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Northern tunes adding up for The Statistics

As brothers, they are No. 1 and No. 2 in chronological family order, but they are more than mere numbers - they are Statistics. Darby and Aaron Yule have been playing together in various local bands since they were kids.

As brothers, they are No. 1 and No. 2 in chronological family order, but they are more than mere numbers - they are Statistics.

Darby and Aaron Yule have been playing together in various local bands since they were kids. Since they tend to get along better than the Gallagher brothers in Oasis, the acts they form tend to improve over time. They gathered a significant local following as Lost Cause 34, primarily, then they dissolved that unit and formed The Statistics in order to be a "duo-plus" for ease of craftsmanship. They are the constants in the band, and they have a few hand-selected friends (Michael Elder, Michael Hanson, Erik Leisinger) join them as needed in the studio or on stage.

They have to be sleek and mobile, in business and in musical practicality, said lead singer/guitars Darby, because the lesson they learned loudest was to succeed as a band in any town, you have to get out of that town.

"The plan is to tour as much as possible, and we will be getting out for some shows on the road in October and November for sure, and shooting a music video this fall," Darby said. "We've been super-focused on getting out there in front of people. Even people who buy music online - if you're not getting yourself out to them in a live performance, you aren't considered necessarily legitimate or at least you aren't at the front of their minds."

The other lesson Darby said they learned most prominently was to divorce your creative mind from your ego. When a song is written, it has to be test-marketed in front of professionals, those professionals will give you feedback, and that feedback is rarely incorrect. To shorten the process, The Statistics hired professionals to take the reins on a lot of their new project, an EP called Haunts that comes out on Friday.

The project was recorded at B.C.'s most iconic music factory. Fader Mountain Studios was previously known as Little Mountain Sound where some of the biggest albums in history were laid down. The producer was Fader co-owner Paul Boechler who frequently intervened on the draft tracks to get the band's sound to the next level. The package was then mastered by Sterling Sound in New York by someone who has also tweaked the levels for the likes of Paramore and Ray Charles. Even the album and poster art was designed by professionals, and they have a dedicated manager in Taylor Sansum. The common denominator though, said Darby, is everyone was hired based on their appreciation for the band. They hired from within their own social community.

Paying the money for proper service is only going to help the act and the audience come together, he said.

Putting so many of the key elements in professional hands allowed the Yule brothers to focus even more on their own musicianship and songwriting, and narrow the project down into a concise package of alternative rock songs.

"I tend to be fairly experimental as a writer, just in general," said Darby. "I've got plenty of songs, written from all kinds of genres, that I just don't use. We decided to base our project around the feel and the sound of northern B.C. - that's something I feel gets kind of glanced over. There are sides to the north I feel get underrepresented, which I think is cool, it makes an opportunity for us. The way we see it is a sense of freedom and mystery, a powerful place, a rustic spirit. We based all of our marketing and how we look and our band image around that atmosphere. We love P.G., we think it is beautiful, we think it has amazing people, and the efforts going on right now to make it a wonderful place to live are really working, but there is also the other sides of the coin, so we wanted to be accurate and rounded in that, so we talk about some of the harder topics too."

Their first single - simply called .22 - is already circulating on social media. It is about a gun, but this peppy punk-pop anthem isn't about hunting or northern pioneering, it is a crisp shot fired at the heart of teenaged angst: a topic that fits into any region's mindset. Yule said it shouldn't be taken literally, it is hyperbole used to express thoughts about growing up and people reacting to other people.

"For us, the whole writing process is about being a sensitive male. Aaron [drummer and keyboards] and I are both sensitive males," Darby said. "We both have pretty wild senses of humour, and we could have done the Blink 182 thing where we go on stage and act out elaborate jokes, but we wanted to include feelings of anger and isolation as well as reflect the fun and the happiness in life. We look to folks like Kings Of Leon, Green Day, Foo Fighters - those guys project more than just one emotion and one set of thoughts."

Haunts hits the airwaves Sept. 12, and the first scheduled local concert for the band is Oct. 3 at UNBC's pub The Thirsty Moose. From then on, watch The Statistics add up the followers.