The Trews
Stage 1 | 6:30 to 7:45 pm
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 to do what they do best
— play live.
Sep 07, 2010
Complete our survey for a chance to win a 3 day pass to the 2011 Nakusp Music Festival!!!
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Aug 29, 2010
Check out our 2010 photos in our gallery - new ones will be added every day!
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Aug 17, 2010
Tickets and camping go on sale in mid-October!
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