After a three-year hiatus, it’s time to roll out the red carpet at the Canmore Hotel – make that the Red Shag Carpet.
Edmonton rockers Red Shag Carpet play the Hotel, Friday and Saturday (May 23-24), hot on the heels of releasing their fourth album, When I Need You To Be.
Red Shag Carpet is a band that’s gone from manic touring to a more measured approach that allows a person to have an actual life while still being a musician.
When I Need You To Be was released on May 5 and the band – Ted Ani (guitar), Dan Yarmon (bass), Matti Darrah (keys) and Al Pickard (drums) – is getting back into the tour thing.
Red Shag is a little different in that all members lend a hand when it comes to vocals and songwriting. “We all sing lead,” said Pickard from Edmonton while having a pint after an early exit from a mother in law’s to-do list, “and we’re kind of like The Band or The Beatles because we all sing and write songs.
“We’ve been together for 13 years and we’ve all known each other since junior high. We all played in different Edmonton bands – we were like a Rubik’s cube, all colours that you spin around.”
The spinning slowed in 2000, when the foursome got together to play some Creedence Clearwater Revival covers at a college party.
“In Edmonton, a lot of friends left, but we’ve stayed together.”
Unlike Carpet’s last three albums, the nine-track When I Need You To Be was completed with a grant from Rawlco Radio, a family-owned Canadian operation which operates 15 stations in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
“It was great,” said Pickard, “with corporate sponsorship, we were in a studio with a grand piano and a space that reminded us of Abbey Road. And instead of salty chips and Boxer beer, we had hummus and Heineken.
“With previous albums we record and tour a ton. This album is more of a crafted album. We wanted to make gold in the studio and the songs are more put together by whoever wrote them, which is to the credit of each songwriter.
“As a band, we’re pretty low on ego, we’re all a bunch of goofballs.”
Red Shag Carpet’s last album, the 13-track Down Like A Lion, was released in 2011. “The biggest difference between then and now,” said Pickard, “is that then, sometimes songs were just written by the guys sitting in a circle. Now, it’s more like a surgeon’s knife, we cut sharper. I think it’s the best album we’ve done and I think we’re still getting better as a band.”
For now, RSC is staying close to home while pondering a cross-Canada tour next year. “It’s tough to get a spell of time off,” said Pickard. “But when we were touring heavily from 2003 to 2007, it was awesome. We saw every little town in the country and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“But we’ve all got lives and goals outside music now and we’re not writing as much, we’re too busy. Our songs are not deep, profound topics, just the experience of living in Edmonton; there’s not a lot of songs about love and politics.
“I wrote one song about a guy at rock bottom and trying to turn it around. Another is about a coyote problem we have in Edmonton in the river valley. There’s a real distrust, but if anything, it’s coyotes that should be scared of us.
“We’re looking forward to getting to Canmore. We’ll be playing hard and working for our money.”
