It’s been a busy couple of months for The Wooden Sky.
At the end of February, the Toronto-based, indie-folk quintet released their third album, Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun. And they’ve been crisscrossing Canada and the U.S. to promote it ever since, with shows three or four nights a week and rest days spent on the road.
When we spoke Tuesday, frontman Gavin Gardiner’s words echoed through the fuzz of a bad cell phone connection. He’s riding in the tour van, but doesn’t know exactly where he is—somewhere between Seattle and San Francisco.
“Looking at the GPS, it says we still have 11 hours of driving,” he says. “That’s all we’re doing today. Driving.”
By next week the band will loop back to Canada and start working their way east on the final leg of their tour. They stop in Nelson on April 13.
It’s a new experience for the band, being on the road so long. After their last album they toured in short spurts over a period of two years, sharing concert bills with Elliott Brood, The Rural Alberta Advantage and Yukon Blonde.
This time they wanted to cover more ground, faster.
“We made a decision as a band to give up two full months of our life and cover all of North America,” Gardiner says. “Then when we’re home, we’re home. We can start recording again.”
He has plans to convert his garage into a home recording studio, to free himself from other studio’s schedules.
“I’m looking forward to just being able to record music anytime inspiration hits,” he says. “I like to have a lot of material, so we can pick and choose the best when it’s time to put together an album.”
When recording Every Child… the band planned a nine-song LP, but wrote 18 songs. In the end, they pared it back to 13 tracks.
“For me, writing music is the best part,” Gardiner says.
As for touring, “It depends on the day ... In Saskatoon (on March 30), a big flight broke out in the club—that was scary—but then we played our encore in the back of a pickup truck, and that was a lot of fun. You just never know what to expect.”
The Wooden Sky will be joined by Sunparlour Players and Punch the Clock, March 13 at The Royal. Doors, 8 p.m. Tickets, $15, in advance at Urban Legends.