Halifax’s psych-pop ambassadors Walrus are preparing to head out on their first cross boarder tour with a string of consecutive dates that wrap up with a show in Fredericton at The Capital Complex, April 5, 2015.
After a string of EPs and singles spanning the past few years, the band is currently finishing-up tracks for their debut LP at the Echo Chamber in Halifax. Expect that to surface later this year. The group’s latest EP, Glam Returns, has been a favourite on CHSR over the past few months.
Before the band hits the road, we thought we should check in and get the lowdown on what’s up. Thanks to Jordan for taking a few minutes to chat.
Glam Returns has been receiving a lot of airplay on Fredericton campus radio. How has the response been on your end?
Well that’s great to hear and thanks to whoever is playing us! We love coming up to Fredericton, we’ve had great shows and a lot of fun there. We usually either start or end our tours with a stop there and it’s become a bit of a home away from home for us. The Shifty Bits Cult are awesome and we love what they are doing for their music community, so many great bands and people involved in that scene. We played The Shifty Bits Circus last summer and it was amazing, Shivering Songs this year was fantastic, always great shows at The Capital and ReNeu Boutique. Lots of tired drives leaving town the next day…
Walrus is one of many bands embracing the return of cassette release. What is it about cassette releases that make them so appealing? Is it more than just the $$$?
Well being able to create a physical copy of your album for a reasonable price is certainly a big part of it, but yea there is more to it than that. I mean we’d love all of our releases to come out on vinyl but it is much more expensive. The sound is great with cassettes and they look good too. Poncho Records is run by our singer/guitarist/songwriter/brother Justin Murphy and he’s been putting out great music via cassette for a while now.
You’re heading off to the US for a bunch of shows as well as playing a handful of Canadian dates over the next few weeks. Is this your time heading south of the border?
Yea this is our first time heading down to the US, we are really looking forward to it. We love touring and are excited to head somewhere new. We’ll be heading down pretty frequently this year, throughout our tours. Maybe we’ll get to try the food at White Castle.
What’s in the works for the year ahead? New music? Summer tour plans?
Well we are finishing up our first LP with our pal Charles Austin at The Echo Chamber here in Halifax. Very much looking forward to sharing that with everyone, we’ve been working on it for quite a while. Lots of other new, yet to be recorded music we’ve been working on as well. We have quite a bit of touring lined up for spring and summer, in the US and Canada. After this trip we’ll be heading over to Newfoundland to play at Lawnya Vawnya. It’ll be our first time playing over there and we are really excited about it. We’ll be up in Toronto for NXNE to play the Out of Sound Records Showcase, so many great bands/friends on that bill. There’s some other summer festivals we’ll be doing as well that will probably be announced soon.
Walrus+Waking Night+Sexghost | The Capital Complex | April 5, 2015 | Doors at 10 – Show at 10:45 | $8
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Tour dates:
03/21 Halifax, NS – Gus’ Pub
03/25 Saint John, NB – Callahan’s Pub
03/26 Portsmouth, NH – Red Door
03/27 Portland, ME – Poland St.
03/28 Middletown, CT – Wesleyan University
03/29 Hadley, MA – The Asbestos Farm
03/30 Pittstown, NJ – Outer Art Space
03/31 Washington, DC – The Commune at 1605
04/01 Philadelphia, PA – Bourbon and Branch
04/02 Brooklyn, NY – Shea Stadium
04/03 Quebec City, QC – Pantoum
04/04 Montreal, QC – Divan Orange
04/05 Fredericton, NB – The Capital
04/23 St. John’s, NF – Lawnya Vawnya 2015
