Hedley's Estevan stop in their Canadian tour is only days away, and the band couldn't be more excited to appear in the Energy City.
"It's our first time there - I believe we have driven through it before, but to actually get to stop and play a show for you guys this time is so exciting for us," said Hedley's guitarist Dave Rosin. Also in the band are lead singer Jacob Hoggard, drummer Chris Crippin and bassist Tommy Mac.
Hedley began their cross-Canada tour this week to promote their latest album, Storms. Released in November, Storms is Hedley's fourth record and reflects a growing, maturing group.
"The band was going through heavy times," said Rosin. "Everybody goes through storms. And I think we really bonded together again as brothers to put out this record that was honest and emotional to us."
And times certainly did get heavy for Hedley. During the recording of Storms, Mac announced to the group that he had cancer; however, he recorded his parts for the record and underwent treatment.
Fortunately, Mac is healthy enough to be joining the band on tour. Having faced challenges like this, Rosin described the album's content as "matters of the heart," a topic that is familiar to the band.
"There's always an edge of seriousness and honesty in all our songs, whether it be Trip, whether it be Perfect, whether it be Sweater Song, whether it be Heaven's Gonna Wait, or Darling or even songs like Hot Mess have a tinge... at least a bit of truth in them," said Rosin.
Now that the record is out and in the hands of their fans, Rosin said the group is thrilled to get on the road and perform.
"I always say when we put a record out, it's always feels like a secret because, like I said, you've worked so hard at something... It's kind of like, you know, when you buy somebody something for Christmas and you're like 'Oh, I really hope they like it.' That's always how it feels when we release a record," said Rosin.
Over the past seven years, Rosin said the band has absorbed their favourite aspects of other concerts and shows, and are prepared to put on a terrific tour.
"From the last record, when we started doing these larger venues, it was definitely more of challenge to be like, 'OK, what are we going to kind of infuse with everything we've seen in rock shows?' because we all love going to concerts, seeing big spectacles. So we're like 'How do we bring the spectacle to you guys?' So let's just say we have definitely tucked a couple tricks up our sleeves and have learned a couple of things from our last round out and we're going to bring the boat to you guys."
Playing in Estevan's Spectra Place won't be far from the norm for the band, that has played many clubs and museums on the road to fame.
"We're still bringing the same show to Estevan that we're actually bringing to Vancouver, Toronto and everywhere else. So that's pretty cool," said Rosin.
Along with several talented opening acts, Hedley will be bringing out large video projection screens to add to their performance. The screens will be used to present slide shows of photos submitted by fans, as well as content Rosin said the band has been hard at work to prepare.
"We've really been working the last couple months to create a bunch of custom content that that, let's just say, is very trippy and very nice on the eyes."
As for content, Rosin said the guys from Hedley are excited to bring both old and new material to the stage.
"It was definitely a hard decision making the set list this time, just because we do have four records and so many songs that fans want to hear and we want to play," he said. "We definitely had to come up with a creative way to kind of cram 100 pounds of manure into a 50 pound bag."
Rosin said two songs the band is looking forward to playing live are One Life the second single off the album, and Stormy, which Rosin said has a "good feeling" to it. They're also excited to play Storms's first single, Invincible, an anthem about making it through tough times.
"A song like Invincible is very - they wanted it to say a lot and to have a lot of meaning ... hopefully find that out, stretch it out and have other people relate to it as well," said Rosin.
Looking to Saturday's performance, Rosin wants those attending the concert to come prepared.
"It's going to be a full night of music, so anybody coming to the show, I would recommend getting a good sleep the night before, because we're going to send you all home happy, tired and with a little song in your head, hopefully."
The concert begins at 7 p.m. at Spectra Place.
