This Ship Returns

Halifax group puts challenging year behind them.

This Ship are a Halifax-based band about to make their return to The Capital Complex after nearly a year’s absence. Last year the group released two albums, appeared at a few festivals and toured heavily. Shortly after wrapping up their most successful year on stage, the band parted ways with drummer, Adam Martin, who was forced to step down from performing due to health reasons. Unable to perform, they decided to use the time to figure out their next move.

“He was only with us for just over a year, but in that time we recorded both albums with him, went on a 17 day tour together, hit up the Maritimes quite a few times and played a few festivals,” said Bethany Fulde, the quartet’s guitar player and founding member. “It was really too bad. Our last show with him was at The Capital, actually, on November 22, 2013. I remember it well.”

After a few auditions and a handful of scattered live shows with friends sharing drum duties, the band used the time they had to write and develop some new material and strengthen their remaining ensemble.

“We knew we needed the time to hone in on our sound anyways,” said Fulde, “so we just didn’t play live as much. We do have a fill-in drummer who’s played a few shows with us – two festivals this summer, a big show at Bus Stop Theatre here in Halifax, plus he just played Nova Scotia Music Week with us this weekend – but he is really busy with his project, The Brood, who are this super-killer eccentric-psychedelic rock band who have some really incredible opportunities in front of them right now.”

The group’s unplanned hiatus began to take its toll early last spring when they found themselves postponing shows and struggling with a new challenge – van troubles. When it rains, it pours.

“I definitely felt like we were losing momentum. We were having no luck with drummers so it was a difficult few months. But we powered through and now, we have a sweet drummer who started with us a couple of months back, played Halifax Pop Explosion with us and travelled to The Cellar with us on Halloween. His name is Shane Martin. Great beats and a really cool guy. He’s excited and shows up to rehearsal three nights a week. We think he’s going to work out with us for a while,” she said.

Looking back on the past year, Fulde chalks it up as a much-needed opportunity to regroup, refocus and chart a new course as the band sails forward.

“I would definitely recommend taking a break from live shows to write new songs,” she said. “I think it’s a bit of a cycle bands have to go through. Write songs, play play play, tour, record, release a record, tour again, write new songs, play play play… etc. We would have taken a bit of a step back over the winter to do writing anyways, but it was much longer than we were hoping. Those were the circumstances and now that we’re over the hump, I definitely believe we are a better band because of it. We’re a tighter unit, we sound better, the live performance is better and we’ve got a fresh spark of excitement about the project. It’s a great feeling.”