There’s a union meeting at the Drake pub this weekend.
Sweatshop Union, that is. The five-piece hip hop group plays the Canmore watering hole this Sunday (Feb. 17). The Outlook spoke with band member Colin “Dusty” McCue about the show.
“I’m stoked to be coming back – Canmore is a pretty regular stop on our tour,” said McCue. “The Drake is an awesome venue, it’s like an anomaly, it’s a small place and they pile people up the walls.
“For such a small venue, there’s so much energy in there, it’s such a fun place to play.”
Formed in Vancouver in 2000, over the years the band has played several times at the Drake, the Canmore Hotel and Wild Bill’s in Banff.
This show is part of a two-month tour which began in January, covering the western United States and Canada, and will culminate with a performance at Canadian Music Week in Toronto.
Many of the band members have side projects, in addition to the main band Sweatshop Union, and for Dusty, his is a duo called Pigeon Hole.
“In March I’m going to be releasing a new Pigeon album – that’s my side project – and in April another new Sweatshop album,” he said. “Then we’re headed down to Texas for South by Southwest (SXSW) and out to Toronto for CMW, so we’re definitely keeping busy.”
The new album is as of yet unnamed, riding on the heels of 2011’s Bill Murray EP.
“The whole sound of the group changed a lot for the Bill Murray record,” said Dusty. “Before that it was almost like golden era-inspired hip hop music, pretty sample heavy and very influenced by the hip hop we grew up listening to.
“On that record the sound departed from that and got a little heavier and more synth driven – a departure from our comfort zone.”
The new album, which will be the band’s fifth full-length release, is more of a balance between this new style and their old sound, he said.
“It’s awesome, it’s balanced between really intense high energy hype music and introspective heavy thinking music,” said Dusty. “It’s a cool balance, and fans who like us for our deeper songs would really like it and then it’s also going to translate really well into the live show.
“The new album’s a middle ground that weaves in and out of what we did with Bill Murray. There are songs like our staples from the older albums, and we’re also pursuing these newer approached that are a little heavier.”
When the Pigeon Hole album comes out, he hopes to find time to tour it as well.
“The way we’ve always operated is I write the majority of my songs with Marmalade – the other guy in Pigeon Hole – and so basically we just write a whole album together and release that,” he explained. “We do it in a time where we can go out on our own and play a few shows. We’ll be touring for that in March.”
After that, Sweatshop Union is looking at summer touring with a hope of returning to the Bow Valley.
“Right now we’re looking at all the festivals we want to jump on and line them up,” said Dusty. “That’s always my favourite part of touring, the festival circuit for the summer, and it’s just amazing with outdoors, nice weather, huge sound systems.
“I get to go and watch bands too and at the end of the day go play my set, and it’s awesome.”
The band would even be interested in playing the Canmore Folk Music Festival, if the opportunity arose.
For more information, visit the Union’s website at sweatshopunion.com
