Shred Kelly has a clear view of the future on their new, introspective sixth album “Blurry Vision” which they will bring to Lethbridge at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Dec. 15.
“ I think the last time we were there was summer of 2021, so it’s been a few years. We‘re excited to come back,” said Shred Kelly keyboardist/ vocalist Sage McBride, who along with her partner Tim Newton / vocals, banjo/ guitar; guitarist Ty West and drummer Ryan Mildenberger, make up Shred Kelly.
McBride is looking forward to sharing the new music though it is little more darker and introspective than their previous works.
They released their latest album on Oct 20.
“ It was our sixth album so we’re getting up there in albums,” she chuckled.
“It’s good. It feels good. The process of writing is always fun. Our writing style has definitely evolved and changed since we’ve began. But it’s always fun, like the production of it all and writing the songs and working on it and then it feels nice to put it out there . But then you want to start working on the next thing right away too. So it doesn’t ever end,” McBride continued
The album is a lot more low key than their previous albums.
“ There‘s still a few high energy songs in there, but we definitely wrote it during the years 2020 and 2021. So times were feeling a little bit heavier in our personal lives and also just in the world. So I guess we weren’t feeling as sort of anthemic as we have in the past in our writing and we’re sort of evaluating the world a little more in our personal lives and dealing with some anxiety and stress related to what was happening in the world around us. But the album still reaches for hope throughout. There is still the hopefulness that I think that we’re known for and there are some songs that are pretty joyous. So we tried not to make it too depressing, even though that’s how we were feeling,” McBride said.
McBride and Newton recently had a baby which also contributed to the music.
“ Yeah, for sure, and I think that played into our emotions a lot too, just feeling really isolated and then also sort of everything in the world shifted as we became new parents. So we were kind of cut off from family and friends so we had to kind of lean on each other a lot more so there’s songs like ‘Cracks In the Finish’ kind of like being able to love each other even though how you’re kind of realizing you’re not entirely perfect or it’s hard to be something for the one person being everything that you need is kind of a challenge. And then the song ‘ The Days We have Left’ is feeling like not being your best self and asking your partner to love you despite your flaws and love you in those periods where you don’t feel your best. So there’s definitely some heavier themes,” she said.
“And the opening song ‘Stained Glass’ is about a storm coming in. And when we wrote that one, it was sort of like the storm that was coming towards the world and kinds of sets the tone for whole album. But the album ends with ‘Nothing for Awhile’ which is sort of like our signature high energy song that it’s definitely a bit of a darker theme than maybe what we’ve sung about in the past,” she said,
Shred Kelly has three videos out for the new album for “ Cracks In the Finish,” and “Nothing for a While” and “Another Place.”
“We filmed all of the videos so far from the record with our neighbour Dylan Siggers. So he was also the guy who filmed the ‘Sing to the Night’ video in one shot and then he moved in next to Tim and I so now we collaborate on lots of things. On our last record he did a lot of the videos for that one too. Because he’s right next door, we just send a text saying ‘come on over we’re brainstorming some ideas,’” she said.
“With ‘Cracks In the Finish,’ we just tried to keep it fairly simple and feature Fernie as a background in it. Then ‘Nothing For a While,’ the song is sort of about the frustrations with being constantly overstimulated by bad news or having your phone on you all the time so you have access to information but it’s not always the information that you want to be flooded with so it’s sort of that frustration with the modern world. So Tim gets to act really frustrated in that video, which I think he does a really good job at. He’s a great actor,” McBride laughed.
“And then ‘Another Place’ we had different backgrounds and everybody wore different coloured shirts and we were able to film that one in our rehearsal space which was kind of nice because a lot of our videos are weather dependent and we can’t shoot at certain times of day because of lighting. So it was nice to just be able to do it in a controlled environment in our rehearsal space and have some fun with it. So yeah, they’re really super fun videos. And we have another one in the works for the song ‘Lost Without You.” which will probably come out before the end of the year, but not exactly sure,” she said, adding she is not sure how many they will shoot for the album.
“ We love making music videos. We’ll just make as many as we can. With the last album we just kept as long as we could come up with a budget or come up with a DIY way of making things. We’ll do as many as possible, but sometimes the budget runs out so I guess until then,” she said.
McBride said response to the new music has been very positive. They played some of the new songs on a recent tour of Germany.
“Really good so far. It’s always weird. We went to Germany and played some of the songs live and the reception there has been really good. But for us we’re such a live band. We love performing the new tunes live, so I think that will be the best indication for us of how thing are going. So we‘re pretty excited to play a bunch of the new songs when we come to Lethbridge,” she said, adding they play Europe a lot .
“We were just there last week. We just got back. It was great. We played a festival there called Rolling Stone Beach Festival and it was awesome. It made me really appreciate a music festival in November because they had a big tent outdoors and then a few indoor venues as well. But it gets dark at 5:30 p.m. so were were one of the first bands on at 5 under this tent for 4,000 people. And we were like ‘awe, we’re the first band, it’ll probably be kind of empty.’ But because it’s November and it’s dark outside and there‘s nothing else going on, everyone is just right there, right away. And it’s like ‘oh, November is actually the perfect time for a music festival because there nothing else .’ In the summer there’s all these other things you can do but in November if you’re at a music festival, all you’re going to do is watch the music,” she said, adding they were in Europe last year and the year before and a few times before that.
“ We really like going over there. It’s pretty fun to tour. We usually go to Germany but then last year we went to Poland and Austria and Czech Republic and a few other places too. So it’s always a nice work holiday, but this one was a nice short and sweet trip. It was great,” she said.
Shred Kelly is looking forward to returning to Lethbridge.
“Well, we are going to be playing a bunch of the songs from the new record, but there is also, I believe , there’s a voting link when you buy a ticket up until Nov. 28 where you can vote on our second set so people can vote for their favourite songs to be in the second set of the night. So we’ll be doing a couple sets and then set number two will be all fan favourites. So you can vote in some of the songs that maybe we don’t play that frequently or that you haven’t heard in a while or whatever it is people want to hear . So we thought it would kind of fun and fun for us to challenge ourselves with some of the material that we aren’t used to playing all the time,” she said.
McBride said the band is planning to do an album release tour in the new year after the winter snow clears. in March or April.
“We’ll probably do an album release tour for the rest of the country in March and April then summer festivals next summer . But I think we’ll take January and February off. We used to tour a lot in the winter but now, after you’ve toured in the Canadian prairies a few times in January and February you start to realize there are better times to be on the icy highways,” she chuckled.
“And when it get darker early too, you spend all of daylight in a van and you show up and it’s too cold and you have to wait in the venue. So we’ll go in the Spring once the time has changed and you can be outdoors a little longer and you’re not just in the car during all of daylight.
Shred Kelly does not tour very often in the United State because logistically it is easier to tour in Europe.
“Not too much. We’ve only ever been once down there for a tour and then played a few festivals down there, but we really want to. It’s just one of those things , that the process to go tour in the States like getting the visas is so complicated. Going to Europe you don’t need to get a visa at all. It’s more expensive to fly over there, but in terms of planning, it’s a lot easier. Because for the States you have to have all of your dates planned and then you have to apply three or more months before the tour begins so you have to have everything line up really far in advance to get your work permit. So we’ve done it once and it was a pretty complicated process and we haven’t done it again. Maybe one day,” she said.
They will be busy touring and promoting the new album, but are already planning on making new music.
“We’ll start writing new music right away. That’s always the way the cycle goes. As soon as you release one, you spend a couple of months devoted to the promotion of it then you get the itch to be creative and work on something new again . I know that Tim is really keen right now on learning how to record and produce himself, so he’s doing a lot of online studies and that. So he’s been testing out what he’s learning just at home. SoI think we’ll be going back to writing and recording new stuff pretty quickly,” she said.
“We have vinyl and CDs available on our online store. So we can ship them from Fernie to anywhere. And we’ll also have them when we come to Lethbridge,” she said.
Shred Kelly play the Owl Acoustic lounge , Dec. 15 at 8 p.m.Tickets are available inline for $20 plus fees or $25 at the door.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
