Wielding a healthy appetite for the groove of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the dynamic songwriting of Moby Grape, Saskatoon band The Sheepdogs are unquestionably out-of-place. But with songs full of life and sharp hooks, they don’t copy the Southern-rock style - they own it.

We talked with bassist Ryan Gullen about that influence, getting modern recording quality the easy way, and how The Sheepdogs might become the first indie band to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Tell me about your year so far.

We were on tour with The Sadies, but it got cancelled. (Singer) Dallas Good fell and broke his leg right before a show in Saskatoon. Our year is just getting started, and our main focus in the next months will be coming to Ontario.

Do you value the road life?

Yeah, that’s kind of been our motto since we started the band. We’re on and off tours every month, alternating between western and eastern Canada. The majority of our promotion is just organically spreading the word, getting out and doing shows. To make our music, we don’t just sit in a studio, we really develop our songs on the road and try new things onstage.

The songs have a communal sound, like they benefit from being in the presence of a large group of people.

That’s been our way of doing things. I know some bands get away from that once they start to build a fan base, but we’ve always had that. Our songs will completely change over six months of being played live, before we record them. We add elements in the studio, but there definitely is a social aspect, and that’s what people connect to.

That can be one of the worst things, for new fans of a group: the record not living up to, or not connecting with, the live show.

Or the other way, bands that use a lot of auto-tuning or effects and you seem them live, like “Really? This is what I’ve been liking?” But I think nowadays, bands have to do a better job in their live shows, because that’s where they’re making most of their money. It’s their lifeline.

Was your latest record, Learn and Burn, produced by the band alone?

One hundred per cent. I rented the floor of a house in Summer 2009, we bought Protools, and just recorded ourselves every hour we could, until the other people there would tell us to shut up. It was a totally different experience than working in a professional studio, because we could just experiment - we weren’t looking at the clock.

(On the record) things aren’t perfect. but I like that. I love listening to Stones or Neil Young records where you can hear an out-of-tune guitar, or hear the drummer hit the rim instead of the snare. It gives records more feeling. It can be more accessible because of that, more real.



You guys are finalists in a contest to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. How did this come about?

It was actually a public thing. It was curated like Polaris, where select industry people in North America submit bands. Then the people at Atlantic records picked 16 out of 1200 submitted acts, so I guess they really liked us.

You’re the only Canadian group in the finals!

It was supposed to be a US-only contest, but somebody heard us, and the guys at the magazine were really ecstatic and wanted us to be a part of it. We’ve got The New York Times wondering like “Where did these guys come from?” It’s great, because the US market is so hard to break into. I really think it’s a good direction for (Rolling Stone) to go in. From the guys there I’ve talked with, I really think they are advocates of indie music - but they have obligations to sell magazines.

Considering how strongly your sounds echos classic Southern rock, how much exposure have you had to that area?

The farthest we’ve gone is through Texas, to Austin. It’s difficult to justify how much it costs to go down there. The amount of effort it takes just legally to go down to the US is a big undertaking in itself.

All of us, in the band, enjoy ‘60s and ‘70s rock and soul, and that lends itself to Southern culture. To me, it never seemed calculated. It was very creative and musical while still appealing to the general public - not like a Steely Dan, who were very musical, but had a limited demographic with their music. Living in Saskatchewan, when it’s cold, it gets me thinking about a place that is warm, with a happier vibe to it.

The Sheepdogs’ third record Learn and Burn is available now. Read all about it here.

The Sheepdogs will be playing CMW, March 11 at The Horseshoe Tavern.