Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Awakening from a Winter slumber

Canadian band Wintersleep ready to perform for 2010 Winter Olympic Games

Who: Wintersleep

When: Friday, Feb. 26, 4:30 p.m.

Where: Village Square Stage

Cost: Free!

Just over a week before Wintersleep is scheduled to make an appearance in Whistler to perform as part of the 2010 entertainment schedule one of their members, Tim D'Eon, was already getting into the Olympic spirit, watching the curling action on television and waiting for one of the hockey games to start.

"It was really cool when we found out. We found out quite a while ago actually, I guess before all the crazy hype about the Olympics and all of that. And I was like, 'Oh yeah, the Olympics are this year!'" D'Eon laughed. "We were all really excited, we all just said 'yeah' right off the bat and were like, 'sure, we'd love to do it,' and immediately asked for hockey tickets."

Apparently, even popular Canadian musicians can't get their hands on those elusive Olympic hockey tickets - their request was very quickly denied.

"I saw some tickets on eBay yesterday for the Canada-USA game going for $7,000," D'Eon said in disbelief. "That is insane."

But above and beyond the sporting aspect of the Games, Wintersleep will be representing the music and culture of East Coast Canada to an international audience in Whistler.

Growing up in small-town Nova Scotia, their musical landscape wasn't always rich and varied. It wasn't until the members - Loel Campbell on drums, Mike Bigelow on keyboards and bass guitar, Paul Murphy on guitar and vocals, Tim D'Eon on guitar and keyboards and Jon Samuel on keyboards, backing vocals and guitar - made the move to the city of Halifax that their career started building, slowly but surely.

"At first, it seemed pretty decent, especially to myself and Paul, coming from Yarmouth - it really was quite a change of pace. Like, in Yarmouth there were no bands that would come, ever," he laughed.

Once they arrived in Halifax, they began getting a taste of other bands on the scene and checking out some of the touring bands that made stops in the port city.

"I guess we kind of started off pretty slow and started building a small fan base."

They started gaining momentum on the live scene, eventually going on to record an album, which led them into bigger venues and opening slots with bigger bands.

Today, the band members have migrated a little further West and settled into Montreal.

"I really love it here in Montreal - we're not here very much, but..." D'Eon said, trailing off with a laugh.

The band just recently wrapped up a lengthy tour of the U.K. where, according to their website, they got really good at ping pong, learned how to make the queen smile and had the chance to play in some new countries. Overall, it was a huge success.

"We did get really good at ping pong. I figure you might see one of us in the next summer Olympics."

They've also just finished mastering their fourth full-length project and plan to release the as-yet unnamed album in late spring.

"The title is kind of up in deliberation right now," D'Eon chuckled.

"...I've just actually downloaded the revised master version right now, so I'm kind of excited to listen to it."

It will feature 12 tracks and again will be unlike any of their previous three full-length albums.

"I don't really know how to describe it," D'Eon said. "None of our records sound the same, so it kind of also doesn't sound exactly the same as our last record."

Wintersleep's songwriting process is always "pretty collaborative," with songs emerging from jam sessions in their rehearsal room and vocal melodies and lyrics evolving organically from a basic idea.

"Someone will have an idea and bring it in and we'll all just expand on that," D'Eon explained.

This time around, they've compiled a combination of songs designed to be played live with others that were meant to be strictly recorded tracks.

"A couple of the songs we had played live before we recorded them and some of them we hadn't played live at all," D'Eon said. "So I guess some of them were built more in the studio and some of them were more ready-to-go as soon as we went in."

They plan to take most of March and April off before embarking on the next lengthy tour, which starts in May and stretches until December. But before then, they'll be making the most of their Olympic experience.

"We're definitely going to try and scam our way into as much stuff as possible," D'Eon laughed.

"I can't really picture what it's like there right now. I mean, I've seen a couple things on TV and it looks really crazy - like tonnes of people around everywhere. But hopefully we'll just be able to entertain everybody and have them have a good time."

Wintersleep plan to feed off of the energy of the day and the enthusiasm of the crowds.

"That's kind of the point, I think, is just to keep the celebration going. And if we can inspire some people at the end of the day then we've done our job," D'Eon said.

The group is also pretty comfortable playing in front of massive crowds. Just last summer, they opened for Paul McCartney when he performed on the Halifax Commons to thousands of screaming fans. After they received the last-minute offer to open for the former Beatle, they immediately shuffled their packed schedule around to make sure they could make the spot. But they couldn't stick around for McCartney's performance afterward - they were straight on a plane to Dublin for a festival they were already booked for.

"Brutal!" D'Eon sighed. "It was a really big crowd and I think we pulled it off really well."

Anyone who attended Pemberton Festival two summers ago may also have caught Wintersleep performing. But they haven't played a Whistler venue in almost four years.

"We don't usually make it up the mountain," D'Eon said. "... I like coming up there, I don't know why we don't do it more often. I'll have to get after our booking agent."