Asked to sum up their year to date, The Stanfields guitarist-vocalist Jon Landry does so in one word: crazy. Since the start of 2010, the Halifax-based group has played just about every music festival under the Canadian sun including having showcased at the Juno Awards in St John’s this past April as well as having played during the Olympics this past February in Vancouver.
“There has been a lot of great things happening to us it seems,” Landry says. “When we had started working with Ian and Groundswell, we had set out a plan to work towards and so far, everything is going according to that plan.”
Groundswell is the record label who released The Stanfields record Vanguard Of The Young and Reckless in June of this year. The label is run by Ian Mckinnon of Rawlins Cross fame, who also signed on to manage the band.
“Ian has rock n roll veins in him,” Landry laughs. “It is a good partnership though because he is able to see both the label and management perspective on our behalf. He is an encyclopedia of common sense and has the experience and initiative to make it work.
“For us, being affiliated with an independent label but with the benefit of major label distribution is like having a major label deal was to bands ten years ago”.
With a sound described as “The Clash meets Steve Earle” and “The bastard children of AC/DC and Stan Rogers”, the group’s tightly honed sound boasts a killer rhythm section while their live show is garnering rave reviews from all those lucky to see it.
The Stanfields are no strangers to performing live, having played well over 100 shows during their first year of existence alone. Since then, they have only gotten busier. The group cut their teeth in pubs, clubs and rock shows along the way and is seeing the fruits of that labor now pay off as since those early days, the group’s schedule has only gotten busier.
During the month of October, The Stanfields will be embarking on what Landry says is their actual first cross-Canada tour by van, taking them to far away places like Vancouver and Calgary before the band returns to Nova Scotia to take part in Music Nova Scotia Week, to be held in Yarmouth at the start of November.
Despite the fact that Vanguard Of The Young and Reckless was released in June, the group has kept so steadily busy this year that their CD release party for the record wasn’t held until approximately two weeks ago.
“We’ve been fortunate to have some high-profile shows and opportunities that made us re-evaluate our release plans. What was great about delaying the CD release party was the fact that a lot of the people already had our record in their hands by the time the party happened!” Landry says.