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The Trews set to make a Yorkton stop

The Trews just got back from the UK, and are getting ready to tour Western Canada behind their latest album, Hope and Ruin. That tour will include a Yorkton stop, at the Gallagher Centre on Wednesday, March 14.
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THE TREWS are beginning their tour of western Canada, and will be making a stop in Yorkton on March 14.

The Trews just got back from the UK, and are getting ready to tour Western Canada behind their latest album, Hope and Ruin. That tour will include a Yorkton stop, at the Gallagher Centre on Wednesday, March 14.

Colin MacDonald, vocalist with the band, says that while the album has been out since last April, the band didn't have the chance to do a proper Canadian tour until now. He says they're excited to get out and play the tunes live, and after a successful east coast run earlier in the year, they're happy to go out west behind the new material.

That new material, from Hope and Ruin, came out of a recording session at the Tragically Hip's Bathouse Recording Studio with Gord Sinclair, MacDonald says. At the time, they expected to just jam and make demos, without an intention of actually making an album.

"It was really an informal thing, we were writing songs around the coffee table and recording them all night. We were listening back and thought 'this is good stuff, it sounds like it would make a cool record.' So we just did it like that, and by June we had a new record," MacDonald remembers.

The experience was the opposite of the recording of the previous album, No Time For Later. On that record, MacDonald says they were under much more pressure and did more of the recording separately. He says that with the new album, they wanted to have fun.

"We wanted to have a loose feeling record, it's rock and roll after all," MacDonald says.

It is an eclectic record, which takes from a wide variety of influences, and MacDonald says that is due to the band wanting to try new sounds.

"Everybody in the band brought in songs, and everybody's got different influences... We just went with it, we didn't want to over-think it, we didn't want to try too hard to be cool, we just wanted to make an album that we could celebrate," MacDonald says.

While the band has had a great deal of success in Canada, they're relatively new in many parts of the world where they're touring now, and MacDonald says that it's a different experience everywhere they go, and going outside of the country is like being a new band again, trying to win over the crowd. MacDonald says it's great to be back on home soil.

"We've had a great history in this country. We love being a Canadian band and we love our Canadian fans, and that makes us feel great... When you show up in Perth, Australia, nobody knows who we are, and we have to win them over with every song. It's a good thing to have a fighting spirit and play hard," MacDonald says.

The band has also been nominated for five East Coast Music Awards recently, and MacDonald says getting a nomination is always gratifying, as it's good to know people like what you're doing. While the band has been nominated many times before, MacDonald says that it's good to hear that their new music is still finding a receptive ear.

The Trews will be at the Gallagher Centre on March 14. Tickets are $25 in advance or $35 door, and available at the Gallagher Centre box office.