
Finally being top dog at the Vancouver Island Musicfest Saturday night didn’t appear to have changed the young musicians who said their music is all about “having good times and playing feel-good rock and roll.”
And the group has been having a very good time playing festival after festival on the world stage since winning a Rolling Stone Magazine contest to become the first unsigned act on its cover.
“Living in Saskatoon, you don’t always get every major act coming through, so we were able to see Radiohead, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, My Morning Jacket…” said drummer Sam Corbett.
Whether for love or money doesn’t seem to be an issue at this point as they’re loving the music and putting the money to good use creatively speaking.
“It’s really expensive to get vinyl made, but as soon as we could afford it, we definitely did it because we are all collectors of vinyl and big listeners of vinyl,” said bass guitar player Ryan Gullen. “Some people argue it sounds better, but there’s something different about a record. It’s a lot more involved. People intentionally make albums flow a certain way and we’re pretty big fans of those decisions and that process.”
The Sheepdogs were the second to last act of the weekend and epitomized the festival’s underlying indie music theme. Most of the line-up were unsigned artists with a few who had started as indie acts and crossed over onto major labels after experiencing success in the independent scene.
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