Big Wreck to play Gold Eagle Events Centre

Canadian content rock radio staples Big Wreck are kicking off their tour at the end of January in British Columbia before making their way to the Gold Eagle Casino for a show Feb. 10.

2017 marks 20 years since the alt rock outfit released their first album after meeting in Boston, Mass., while singer Ian Thornley and bandmates were attending Berklee College of Music. Since then, Big Wreck has released five studio albums, gone through lineup changes, won awards, disbanded, and gotten back together. Their latest is Grace Street, taken from Thornley’s address in Toronto.

When speaking about this latest release, Thornley fixes on the unique, journey-like quality of each song. 

“When we were running through the songs, each song on its own, with just the three of us bashing our way through it and putting it together and deciding on the arrangements, as we were doing that it was becoming apparent these songs are their own little journeys.

“Instead of an album where you have a bunch of rockers and then two slow ones, it’s really each song being its own journey,” says Thornley.

With each song like “different islands in the same ocean,” with their own influences and inspirations, Thornley says the destination of the songs’ journeys almost seems to write itself.

“I borrow from anything. You dig around with whatever you have at your disposal to help tell that story. The song tends to tell you what it wants to do and where it wants to be,” says Thornley.

“Maybe that's because I've been doing this for so long.”

With 20 years of experience as a professional musician, Thornley has a wealth of musical knowledge he can return to during the writing and recording process. Even still, he’s not opposed to hearing suggestions and ideas.

During the recording of Grace Street’s Motionless, Thornley recalls one of these collaborative instances.

“The whole song is barren and I was liking the fact it was barren and it just felt really intimate. [Then] for the chorus, we need something high, like what would I do? A keyboard, an organ, or a mandolin,” says Thornley.

“Well, then we thought, what about the wine glass thing? [Garth Richardson, co-producer] came back with a wine glass and a turkey baster, which is how you tune the glass. So we tuned a bunch of wine glasses to a major scale and added that in and it just adds this really angelic sort of ethereal sound. That technique would not work in any other songs.”

And that’s not the only unconventional sound that made its way onto the album. Close listeners can also catch a recording of Thornley’s daughter’s heartbeat incorporated and even nails going down a chalkboard on a track.

As for recreating these sounds for their live shows, Thornley says they’ll be tailoring the songs for their performances.

“Who wants to go to the show and just watch the album? It should be its own living, breathing thing and it's hard to do that when you're playing to track.

“I don't look at track as cheating, I just don't think it’s us. It wouldn't feel right.”

Still, folks at Big Wreck shows can still expect the music they love, just in a different setting, including the hits.

“We want to play as much new music as possible, but we don't want to alienate people by doing so. I’ve been to shows and they don't play any hits and it’s like what is this?” says Thornley.

“I want to hear the hits and I get that, as a fan.”

Big Wreck will be at Gold Eagle Casino Feb. 10 with openers Ascot Royals. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased on Gold Eagle’s website at goldeaglecasino.ca/event/big-wreck.