9 Questions With: Gloryhound

The Place: Fall River, Nova Scotia

The Treasure: Gloryhound

Gloryhound makes you realize something is missing from the radio.

Their latest release, Loaded Gun, has plenty of songs you could pluck out and drop in to other eras and it’d feel right at home on any rock station.

With a tight sound and old school influences, Gloryhound gives you a shot of what rock and roll used to sound like and they do it with every song.

That’s what’s missing.

9 Questions with: Gloryhound

1 – NST: How has the internet changed your ability to reach people, market yourself, and get noticed? As opposed to the traditional way of standing and waving your arms frantically.

GH Dave: We still wave our arms frantically every chance we get – you still have to take the grassroots approach sometimes, right? All of these crazy social media platforms caused a bit of confusion for us at first to be honest. We’re only starting to get our online wits about us. But we realized, although it’s a real pain in the ass sometimes and we’d rather direct our attention towards the music, it can be a great way to connect directly to fans and promote yourself however you see fit. The internet opens up a world of possibilities for artists but on the other hand creates a situation where fans are taking the word of some snobby pissed off glued to the computer chair online blogger or relying on YouTube for ‘live music’. Ya gotta get outta yer bedroom and go to a record store and go to shows and meet people and talk about music. Word of mouth is still king we believe. Sorry, long answer. Sensitive subject.

2 – NST: What makes Nova Scotia “home” for you?

GH Dave : Family and our musical roots first and foremost. There is of course plenty of incentive to go to a big city in search of more shows and more fans, but we get that done on tour. Plus, it’s good to be close to the ocean. That feels like home.

3 – NST: What could we, as a province, do to better promote and assist the talent we have?

GH Shaun: Aside from the provincial government sending every Nova Scotian resident a copy of our new album… We could use more funding from all levels of government. However we’re very lucky living in this province to have organizations like Music Nova Scotia who do a fantastic job promoting and supporting homegrown talent.

4 – NST: “Let You Down Again (acoustic)” under the bridge in Windsor and “A Way Inside” in Waterloo, Ontario are both amazing. Have you considered an entire album done in places with interesting acoustics? If so we have an idea…;)

GH Dave: Thank you! We had some time between gigs to fool about and those were the result. We hadn’t talked about doing an album with that approach, but we had an idea to film and record performances of each song from the new album. Each tune would feature a different location and format; acoustic, semi-amp’d or otherwise. 11 tunes, 11 places that represent home for us.

5 – NST: If you could pick any place in the province to hold a concert where would it be? No place off limits.

GH Jeremy: Fortress Louisbourg would be a pretty cool place to hold a concert. Instead of dancers we could have battle reenactors maneuvering in the fields and cannons firing off the battlements.

6 – NST: There seems to be a new wave of Nova Scotia talent making it’s mark on the music scene, what advice can you give other NS artists that are trying to make it?

GH Jeremy: To paraphrase hardcore legend Henry Rollins the best advice we could give to aspiring artists is to show up on time and don’t be an arsehole.

7 – NST: Setting aside you now know everything you need to know about rock and roll, history and Canada in general (link to season finale vid), any more “Learning with Gloryhound” in the works?

GH Jeremy: We don’t have any plans to resurrect the series, but now that you mention it it may be cool to revisit the “Learning with Gloryhound” series since we are touring in Quebec this summer. La belle province has some interesting things to check off of the beaten path. We might try and get David Casey to skate during the Sherbrooke Phoenix QMJHL training camp or check out the beautiful church in St. Casimir.

For those who are curious our out of province summer tour looks like this:

6 August- Zaphod’sBeeblebrox, Ottawa, ON

7 August- The Red Dog, Peterborough, ON

8 August- The Clarkson Pub, Barrie, ON

9 August- Festival of Friends, Jerseyville, ON

12 August- Call The Office, London, ON

13 August- Detour Music Festival, St. Kitt’s, ON

14 August- Van Gogh’s Ear, Guelph, ON

15 August- The Moustache Club, Oshawa, ON

16 August- Edgefest, Toronto, ON

17 August- The Merchant Taphouse, Kingston, ON

21 August- Petit Campus, Montreal, PQ

22 August- La Petit Boite Noir, Sherbrooke, PQ

23 August- La Tavern, Saint-Casimir, PQ

24 August- Le Cerle, Quebec City, PQ

8 – NST: Favourite food and best place to get it in NS? We’re getting a very nice list of places to go and eat going.. 😉

GH Jeremy: As a band, our favourite food is diner fare and it dosen’t get any better than The Big Stop in Enfield, Nova Scotia. Go check out the recently renovated “Crossing” restaurant, it seriously rules. Our rhythm section recommends the pork chop dinner.

9 – NST: Time for Treasure Bear’s question which is always something from his own little world. 🙂 He’d like to know if you ever considered calling the band “GloryBear” ?

GH: We have already nicknamed our affable and loveable drummer Shaun the “bear” as in “poppabear.” Perhaps GloryBear would be a good name when he embarks on his solo career!