Slow Down Molasses frontman ready to perform at home

“About once a year, there’d be a punk-rock show that I was aware of. Otherwise, there really wasn’t much of a music scene, at least for rock music and that sort of thing,” said McShane. “Having grown up in Prince Albert and really gotten into music it’s incredibly exciting that people are taking a chance and putting on a big music festival.”

The inspiration for their latest album came when McShane’s parents moved out of his childhood home in Prince Albert.

“We were going through a lot of things and ended up finding all of my dad’s slides from when he was travelling in the late ‘60s, after university,” said McShane. “I always had a memory of him showing us amazing photos from Paris in May of 1968 when there was a student riot.”

As McShane was writing new songs for the album, he said conflict seemed to persist in the news at the time. He was inspired by how the new seemed to parallel the old, he said.

The fact that their messages now have such a wide scope can be quite daunting, according to McShane, considering that there album has been bought as far as Qatar, Russia and South Africa.

This spring, they also had the chance to perform at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. They toured their older, more folksy records, in the UK, Europe and the U.S. and their latest album is now charting in the U.S.

“It’s almost quite surreal being from a small town in Saskatchewan and then somehow our songs manage to get out to a fairly wide audience,” said McShane.

Jeanette Stewart, who plays keyboards, bass and sings vocals has been with the band since 2007.

A few years ago, she had a chance to perform at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre with another act but said she ended up “chickening out.” This is something she said she regrets, and is ready to make right.

Stewart said music festivals come as a welcome change from their usual scene.

“We spend a lot of time performing in like the, ‘dingy rock club’ and whenever we can play an outdoor festival on a big stage it’s such a treat because it’s so much fun; it’s just a different energy,” said Stewart.

The band has been touring up a storm recently with their new album Burnt Black Cards.

Their first album with the label Culvert Music, released May 11 of this year, was produced by Jace Lasek of the Besnard Lakes.

“We’re really happy with how it turned out. I think he just kind of took it all to the next level and made it all make sense for us,” said Stewart. “It’s kind of a commentary on social problems of the day and also, it’s just like, straight up really noisy rock music.”

Stay Still, track four on the album, is one that Stewart says she’s most connected to. Her vocals lead the song and it’s one she penned, that just happened to fit the theme of the album.

“I just imagine the apocalypse coming and living in Saskatchewan because it’s the only safe place on earth,” she said.

She said her major ‘pinch me’ moment was performing at the Saskatoon Jazz Festival at the beginning of the month.

“It was sort of just like a dream, because I’ve seen so many bands on that stage and been to so many amazing concerts that actually playing it was like, the most surreal day. It was really beautiful,” said Stewart.

As far as the band’s near future goes, Stewart said they’re hoping to lockdown some studio time in August. Later in the month, they’ll be playing a festival on Toronto Island called Camp Wavelength, sans Stewart.

McShane said they don’t have certain expectations for their musical careers, but as long as people will listen, they’ll keep playing.

“It’s a really fantastic thing that the festival is happening and I hope people come out and support it and enjoy themselves,” said McShane.

“At the end of the day, we just keep liking playing music.”

asoloducha@panow.com

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha

by Alex Soloducha

Slow Down Molasses frontman ready to perform at home

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