Everything You Need To Know From: The Wooden Sky

Update:  Check out The Wooden Sky in Calgary on February 12th at 8pm.  They are playing at Broken City along with The Rural Alberta Advantage. may be a group forged in a downtown Toronto garage, but they have taken their “folk rock” sound across Canada to perform, record, write songs, collaborate, explore Canada and make friends along the way.  The four musicians that make up The Wooden Sky, Gavin Gardiner (vocals, guitars, harmonica), Andrew Wyatt (bass, vocals), Simon Walker (piano, vocals, guitar) and Andrew Kekewich (percussion), believe that their sound is something much bigger than “folk rock”…it’s the sound of collective will. Gavin Gardiner took a few moments to sit down with Youth Are Awesome and describe what it’s really like to be a musician, and someone that’s accepted the adventure of touring during Canada’s cold winter.

The Wooden Sky

Youth Are Awesome: When did you realize Andrew, Simon and Andrew were the people you wanted to play music with?

The Wooden Sky: I kind of realize it every time we play together. It all kind of happened organically.  I met [Andrew] Wyatt at an open mic night, that we were both playing that night. He was drunk and he started playing along with me.  It was so annoying, he was just sitting there, waning guitar solos.  I was starting another band at the time and my friend said he knew the guy playing guitar solos and that he was also a bass player so we recruited Wyatt.  I met Simon through Wyatt, and Andrew [Kekewich] joined the band to fill in on a tour and we had such a good time playing together.  Everything seemed right playing together and hanging out. Then Andrew went off to school, so we found a new drummer for our next tour and something didn’t seem right. When we got back, the first person we called was Andrew, even before our girlfriends. Haha.

YAA: Where did the inspiration come from for your name The Wooden Sky? What does it mean to you?

The Wooden Sky: The band had a different name before, “Friday Morning’s Regret,” which was just Wyatt and I, and we wanted to change it, but everybody hated it, the name I came up with.  So I wrote a song around [The Wooden Sky] and we all decided just to go with it. There was no flaming pie in a dream or anything.  Band names are just a necessary evil.  I just hope that it’s transparent enough that people don’t hear the name without hearing the music and think they know exactly what it sounds like, and I think we accomplished that.

YAA: During the songwriting process is it more of a jam session or does an individual take charge of song?

The Wooden Sky: That changes song to song. Mainly, I write a piece of a song, but because I’m a procrastinator and don’t finish things very well, I bring that piece to the band or Wyatt and we often work on them together since we live together, and then everyone collaborates on it at band practice. Once that happens it usually becomes something completely different.

YAA: Your new album, “If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone,” is now out, what was the recording process like, are you involved with every aspect?

The Wooden Sky: Oh yeah, super involved.  We’re kind of control freaks when it comes to that. We recorded it all over the place.  We recorded in Montreal working 12 hour days on it, all living together, and we had both of our drummers there. Then we transferred it all to computer files and recorded more in Toronto with my friend (who has one of the best guitar collections I’ve ever seen), and we recorded  a lot of vocals in my apartment. Simon’s dad is an Anglican minister so we recorded in his church with the piano and pipe organ.  It was hard to record because everything was resonating, and we had to use five mics up in the balcony.

YAA: What is one of the coolest venues you’ve played in, and one of the more  questionable ones?

The Wooden Sky: All venues have different merits. There are certain places that hold a certain place in our hearts.  I love playing in Wakefield because my friend has a beautiful friend up there.  We recently played in a bar in Brooklyn where there were bocce courts inside.  It really depends on the people that run them. We did a tour in the summer where we only played at houses and parks, and some of those were some of my favorites because they’re so warm and inviting.

YAA: Being an artist isn’t an easy career.  Are there moments when you wonder why you didn’t settle for desk job?

The Wooden Sky: No. We’ve all worked desk jobs and at first they were fulfilling, but they became so hectic and took away from what I really wanted to do. I haven’t worked one in a while now, and I haven’t really looked back on it.

YAA: Do you think that image coincides with music or can the two ever be separated?

The Wooden Sky: It’s pretty tough for the two to be separated. You want to say music is the most important part, and it is, but all the other parts play into it too and affect how you listen to music. When I see a documentary on a band, an aesthetic about the artist is created and some kind of mystery is taken away. The documentary adds to the story and makes the song become something completely different.

YAA: On a good day, what song do you like to listen to? What about on a bad day?

The Wooden Sky: Tom Petty. Right now I’m listening to Wild Flowers, and Crawling Back to You is pretty good. I pretty much listen to the same music whether it’s a good day or not.

YAA: The Wooden Sky has played with many artists, what inspires you to incorporate these many dynamics in your songs?

The Wooden Sky: We’ve always operated on the mandate of being true to the song – we just want to serve the song. With the same four guys its always going to have a sound because of our personalities, but adding those people makes it so much fun. There’s a song that didn’t get on our record, but we felt like it needed a saxophone so we went out and found a friend of ours who plays sax.

YAA: What do you guys do to keep yourselves entertained while out on tour and from not killing each other?

The Wooden Sky: We make new friends. Haha. The most important thing for us is to get enough sleep otherwise we do kill each other. Last tour we brought our bikes so we could explore the city.  Winter is harder to tour in because it’s not that fun to get out of the van because it’s freezing.  I think we’re going to bring our hockey sticks and skates and try to play hockey a bit on tour. The bad thing about touring is that even though there’s a lot of downtime, it’s not really downtime, because you have to drive or be in a certain place.  It’s a “hurry up and wait” sort of thing. We all read books, play cards together, simple stuff, van games.

YAA: When you’re on tour what do you miss most about being at home?

The Wooden Sky: Friends and loved ones.  My espresso maker.

YAA: While out on tour what fast food chain do you most frequently visit?

The Wooden Sky: Wendy’s. No Baconators. There was this old lady once asking a person if they wanted a Baconator and I turned to Simon and said I never want to hear my grandmother say that. Haha.

YAA: On a scale of one to unicorn, how excited are you to be out on tour?

The Wooden Sky: I would say a moose. Moose are so cool.  I always wonder if they have a natural predator.  They’re so big and strong and their antlers are so deadly… Maybe a rhino. I was listening to CBC, and they were talking about how there is an overpopulation of moose in Newfoundland because their natural predator, a wolf, went extinct in the 80’s. They’re so big.

YAA: What is your favourite type of cheese?

The Wooden Sky: Why do you ask?

YAA: I just don’t think anybody could hate cheese, even lactose intolerant people.

The Wooden Sky: It’s true. Well, lately I’ve been getting into a lot of new cheese so I’ll have to narrow it down. The last cheese I had was blue cheese – it was crumbly and I put it on a salad.  It was delicious. It’ll probably change if you call me tomorrow. It might be parmesan. I just add cheese to things for flavor. I should go have some now.

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