Dawntreader
Gig Seeker Pro

Dawntreader

| SELF

| SELF
Band Rock Avant-garde

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Dawntreader's Persistence Pays Off"

The band has had more drummers than Spinal Tap, but Santa Fe Stalker suggests it was all worth it

Keeping a musical partnership together for more than a few rehearsals is enough of a challenge; imagine doing it for 10 years. That’s how long Dawntreader has been active, and singer-guitarist Matthew Thomas and bassist Colin Bales admit it hasn’t always been a smooth ride. In 2002, the band seemed to be well-positioned for major buzz, having just completed its first full-length CD, Thoughts of an Exile. That collection of self-consciously experimental melodic-rock tunes got national airplay and earned accolades from various quarters (including this very column), but that particular incarnation of Dawntreader fizzled out just as it was picking up steam. This was largely due to the fact that siblings Benjamin Eadie (guitar) and Jordan Eadie (drums) realized that the big-city rock ’n’ roll life wasn’t what they wanted. They packed up their gear and decamped back home to Revelstoke to start families.

The group didn’t break up, but it went through a series of personnel changes, with Thomas and Bales as the constants. Fastforward to the present and things are fairly stable in the Dawntreader camp. Guitarist Ryan Worsley (also of Maplewood Lane) seems unlikely to go anywhere; he recorded the band’s new album, Santa Fe Stalker, at his studio. There have been stirrings in the drum department, though. After playing on the new disc, Joel Willoughby (Worsley’s Maplewood Lane bandmate) vacated his post, to be replaced for a few months by Paper Moon’s Chris Hiebert, who recently moved back to Winnipeg. Still with me? Matt Laforest is Dawntreader’s new drummer and will remain so, barring any Spinal Tap–like mishaps.

With so many personnel-related delays, the band has learned not to rush things. In fact, Thomas says it took two years to make Santa Fe Stalker. “We all have day jobs, and we all can only do it when we can,” he says, interviewed with Bales at Mount Pleasant’s Our Town Cafe. “We’re also, to a fault, extreme perfectionists, and the song revisions were numerous. I honestly could have probably spent another year doing it, unless someone just kind of wrangled it away from our hands. There was a point where we just had to say, ‘Okay, enough is enough. The song is good; let it go.’ Which is always hard.”

“In the very beginning,” Bales notes, “we took as much time as we needed to get everything in front of us done, but in the last couple of weeks we were scrambling so much to get everything done by deadline that we just squeaked by, just to make sure that we were content with it and had it done. We had two years to do it, and yet we were still just squeaking by.”

The band’s perfectionism has paid off. Santa Fe Stalker is a mature-sounding effort that finds a delicate balance between Dawntreader’s exploratory nature and its pop instincts. The disc, as the title suggests, is a psychological portrait of an obsessive would-be lover. The shifting tempos and time signatures ratchet up the tension but never feel forced, and the desert-sunset slide guitar of “Clickheads” somehow makes perfect sense next to the dirge-disco beat of “(Don’t Lose Your) Nerve” and the country-noir twang of “Boxer”.

“We barely knew what our instruments were when we recorded the first album, to be honest,” Bales says of the band’s growing confidence. “I didn’t even know what brand of bass I was playing back then. Honestly, I cannot overstate how uneducated we were back then.”

“I get comments from people saying, ‘Your music’s really complicated,’ ” Thomas reveals. “I’m like, ‘I really hope that’s not what you’re taking away from it,’ because the idea of the time signatures is not to be complicated for the sake of throwing in those time signatures. It’s to create a sense of unease, and to create a bit of a sense, without you knowing it, that something’s a little bit off-kilter.”

With Santa Fe Stalker officially out this week, Dawntreader’s next goal is to finally do what it couldn’t do the last time it made a record: tour. The band is planning to play shows across Western Canada and down the West Coast of the United States in the fall. Of course, it would be nice to have CDs in stores first, but Dawntreader doesn’t have a distributor yet. Thomas and Bales admit that, despite a decade of making music together, the business side of things is still new to them. Mind you, the spirit that has bound their musical partnership for so long should serve them well. After all, a little determination can go a long way.

“We’ve been doing this for quite a few years now, obviously, and we haven’t really done so much outside of Vancouver,” Bales admits. “It’s only fair that we give ourselves a fair shake at it, that we make a go of it and see where we get. If not, it kind of feels like we could have done something but we never gave ourselves a fair shot.”

Dawntreader plays a CD–release show at the Railway Club on Friday (May 9). - The Georgia Straight


"Dawntreader Emerges From The Basement"

Dawntreader's 'Thoughts of an Exile' is one of the most accomplished and intriguing local debuts in recent memory. The nine-song collection of melodic, guitar-driven alt-pop strikes a fine balance between moodiness and bliss, between headphone-friendly sonic experimentation and solid songwriting. -John Lucas - Georgia Straight


"Dawntreader"

With heartfelt, boyish falsettos, spaced-out guitars, and soaring emotional climaxes, dawntreader has all the key ingredients of your favorite British modern rock band. Turns out, they hail from Canada, where all the great bands seem to be coming from these days.
-download.com - Download.com


"Dawntreader at the Biltmore"

When you turn on the radio don’t you find that most of the bands sound the same? They all seem to have this proven formula for success and they all seem to follow this to a dime. I’m not sure what this formula is, because if I did I would be ultra famous and have multiple minions doing my bidding. But with this “formula” there really isn’t any originality out there anymore. But of course, there are exceptions with mainstream music, and I’m just making a generalization, but that is what I see happening to the music industry. I guess everything has been done before and every band that does see success is probably just ripping someone off. Ok maybe “ripping off” is a strong word, so let’s just say they were “influenced” by other artists. Dawntreader, in my opinion, brings a unique style of indie rock with a European kick mixed with some good ol’ Canadian flavour, if that makes any sense.

Formed in 1998 (Holy crap that was 10 years ago! Can you believe that… we’re getting old!), Dawntreader’s main focus was to write passionate and emotional songs that could touch the audience, whether they were at home listening on the stereo or rocking out to a live performance. With Matthew Thomas on guitar and vocals, Colin Bales on bass, Ryan Worsley on lead guitar, and Matt Laforest on drums, this quartet released a 3 song demo in 1999 to a growing underground fan base. They performed vigorously and during this time, they created enough material to release a full length CD titled “Thoughts of An Exile” in 2002. This essentially launched Dawntreader into the Vancouver music scene and they began to play more shows, with acts such as Stabilo, Starflyer 59, and In Media Res, which helped them gain more fans along the way. In 2008, they set off to make a new record that would leave their mark in the indie scene and in May they released their second full length album titled “Santa Fe Stalker.”

I got a chance to see these boys play live at “The Biltmore,” which is slowly but surely becoming one of my favourite local venues. I don’t know what it is about that place, but it could have something to do with the comfy velvet couches on the side (I’m a sucker for velvet. I even have a Bruce Lee tee made of velvet…). But there was something odd about that night and in the words of Jack Johnson, “where’d all the good people go?” Alex, my photographer extraordinaire, and myself essentially walked into an empty room with instruments on the stage. Ok maybe we were early. I’ll give it that much, but as soon as the band got on stage, the amount of people in the venue didn’t matter. Dawntreader played with their hearts on their sleeve and I just tuned out the lack of people and focused on the music. What impressed me the most was their professionalism when it came to being on stage. You see a lot of bands get flustered when there aren’t many people watching, but that didn’t matter to the boys in Dawntreader. They played as if there were hundreds of people watching them, and every song captured you with the emotion they exuded on stage. Throughout their set, I couldn’t help but compare them to Canadian indie powerhouse Sloan, mixed with some Radiohead, and dare I even say some U2. But going back to the Canadian section of the comparisons, I’m not the hugest Sloan fan, but you can’t deny how musically talented the band is, and how much success they have had on their own record label. If Dawntreader can follow in Sloan’s path, then they will no doubt have success as well. The only complaint I have is when they covered Morrissey’s song “Speedway.” They wanted to create their own cover and not be the typical band that plays everything note for note, but to be honest, it really didn’t work out for them. Matthew actually commented on that himself, and when they finished up their cover, he quickly apologized. I respect the musicality and sincerity he displayed and I’m glad he did not try to play it off as if it was the best cover song of all time. All in all, it was a delight to watch them on stage, and I only wished more people were there. I got a chance to talk with the band afterwards, and I found out why there was a lack of people. They actually weren’t supposed to be playing this show, but there was a sudden cancellation of some sorts and they sort of just picked this up out of nowhere (Ahhh the life of an indie rock band). Well I give them kudos for their decision to play, and also for the effort they displayed on stage.

For more information on Dawntreader, visit their website as well as their myspace. I just want to make a note that my favourite Dawntreader song is “Espanol” (If you know me, I have a soft spot for Spain). And be sure to check out the contest page for details about winning a signed copy of “Santa Fe Stalker.” - Ronatron.net


"Santa Fe Stalker Review"

Dawntreader
Santa Fe Stalker
By Josiah Hughes

After ten years as a band, Vancouver’s Dawntreader have kept a relatively low profile, playing few shows and releasing little material. Fortunately, as is the case with Santa Fe Stalker, this often makes for a higher quality output. The record, their first since 2002’s Thoughts of an Exile, demonstrates the band’s sonic maturity, as resonant guitar riffs collide with dreamy arrangements that traverse indie rock, post-country and even radio-friendly rock without getting boring. Opening with the warm synths of “Kids On Fire,” the record pairs innovation with a distinct pop sensibility that would be well suited to the local indie club and modern radio station alike. - Exclaim! Magazine


Discography

LP - SANTA FE STALKER (2008) *CD released on May 9th*

LP - THOUGHTS OF AN EXILE (2003) *Received radio play on CBC Radio and various other media*

EP - SELF TITLED (1999)

Photos

Bio

Providing a fresh and hopeful sound to Vancouver’s music scene, Dawntreader endeavors to reach a level of musicianship, songwriting and production that is seldom seen in independent rock acts. Songwriters at their core, Dawntreader’s focus has always been on the craft of creating powerful, emotional songs that will resonate with the listener. Through their united belief in the importance of sincerity in all aspects of their career, Dawntreader looks to make an enthusiastic and substantial mark on the music scene in the coming years.

Forming in 1998, the members of Dawntreader quickly realized their collective passion for creating music. A self-titled three-track demo was released in 1999 to a growing underground following. Fueled by their captivating live performances, the Dawntreader fanbase rapidly grew. Dawntreader spent the next year creating new material while working to refine their live performance. The band soon declared a self-imposed moratorium on live performances, focusing instead on crafting their first full length CD. Recorded over the course of a year, the emotionally charged "Thoughts Of An Exile" helped Dawntreader burst onto the Vancouver scene late in 2002.

Sharing the stage with acts such as Stabilo, Starflyer 59, In Medias Res, Maplewood Lane and Radio Berlin helped spread word of Dawntreader’s unique brand of music. Strong reviews from the local media reinforced what fans of the band already knew. Dawntreader has a rare understanding of the emotional weight of a song: melody, dynamics, passion and authenticity. Drawing influence from a select and inspired crowd, Dawntreader fuses these sophisticated influences into an original sound unduplicated by any other band.

In 2008, Dawntreader’s momentum is growing with the May 9th release of their latest full-length album, “Santa Fe Stalker.” As tour plans to support the new Dawntreader album come together, greater influence over a larger audience is clearly becoming a part of the bigger picture for the future of Dawntreader.