They were once just a bunch of high school band geeks who hung out in the garage making music.
Now they sell millions of albums, tour the country and are nominated for two national awards in music.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what kind of music Down With Webster plays, but the band will perform it during their trademark high-energy show at the Port Theatre Wednesday (Feb. 22).
“It was just a bunch of kids having fun after school,” said Cam Hunter. “It was all over the place – it didn’t really have a direction.”
They were almost teens when the group started playing together in Tyler Armes’s garage in Toronto. A huge group of their friends would bring their instruments and jam together after school.
“The band was more like a clubhouse than anything,” Hunter said.
It was their hangout and their hobby throughout high school until the group became more serious about music as a career. By their early 20s, the band solidified into six members – Hunter, Armes, Dave Ferris, Patrick Gillett, Andrew Martino and Martin Seja.
Hunter was enrolled in university when the band started touring and he realized that school wasn’t teaching him what he wanted to learn.
“I thought, ‘I gotta get on this boat full time’,” he said. “I dropped out of school to do this.”
Their first album, Time to Win Vol. I, led to Warped Tour and Virgin Festival in 2009, plus appearances at the Much Music Video Awards, where they performed on the same bill as Lady Gaga and Drake.
They had offers to work with Timbaland and Gene Simmons, which they turned down to follow their own path.
“Even with all the success, it’s still a crazy, unsure thing,” Hunter said. “It definitely keeps us motivated.”
Their second album, Time to Win Vol. II, saw the boys work with Boi-1da. The collaboration was a success, earning the band two Juno Award nominations for Pop Album of the Year and Group of the Year. The awards will be given out April 1.
“We really clicked with him,” Hunter said. “The stuff we created with him was some of my favourite stuff I’ve ever done.”
Because their music can’t be neatly packaged into a particular genre, collaborations with other artists aren’t always easy to foresee.
“I never really know until it happens,” Hunter said.
The concert at the Port Theatre is open to all ages, starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets $34.50.
Please call 250-754-8550 or visit www.porttheatre.com.
Down With Webster are crossing the country by bus and Hunter encourages fans to help break up the monotony by contacting them through their Facebook (www.facebook.com/downwithwebster) and Twitter (@downwithwebster) pages.
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