As Canadians, we are inherently proud of our own when they do well for themselves. Expect a healthy dose of Maritime pride this coming Sunday when Antigonish, N.S. natives The Trews take the stage as one of two opening acts for the one and only Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.
From California earlier this week where The Trews were slated to play a show at Los Angeles’ Viper Room, guitarist John-Angus MacDonald is looking forward to returning to Moncton to support The Boss.
“As a band, we have been really fortunate over the course of the last 10 years to have supported some pretty big musical legends,” he says. “We played shows with the Rolling Stones, Robert Plant and KISS; people and bands that we really grew up idolizing. Bruce Springsteen is no exception to that. Growing up in the ’80s, he was a fixture of that whole time period. He is the kind of artist that seeps into your subconscious whether you want him to or not.
“The past five years of Springsteen’s career have really been remarkable. He has put out some great studio records while also playing these insane live shows. The wealth of material that he has at his disposal is amazing.”
With The Trews’ newest record Hope & Ruin now approximately 15 months old, MacDonald says the group is nearing the end of the touring and promotional cycle behind their April 2011 album. The group has done their fair share of time touring and promoting the album in Canada but has also spent a significant chunk of time touring the United States as well as having completed three tours of Australia.
MacDonald says that before long, The Trews will head back into the studio to begin working on their next album. A lack of new material is apparently not an issue for the band.
“We have a stack of songs that we have been steadily accumulating and are also sitting on probably a half-dozen brand new songs that are in various stages of completion,” he shares. “We have never been a band that sets out to write about specific subjects or anything like that. We tend to let the music flow, then come up with the melody, the riff and then the lyrics. It is probably a little backwards compared to how some bands write but it is what we have found works for us.”
Article published in August 24, 2012 edition of the Times & Transcript