Well you would not believe who called the other day on their drive to St. John’s, Newfoundland! Lead singer, Tyler Bancroft, from Vancouver based band, Said The Whale talked to Youth Are Awesome about what life is like being a musician; everything from making a music video, to how comfortable naps in the tour van can be. Tyler and fellow songwriter, vocalist and guitar player, Ben Worcester, formed Said The Whale in 2007. Spencer Schoening (drums), Peter Carruthers (bass) and Jaycelyn Brown (keys) joined the two songwriters to make Said The Whale the perfect group. The group is no stranger to Calgary playing V-Fest in 2008, and you might have even seen them playing during the televised Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill. Their latest CD release, “Islands Disappear”, has launched them on a cross-Canada tour, “Kill ‘Em With Kindness” and will be making a stop in Calgary on May 1st, playing at the Royal Canadian Legion Br 1. (Sorry guys but this is an 18+ event) And now that you know a little more about them let’s get into what Tyler had to say the other day.
YAA: The tour you are currently on is called, “Kill ‘Em With Kindness”,
what are some ways that Said The Whale kills people with kindness?
Tyler: It’s a reference to the Tim and Eric Totally Awesome Show, and there’s the character Steve Brule, it’s a reference to him specifically. But how does Said The Whale kill ’em with kindness? Well we are all very nice people and we all endeavor to be so, so sure we are very, very nice people.
YAA: On your blog you made an entry about how your EP, Bear Bones portrays you in a more vulnerable sense, why was it important for you to release an album like that?
Tyler: It was just something to keep the ball rolling, we had put an album out in October and then it was February so we wanted to release something to keep people interested, just an acoustic recording. That was how Ben and I started out making music together, just recording and experimenting with different sounds in our basements, there were a few strange instruments, but it was just us with a lot of time on our hands. It was how we went back to our roots and I think it’s a nice listen.
YAA: All across Canada people are Rolling Up The Rim to Win at Tim Horton’s, has Said The Whale won anything yet?
Tyler: We stop at Tim Horton’s as much as any other band on the road does but maybe a bit less cause we’re slowly getting sick of it, but we have not won a single prize yet this tour. I know it says on the cup that you have a one in eight chance of winning but that is hogwash! No way is that true, because we have had well over eight coffees. We’re pretty ticked off about it, but glad you brought it up.
YAA: Why did you chose the name, “Said the Whale”?
Tyler: There is no interesting story to that one, it was just a result of a brainstorm that Ben and I had a few years ago. We thought it was representative of our music and that it had a west coast feel to it, so unfortunately there’s no really awesome story I can tell you.
YAA: Where did the idea for your music video, “Camilo (The Magician)” come from? Had you ever thought about having your music portrayed by animated characters before?
Tyler: The very first video we ever did was animated and it was created by the same person who does all of our album artwork. With this one we just pitched it to an animation company and they came back to us with a storyline we all thought was cool, and luckily we liked the first idea they approached us with. We all love how the video turned out.
[youtube Ar0bmGshhTs]YAA: While you’re on tour, what’s a snack that you always have in the tour van?
Tyler: Probably trail mix, there is no end to trail mix in the van. We are all pretty even trail mix eaters, I hate it when people just pick out the chocolates. We just go to the bulk section at Safeway and mix our own so you know that there will be something you like in there and you don’t have to pick and choose.
YAA: Many of your songs have a certain West Coast flavor, is there an area in Vancouver that you like to visit for inspiration when song writing?
Tyler: Ben has a cabin on one of the islands and I know he goes up there a lot. As for me, I work on tug boats, so I’m always out on the water and me and my dad would go boating in the summer. There are a lot of beautiful places to hang out in the summer, for sure.
YAA: Said The Whale won the Most Canadian Song award at the 2009 Bucky Awards, is there anything you would have liked to add to your acceptance speech?
Tyler: I was pretty happy with my acceptance speech but I seem to recall having honoured the rest of the people in the category cause it was a tough category. I find it a little bit interesting that our song “Emerald Lake, AB” is by no means our most Canadian song, but it’s the song that won the category. I find it funny. Our most Canadian song is probably “Out On The Shield” which is a direct homage to small towns in Canada.
YAA: If you could go on tour with any band (either still making music or not) who would it be?
Tyler: It’s hard for me not to be so nearsighted and not say Plants and Animals, because we’re all huge fans of them and getting on this tour was really awesome for us, and we’re all really excited about it.
YAA: How did you decide which animals to feature in your music video, “This City’s A Mess”? Why did you decide to also have these friends featured in the video “Curse of the Currents”?
Tyler: We went to the costume shop and picked up the coolest five costumes we could find. On their website they had a lobster costume and I really wanted to have that, but they didn’t have it in stock at the time. A whole bunch of people are in the costumes, we all rotated so it’s different in every shot. We all had a lot of beer and took turns putting on the costumes, it was a great day. We did those videos in the same weekend and the costumes are really expensive to rent so we wanted to get the most out of them as possible.
YAA: What’s your favourite type of cheese?
Tyler: I’m going to go with a delicious chevre, a really good goat cheese would be my favourite. Either that or brie, but if you took one of those delicious expensive little tubes of chevre, those are the best. I like it on a parmesan melted cracker; you shred the parmesan cheese and put it on a baking sheet in a circle and it makes a sort of crispy cheese cracker. Put a grape and some chevre on there and you’re in business. It’s pretty good.
Now whether you’re an old fan or a new fan of Said The Whale make sure you become a fan on Facebook, become their friend on Myspace, follow them on Twitter and check out a few other music videos on their Youtube channel. And don’t forget, if you are 18 or older to check out Said The Whale’s show in Calgary on May 1st at the Royal Canadian Legion Br 1. And now you know.
