The Sheepdogs: “We learned a lot because people weren’t willing to give us a chance because we didn’t sound like band A, B, or C… ”

“90808 km traveled
89 shows
11 Countries
2 Records Released
1 Christmas song”

These were the impressive stats posted by Saskatoon blues rock band The Sheepdogs in their end-of-2024 wrap-up. Those are impressive stats for a band who have been plying their trade for twenty years but it almost feels like this is a band that is still at the top of their game with plenty more to come.

In amongst all of those kilometres travelled, the band formed their label Right On Records, and bought back their entire back catalogue..

In our latest Cover Story, V13 sat down with Ewan Currie and Ryan Gullen from the band to talk about the past twelve months and what the future holds in store for the group now they’re in control of their destiny.

You posted your stats for the year online recently and it was something like 90 shows, 90, 000 kilometres travelled, and 11 countries. Going back to the beginning of the year what were your expectations for 2024 and, looking at those figures at the end, was that a good year for you?

Ryan: “I saw a comment from one of the guys from Crown Lands, and he was like, “How you can tell a band is from Canada when the average is a thousand kilometres per show,” but that includes time travelled on aeroplanes and things like that too. I think we, we started the year, doing a tour that was all in sort of rural parts of Canada. We did a tour across Canada, where there were no major cities and all rural places. Then we went all over the world and did a lot of stuff in Europe and the UK and things like that.

I think the goal for the year… we had recently finalized everything with buying back our catalogue and starting our label and the goal was really to release as much music as we could and then go and play those songs for people. So, at the beginning of the year, it wasn’t clear exactly how we were going to do that because we wanted to just roll with it as it came, have some shows on the books and do that. I think at the beginning, it was a little unclear exactly how that would look but, by the end, it was a very, very busy year.”

What were your highlights?

Ewan: “We put out two records and it was the first records on our new label. That’s pretty dope. We got to do one of them down in Memphis, which is my favourite music city in the world. It’s a Mecca. Here in North America, people talk about Nashville, but Memphis is the cooler, for me, it’s a cooler place. I think being able to put out those two records, doing some cool shows and Bryan Adams, who’s a superstar, handpicked us to play with him was pretty neat. We did a lot of shows. I still can’t wrap my head around everything. It was a lot of touring.”

Ryan: “Most shows have some sort of cool moment or highlight, you know. It’s fun to make music and then see how people respond to it. I think recording in Memphis was a big highlight that was a cool experience and it was our first foray into trying this new model where we go somewhere and we record a handful of songs and put them out and just go with it so that was exciting and cool.

I agree playing with Bryan was a cool thing as well and I think just generally it felt like we leveled up in a lot of places and reached a whole new group of people. One highlight that was kind of funny to me which sort of doesn’t happen as much for us anymore is that we played a new place on our European tour in Denmark. We’d never played there before and while our reach is pretty vast in Canada, a lot of places in Europe, some places still don’t know who we are. We’d never played there before and we did a lot of, through our label and our team, digital advertising.

“We had recently finalized everything with buying back our catalogue and starting our label and the goal was really to release as much music as we could and then go and play those songs for people”

It was really fun because we went and played the show and people who came to the show didn’t really know us from our full catalogue. They really only knew the most recent record and most of the two EPs. They would get all excited when you play a brand new song then we play an older song and they’d not be in it versus where we play like in Toronto or somewhere in Canada, we play these older songs from like a decade ago, people get really excited.

It was a really funny, unique experience to play a show where they’re more excited to listen to the new songs and sort of just take in these old songs, not knowing them. That was a unique thing that I couldn’t even tell you the last time we experienced that in a lot of ways. I remember talking to our merch person and she was saying that people were like, “Oh, what are these other records? They have other albums and stuff like that?” That was a unique experience for sure.”

Now that you’ve got the rights back to your catalogue, how important is it for you to get back out to those areas where those records aren’t as well known?

Ryan: “The goal was always to get our catalog back. So much of that was about being able to take the power back in how we do things. Do it how we want to do it and also reinvest old revenues into making new music and things like that. I think further to that, it’s important that… we were in the business of making rock music and finding people that are fans of that so anything that we can be doing to try to find new people out there, as much as the world gets very small with the internet, it gives us a great opportunity to reach people that we wouldn’t have maybe reached before and that’s important. We want as many people to be fans of our music as possible.”

V13 – MagazineCover – Issue80 – TheSheepdogs

We talked about last year and the stats, what are your plans for the year ahead?

Ewan: “Kind of TBD… We’re just sort of starting to figure that out but make some new music. I’ve got a solo record that’s going to come out and then we’re going to do some more music with the band.”

The two releases that came out through your record label last year, what prompted you to start the label and what have you learned from the experience?

Ryan: “I think that the point in starting our label was that we wanted to get our catalogue back. Long term, we thought a lot about longevity and we really felt that, if we could make money off our older records rather than like giving that to a big company or a big major label, and then take that money and reinvest that back into future things that give us a better opportunity to continue forward.

We recognize that the labels have made their money, but we’d rather that go towards us or go towards new music than buying a record person, a new car or something like that. For us, that was more important. Then the idea around starting our label, it was like, we do a lot of things ourselves as it is already so it was not that big of a leap to say, “Let’s rally a good group of people around us and put out our music because we understand and know our music better than anybody.”

“Long term, we thought a lot about like longevity and we felt that we can make money off our older records rather than like giving that to a big company or a big major label…”

That’s not to say that we do it all by ourselves. We have a great group of people who help us in all sorts of different places and different jobs but the idea is that we can do it on our terms in our way rather than someone else’s. If anything, it’s also just a place where our older music can live and, in the long run, the goal is to be able to have a place where we can then put out solo records, or maybe we put out other friends records or other bands we like. So the beginning of it was just us talking about making all the money off of our records rather than giving it to somebody else and let’s take that money and make new music out of it.”

A lot of bands I’ve spoken to recently seem to be going down that route of starting their label primarily for their music but, looking at other artists as well, is that something you could see expanding out to work with other artists that you connect with musically and personally?

Ryan: “I think it would be great. I think it’d be great to be able to, especially at a time when we started, we had a hard time finding people that certainly could place us as a band. We didn’t sound a certain way so there was a long time we had to learn a lot, which is great. We had to learn a lot but we learned a lot because people weren’t willing to give us a chance. After all, we didn’t sound like A, B, or C, which is what they were looking for.

If there’s an opportunity to pass on the things that we’ve learned over the years and the mistakes we’ve made, lessons we’ve learned and pass that along to someone else while also amplifying some cool music that maybe otherwise wouldn’t get a chance to get amplified, I think that’d be awesome.”

On the theme of the two EPs, what are your ideas of paradise and hell?

Ewan: “I think the idea is that everyone’s paradise and hell are different things, but I think a lot of people think paradise is a tropical beach, a vacation, whatever you’re looking for and if you’re there alone, it may not be paradise at all because you’re lonely and you’re watching other people enjoy. It’s like people who scroll endlessly and see people living lavishly and get jealous or fear of missing out. If you just live by yourself and experience paradise, quote-unquote, on your terms, but on your own, it’s not as fun as even going through something that’s shitty.

If you’re with your pals, which is what a band is, your little mini gang, we laugh a lot and have a lot of really great times. Even though times can be really difficult and a struggle, we’re laughing and have a good time building really good memories and the common bond that we share is really strong. So, it’s not so much, to me, of the idea of finding this perfect scenario because I find there are just simple situations that are my paradise.

It’s not about necessarily coveting say a good book. All that kind of shit. It’s more the friendships I have. It’s my loved ones and my friends. It’s good music. It’s good camaraderie. Hell is the idea that you’d spend a lot of money, be somewhere incredible, you’ve achieved all the things that you’re supposed to, but you’re by yourself and you’ve no one to share it with. To me, that is hell.”

“We had to learn a lot but we learned a lot because people weren’t willing to give us a chance because we didn’t sound like A, B, or C, which is what they were looking for.”

Going back to the figure earlier of nearly a hundred thousand kilometres together in a tour bus. How do you keep harmony amongst the ranks when you’re on the road? Especially as you’ve been together as a band together for 20 years now?

Ryan: “That was the funny thing about discussing these records and also at the same time celebrating 20 years. There’s a lot of reflection that went on sort of to this. It’s funny because we joke, Ewan and our friendship and, partnership in the band, are much longer than any other personal relationship we’ve ever had. So it’s interesting to look back on that and realize that. I think so much of that comes from the origins of being friends who wanted to make music that they liked and see where that took us.

I think probably so much of why we’re able to get along is that we sort of all have the same common goal and I’ve always had the same common goal with that. It’s pretty basic but I think, because of that, we’ve figured out how to work in harmony with each other. Everyone has roles and there are moments where things get tense or arguments or disagreements or whatever, but it’s more about how everyone looks past that, you learn to look past that and move forward rather than get hung up on it.

It becomes second nature at a certain point because you’re all in it for the common goal. I think the other thing that we benefited from too, is that we spent so many years being unsuccessful and having things go wrong that once you’re able to get a level of success and you’ve had a taste of it, the many years of when it doesn’t work, going through all that, it prepared us a little bit.

It’s funny because we’ve been a quote-unquote successful band for longer now than we weren’t. We spent seven-plus years losing money and travelling around, trying to figure it out or whatever so those formidable years, I think helped us to figure out how we interact as people before it actually mattered and there was money and success and things like that.”

Ewan: “I don’t think it matters in terms of the band on our day-to-day stuff. I think the most important thing for keeping morale up is having good shows. Everybody does different things throughout the day. Some people have specific routines that are like stretching and exercise and some people just want to walk around a town and explore and find something or they, they’re into food or they’re into coffee or whatever it is.

I think as long as the show is really good then that’s what brings everybody together. Everybody does their job because that’s what you’re there for. That’s what you’re on the road is to play a show. Looking back at this last year, it could be very taxing. It was very long and it was difficult at times, but we played fantastically. Especially the last two tours, we played well and that just forgives any other problems in a great way.”

Over the last few years, there’s been a huge shift in the way people digest music, obviously more towards streaming, has that been helpful to a band like yourself who do a lot of touring and can’t maybe spend say six months to a year in the studio?

Ryan: “To me for every positive thing, there’s negative things related to streaming, but that’s the way things are shifting and I think that the mistake has been made over and over that if you push back too much on what change is happening, rather than figuring out how you fit into it, you’re just going to end up getting burned. I think what’s interesting about streaming is that it allows you to be discovered in a way that never existed before.

“It’s funny because we’ve been a quote-unquote successful band for longer now than we weren’t. I think that helped us to figure out how we interact as people before it mattered and there was money and success and things like that.”

Spotify will tell somebody “Oh, you like rock music that sounds like the 1970s, this is a band you’ll like…” and that is something that has never really existed based on your listening habits. At the same time, it makes things challenging because, as you mentioned, people are a little bit fickle about how they consume music or how they consume everything. Attention is pulled in all sorts of different directions so, I think for us, it’s been helpful in the sense that you can try something and if it doesn’t work or you’re not happy with it, you can change it and you don’t have to be committed to something for as long because you can just shift gears and try something new.

I think what we decided to try this year and what we wanted to do is rather than being able to just go and do five songs in five days in Memphis and then put that out and then put out more music, record things where we put out more music later than year and let that create a story rather than creating an entire album. Thinking a whole bunch about how we’re going to do it, putting that out and committing to that traditionally would be sometimes for like two, sometimes three years of touring and playing those songs and we wanted to shift that.

The change in the digital thing is still something we’re trying to figure out and figure out how we fit into it because our audience can vary from young people who just want to listen to one song and move on or older people who want to put a vinyl record on and listen to it front to back or whatever. I think there’s no real “Is it good or not?” I think, if anything, we’re just trying to continue to exist and pay attention to how things are shifting and pay attention to how we want ourselves to fit into all of that.”

Back when I first started buying music, a record sold a million, sold 2 million now, with the number of different options out there, you can drill down to your figures and see that a particular album did well in say France or Germany. When you look at your older material, does it change the way that you write or the direction you take?

Ewan: “No, I don’t think so. I still write from the standpoint of somebody who loves music and just tries to write what I’m interested in. If I sit down and write a song, I’m very instinctual when it comes to music that I like to listen to. It’s based on pure traction. If I hear something, I just know right away. I don’t have to think about it. I don’t think in a calculated way, so I’m not taking information from touring per se and channelling that into the type of music. When it comes to writing, it’s this is what I’m interested in right now and this is the best song.”

In terms of your solo record, what can tell us about that?

Ewan: “It’s pretty diverse. There are a couple of things that might seem a bit Sheepdogsy but, for the most part, I’d say it goes all over the place. It’s an album I made in 2023 that has just been waiting for the right time. It’s going to be one of the releases on the new Sheepdogs label and I think it’s pretty cool. I think it’s going to be a nice change of pace.

The idea with this label is that we’re just starting with sort of our stuff but it’s going to be a nice steady release of what we think is interesting, good-quality music. This will be a nice change of pace, just to start the year off and then you’ll get some new Sheepdogs later on.”

“I still write from the standpoint of somebody who loves music and just tries to write what I’m interested in. If I sit down and write a song, I’m very instinctual when it comes to music that I like to listen to…”

Is there any new Sheepdogs material written yet?

Ewan: “I got home from tour and now I’m in the process of finding a place to live which I hope will include a studio to work on some new music. I’ve got some ideas kicking around but that’s about it.”

Ryan: “We’ll look to streaming and online information that we can pull as far as how we strategize the way that we do things. I think we’ve kept how we make music pretty pure in the sense that it all comes from the same place and I think that’s always worked for us so we don’t want to change that because I think that’s a slippery slope if you start chasing trends or chasing things that can remove some of the authenticity of what you’re doing.

I think one of the things that we have always been really important to us is to make authentic music and then let success come from that. Make the music we like and then hope people like it. You see that, even before streaming, labels being like, “You need to sound more like this” or whatever. That never worked out or, if it did, it was like a bit of a flash in the pan.

I think for us, it’s about consistency and longevity more so than it is about immediate success. We’ve never really ventured into that realm of “Oh, this worked based on these numbers, so let’s chase this.” because that just doesn’t work. We like to keep those two things separate.”

The Sheepdogs ‘Paradise Alone’ EP Artwork

A band like yourself with your audience, I think they’d find you out straight away. I think your sound, your inspiration, comes from a place where music is organic and authentic. If you followed a trend and did X, Y, or Z, do you think your fanbase would call you out on it straight away?

Ryan: “I think so.”

Ewan: “I think a common thread between us and the people that enjoy our music is that it’s for an audiophile, people who like buying records, people who like reading about rock bios and people who just love like rock and roll and like, not just the music, but also, I don’t want to say lifestyle because that sort of lends itself to kind of a Jack Daniels-y cheesiness, but the lore of the history of rock and roll.

That’s part of it. We’re very immersed in that and we love artists that respect it. We’re living and performing in the style of our heroes that come from the classic era of rock, which is the 60s, and 70s. When Ryan says like the authenticity, I guess that’s kind of what we’re alluding to.”

Talking about heroes, you’ve mentioned Bryan Adams, who else would come into that category for you?

Ewan: “It’s no one you wouldn’t expect. It’s the Beatles. They’re the Bible for rock and roll. We’re big fans of guitar interplay so like Allman Brothers, Thin Lizzy, bands like that. John Fogarty. Creedance Clearwater Revival. The way that the storytelling and swampy grooves that those guys had. It’s just a lot of music from that era. We listen to all kinds of stuff that’s from those times. The emphasis is on fun, good grooves, harmony, and singing. Then we just try to try different things that are still walking that line between staying in our lane, but also not just repeating the same song over and over again.”

When you look back over those 20 years, what have been the high points for you?

Ryan: “You can look back on times that maybe at the time didn’t seem special but, in hindsight, you realise, “Oh, that was a good time,” because things move so fast to happen. I think a big moment for me, and I think for probably all of us, was how we had to work so hard to get to a point where we were making money with our music. I think the point would have been in 2011 when we were able to quit our jobs and do this full-time.

We always had jobs and always took and reinvested the money we made from our music back into doing what we did. That point is a really big moment. That was many years ago now, and amazing that we’ve been able to continue forward in that way but that was a big thing where we were making enough money with what we were doing to be able to make this our full-time job. That was a really big thing.”

Ewan: “For me, not a specific instance, but it’s when I connect with somebody who tells me that they like a song, but it’s not just, “Hey, I love you guys,” in a generic way. It’s when they tell you how your music means so much to them or ask what a particular line means. Or how they listened to this song and it got them through a tough time. I treasure those.

We’ve had some notable people tell us those things and we’ve had some just casual fans or just fans that we meet randomly or nice emails from people who tell us, “My Dad’s sick, but your music was so important to our relationship.” I treasure that stuff because we got into music because we loved rock music. We had that teenage, “I will die for this music,” energy when we started and that gets all clouded down with the business.

We talk a lot of business. It’s inevitable. So, all these miles that we’re travelling and all the work that goes into it, it’s really rewarding to get that sort of feedback from people because we got into it because we believe and we love it and it’s not just because it’s a cool job to have and all that kind of stuff so it means a lot to hear that.”

I suppose it takes away all the business bullshit, doesn’t it? When you get one email from a fan that says you’ve changed their life…

Ewan: “It’s rad and it’s weird because I don’t read comments and stuff on social media because anytime there’s a negative comment, it just cuts so bad and then you’ll disregard like 99 good ones to be fixated on one that says, “you guys suck,” When you get those real, sincere emails, it means a lot.”

Ryan: “It’s so weird too that we live in a time when somebody that you don’t know can just connect with you and be like, “You suck…” or whatever. When you create something that you put out there, it’s subjective and people are going to have opinions on it and you’re putting yourself out there for it. It’s important to you. It’s special to you so it hurts more when you see that, but you need to just realize that people are entitled to their opinions and move forward and take the good with the bad.

That’s one thing that I’ll say about the internet that’s kind of incredible is that, back in the day, you used to not know who was listening to your music, now you probably know a little bit too much. We probably went a little bit too far the other way where kind of know a little bit too much, but it is pretty amazing that when we’re sitting at home and not paying attention to anything we don’t know like who’s listening to your music or what it means.

When we get those moments where people say those things and how it means something special to them, or when you go out on stage and you go to a new place and people are singing along to a song in a place you’ve never played before, you realize these people have been paying attention and that means a lot. That is one cool thing about the modern era. Good and bad you get served up all this extra information that you’re normally not privy to.”

If we were to speak again at the end of the year, what would you say would be a good year for you?

Ewan: “I hope that when the year is done, we made a really good Sheepdogs record that took what people loved about us and elevated it to a new level and made it even better.”

Any message for fans?

Ewan: “Get ready for our new record. I think the summation of getting more control over our career is that it’s going to enable us to be more productive and engaged and to do more which is good because this is the era where content is king. You have got to have content and the best content is music.”