The 'T' in The Trews could stand for "tireless."
With four albums in seven years, two of them gold; 10 Top-10
singles, two of them No.1 and one gold; multiple awards, for best
single, video and live group; and close to 800 live shows under its
belt, including support slots for the Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, Guns
N’ Roses, Nickelback and KISS, the Canadian rock band never rests.
The Trews - comprised of lead vocalist Colin MacDonald; his brother,
guitarist John- Angus MacDonald; cousin, drummer Sean Dalton, and
long-time friend, bassist Jack Syperek - keep pushing themselves in the
studio and onstage, always ready to give an intuitive and intense rock
'n' roll show of songs that have killer hooks, such as "Hold Me In Your
Arms" from the band’s latest studio album, No Time For Later. The song,
whose video rose to No.1 on national television station MuchMusic,
achieved gold status for sales of 20,000-plus digital downloads. The
U.S. Indie Music Awards declared it 2009’s Best Hard Rock Song.
"If you want to keep making records that are at all interesting or
fun to listen to, you gotta go places," says John-Angus of how the band
steadily increases its fanbase year to year, album to album.
And go places they have. Following No Time For Later, The Trews
decided to do something totally different - an acoustic CD/DVD. Recorded
at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Theatre over two days, Friends And Total
Stran …
The 'T' in The Trews could stand for "tireless."
With four albums in seven years, two of them gold; 10 Top-10
singles, two of them No.1 and one gold; multiple awards, for best
single, video and live group; and close to 800 live shows under its
belt, including support slots for the Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, Guns
N’ Roses, Nickelback and KISS, the Canadian rock band never rests.
The Trews - comprised of lead vocalist Colin MacDonald; his brother,
guitarist John- Angus MacDonald; cousin, drummer Sean Dalton, and
long-time friend, bassist Jack Syperek - keep pushing themselves in the
studio and onstage, always ready to give an intuitive and intense rock
'n' roll show of songs that have killer hooks, such as "Hold Me In Your
Arms" from the band’s latest studio album, No Time For Later. The song,
whose video rose to No.1 on national television station MuchMusic,
achieved gold status for sales of 20,000-plus digital downloads. The
U.S. Indie Music Awards declared it 2009’s Best Hard Rock Song.
"If you want to keep making records that are at all interesting or
fun to listen to, you gotta go places," says John-Angus of how the band
steadily increases its fanbase year to year, album to album.
And go places they have. Following No Time For Later, The Trews
decided to do something totally different - an acoustic CD/DVD. Recorded
at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Theatre over two days, Friends And Total
Strangers reinvents their classic hits and intersperses some unreleased
rarities and new songs. Released in October 2009, they backed it up with
a 30-date sold-out acoustic tour and the DVD was just nominated for a
coveted JUNO Award (Canada’s Grammy's), which is announced mid April.
"I just love acoustic sets," says Sean. "If we were at a house party
at three in the morning, we'd be doing same. It's nice to sit around
and sing the songs and hear them in a different light. It makes you a
better musician too. You have to try harder, stay in tune, be more
articulate."
The strong musicianship has been built over years of working together
with the original lineup. They formed as One I'd Trouser in 1997 in
Antigonish, Nova Scotia, when the four were still in high school, and
released a self-titled EP. The guys then moved to the Niagara region of
Ontario and truncated the band name to Trouser. In 2002, they signed
with Bumstead Records and were about to release a second EP, when they
received a cease and desist over the name. Thus came their final moniker
change to The Trews.
In 2003, they released their debut full-length, House of Ill Fame,
which yielded multiple hit singles, such as "Not Ready To Go" and "Tired
of Waiting." Moving next to Toronto, which is now their home base, the
follow-up album, 2005's Den of Thieves, was produced by Jack Douglas
(Lennon/Yoko, Aerosmith), and again spawned several singles, including
"So She’s Leaving."
Perennially recognized for their creative output, The Trews are 5x
JUNO Award nominees, were nominated for Best New Band by SPIN.com and
Best New Band by Classic Rock magazine in the UK. They also won
Hard/Rock/Metal Song of the year at the U.S. Independent Music Awards.
Although 2010 has only just kicked off, their song "Sing Your Heart Out"
from Friends And Total Strangers was nominated for Best AAA/Alternative
Song at the 2010 U.S. International Acoustic Music Awards and the band
is up for Favourite Live Artist Group at the 2010 Independent Music
Awards in March.
Meanwhile, this tireless band is hard at work writing for their next
album, due for release in 2011, and true to character, they will hit
the road this summer /fall to do what they do best - play live.
