Juno nominated indie rockers Hey Rosetta! start to see their efforts pay off
THE LANCE
March 21, 2012
Energized indie rockers Hey Rosetta! have planted seeds in enough cities to land themselves both a performance and nomination at next Sunday’s Juno Awards.
Hey Rosetta! is nominated for New Group of the Year at the awards. Albeit honoured, the band, who has been touring extensively for the last seven years, was a bit surprised by the award category.
“I kind of was [surprised],” remarked violinist Kinley Dowling during their March 8 show at St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit. “I guess we tour all the time in Canada. I feel like there’s a lot of fans in tiny communities, but never a larger spotlight.”
“I’m so pumped [about the Junos],” she added. “I’m so excited for the band. The boys are kind of like, ‘We’re going to wear our everyday jeans.’ They are trying to dress me down, but this is a huge event … I think I might pull a Taylor Swift and totally do a costume change.”
Lead singer, guitarist and pianist Tim Baker remarked, “I don’t certainly lose any sleep over not getting nominated or anything, but it is an honour. And it’s especially cool that it gives the release (Seeds, 2011) a lot of legs. It gives it a second wind.”
Since 2005, the St. John’s, Nfld. six-piece, also consisting of Adam Hogan (guitar), Josh Ward (bass), Phil Maloney (drums) and Romesh Thavanathan (cello), has garnered critical and fan acclaim alike.
Known for passionate vocals and a robust, multi-layered sound, they’ve taken home three East Coast Music Awards and a $25,000 XML Satellite Radio prize for best album in 2008. The band is also nominated for four ECMAs this year.
Hey Rosetta! has released three full-length albums since their debut self-titled EP, earning three East Coast Music Awards and two Polaris Prize nominations for the last two records, Seeds and 2008’s Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart and on through your blood).
But what has afforded them the most attention is a growing fan base, the result of dedicated touring throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe and Australia.
Opening for British rockers Gomez at St. Andrew’s, the band played an explosive, but short, set of songs from Seeds to a receptive crowd that has grown since their first show in Detroit last year.
“No one really knows who we are,” said Maloney. “Certainly, there’s little pockets of people that come out to the show, because we’ve played a lot of these cities a couple of times at this point, so word is getting around.”
“It’s exactly what we did in Canada; you go out, and you go out again.”
During their performance, Baker surprised fans with a tweaked rendition of “Welcome,” their first single from Seeds.
“Those were actually the original lyrics that got cut for the record, because everything needs to be under five minutes,” remarked Baker. “[Producer Tony Doogan] thought that was …. a slow lyrical part in the middle of the song.”
“Every time you lose a line, you lose so much of what the song is about. With those lyrics gone, the song is far more positive and sweet.”
Always apt to try something new— the band hand-packaged seeds into their latest album for fans to grow— Hey Rosetta! recently released Sing Sing Sessions, a digital-only EP featuring four acoustic songs from Seeds, recorded while touring in Australia last year.
In February, the group also released an animated music video for “New Sum (Nous Sommes)” off their latest album. In a time when music television channels are opting for reality shows over music videos, Hey Rosetta! said putting out videos is worth the effort.
“The television is slowly becoming obsolete, but certainly the visual arts are more central than ever to the more common culture,” said Baker. “Videos are still very important, and they are still a beautiful way to couple imagery with music, but it’s definitely an effort. Videos are difficult to make.”
While Baker enjoys touring, saying, “You can see people visibly enjoying [the music] … and that’s amazing,” he admits it doesn’t afford the band time to create new things.
“[Making music videos is] very time consuming and energy consuming. When you are on the road you can’t do anything. You can’t even brain storm— well, I can’t anyway.”
Baker spoke about a conversation he had with musician Charles Spearin— founding member of Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene— about his experience touring with Feist; two weeks on, two weeks off, for two years.
“We’re not at all at the stage where we can dictate what we do in that sense … but that sounds pretty amazing. You would be able to maintain a sense of yourself, a sense of creativity, a sense of moving forward, even though you’re on the road,” said Baker.
“It’s always like the third week and the fourth week (of touring) that the monotony and lack of sleep take hold. You just lose the connection with what got you here.”
Hey Rosetta! wrapped up their U.S. tour with Gomez last week. They perform live at the Juno Awards in Ottawa on April 1 before jetting off to Europe for two weeks.