Said The Whale is a Vancouver band that has carved out their name for a meaningful period of time. The Canadian indie music stalwarts have been releasing anthemic tunes for over a decade now. The band uses their platform and influence to inspire the next generation of musicians. That takes on a few permutations including performing tours at high schools, creating music contests fans can engage with, and monetary donations to arts-related programs. STW guitarist/ vocalist Tyler Bancroft spoke with LM2’s Dylan Bowker ahead of a few December 2019 dates the band is playing. All subsequent live shows and band related info can be found on their website.
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Despite the aforementioned notable tenure of the band, Said The Whale collectively feels like they’re playing their best shows in 12 years. Bancroft said, “Honestly, I think it’s just hard work. We’ve been at it for so long. We take our fair share of time off between records. There’s only so much you can do in Canada….When it’s time to work, we work. We write as much new music as we can and we always try to come up with creative things to releases like cookbooks and great merch….It is a slow build. It’s always been a slow build for us. We’ve never really had like a big break or any stroke of luck. It’s just been hard work.”
It’s hard for Tyler Bancroft to reconcile that Said The Whale influences young musicians much in a way that they were influenced by their own idols. That slow build Bancroft mentioned has established Said The Whale as stalwarts of what is a fruitful and uniquely supportive Canadian Indie music scene. Bancroft quipped, “Two guys from Wintersleep were at our show last night and we hung out with them for a little bit. Canada has a pretty incredible music scene. Going to international festivals like SXSW….It’s sort of like an inside joke that all Canadians will end up hanging together the whole time.”
Said The Whale Cascadia
Said The Whale did a recent re-issue of Islands Disappear to celebrate ten years of that record being in existence. The re-issue process saw the band draw parallels between that album and their recent original record. Bancroft stated, “The album Cascadia sort of harkens back to that kind of vibe. With a lot of natural references and sonically it’s cut kind of from the same cloth…..We recently obtained the rights back to that record….We own that record, we did a reissue. As time passes you become more appreciative of the past work and sort of the way it influences people.”
Each album is a unique snapshot in time for the band. Said The Whale has some degree of a learning curve between each record but each album is a wholly different experience.
Bancroft quipped, “I think there are certain things that do influence the next record. The reason why this record Cascadia had such an organic acoustic sound is because the record before was very synthesized. The point of that record was to be a sonic experiment. A lot of effects, synths, and programmed drums. We wanted to do something completely different for that record. Ten for his record it as a bounce back to the complete opposite side of the pendulum swing….At the same time, records are also a unique snapshot of where we’re at in life.”
Said The Whale
The duration of the band has resulted in several different personality permutations among the members. Said The Whale has changed dramatically as a collective and huge life changes have caused shifts for the individuals that comprise STW. Bancroft went through a period where he lost his workspace to a nursery and the bikeshed out back became the creative space. Recording and general work would get done whilst keeping the baby monitor on deck. The DIY ethos of the band reflects in their ability to record anywhere at any time and get a studio-quality recording out of it.
Bancroft said, “I think that maybe in a perfect world we could afford a big fancy studio of choice. But realistically, it just doesn’t make sense in 2019 when you’re really not profiting off recorded music. It’s sort of going back to more DIY when possible. Also, technology has advanced to the point where it’s really not that hard to get great sound with just a couple preamps and mics in a cabin.” Bancroft continued, “We feel very fortunate to be able to do what we do. But then not too fortunate because like I said, it’s the product of a lot of hard work. It’s been our life work.”
Surgery while touring/ Canadian Indie kinship
As far as memorable touring stories, the band would prefer those stayed at a minimum. Bancroft explained the thought process when he said, “What you want it to be is not memorable. Because it’s memorable when things go wrong. Something bad happens to the van or like somebody has to get taken in for appendix surgery…We’ve had so many vans break down. It’s a very cliche part of touring.”
Bancroft expanded further on the situation that resulted in him getting surgery and performing just days later. He stated, “It was incredible timing actually. We had actually just arrived for a planned five days off. It was during a tour with Mother Mother…My first night back I started having abdominal pains. Went to the hospital, had appendicitis, got it yanked out. Kind of had three days at home to recover the went back out against doctor’s orders.”
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