There’s news to report once again from the Wintersleep camp. Fresh from signing a management deal with Sonic Entertainment, the workaholics released their second video from their sophomore self-titled album at The Marquee Club on February 24. For “Fog,” the band was finally able to go the animated route it had wanted to go for some time.
“There was no real revelation; we have thought of working out an animated video for other songs in the past and just didn’t get them together,” says bassist Jud Haynes. “Happily we found a couple amazing animators this time around who were as excited about the project as we are.”
The band wrote the storyline several months before finding Scott K MacDonald and Mirco Chin to animate. Haynes says the process was less complicated than previous efforts. “It was actually way easier to coordinate an animated video than a regular video, there are only two people creating the whole thing. Whereas live action videos require huge teams of camera people, lighting specialists, directors, technical folks…”
Currently on tour across Canada with Dependent labelmates Jill Barber, Contrived and Brian Borcherdt, Wintersleep will also take a short break to head down to Austin, Texas, between March 15 and 19. They are one of five Halifax acts playing the annual South by Southwest festival, along with Jimmy Rankin, The Heavy Blinkers, Classified and Matt Mays & El Torpedo.
On the road again
One-man band and local fry cook BA Johnston is headed back to the road shortly for his latest marathon tour. While other recent excursions have reached upwards of 50 cross-Canada dates, Johnston says this tour presents new challenges.
“This one will be a bit different, I am travelling with a guy from Vancouver with a car. He’s taking care of the stuff out west, I am taking care of the stuff out east,” he says of touring mate Mr. Plow. “This guy doesn’t like nights off, he wants to play like a million shows in a row. That’s going to be a real killer. If we did it the way he wants, it’s about thirty consecutive shows. He won’t take days off, well he does sometimes, but he really kinda frowns on it.”
Johnston will be accompanied by yet another new release, which he hopes to have available on the last half of the tour, a seven-inch that follows a pair of 2005 releases, My Heart is a Blinking Nintendo and Songs About a Stewardess.
It’s “a seven-inch with the Port City All-Stars,” Johnston explains. “They have two songs, I have two songs. We both kinda do pretty well out here in different cities, so we’ll help one another out with promoting.”
The Halifax homecoming date of the tour goes down April 1 at Gus’ Pub — right in the middle of JunoFest. Provocatively titled Fuck the Junos, Johnston says the theme of the evening is representative of his general feelings toward the event. When asked to elaborate, Johnston is not at a loss for words or examples; Theory of a Deadman is mentioned several times in an amusing, unrestrained rant pointed toward his perception of the quality of some of the, um, talent lined up for the official showcases.
The April 1 show will also feature The Sweet Tenders and Windom Earle.
This hurts us more than it hurts you
And now for the bad news and really bad news...Sad fact of the week: The April 4 Stars gig at The Marquee is off. Horrid, recently substantiated Juno rumour of the week: Black Eyed Peas will perform at the big show.
How will you be drowning your Black Eyed Peas-related sorrows? Email: [email protected]
