He walks out of his recording studio talking on a phone that's cutting in and out, apologizing for being late when he's really 40 minutes early.
That's just the kind of guy Brad Rempel is. He's the lead singer of the trio of brothers that is High Valley. Audience members will hear their rockin' three-part harmony at Paul Brandt's concert Sunday night at CN Centre as High Valley opens the show.
Brad, Bryan and Curtis Rempel grew up in Le Crete, Alberta, singing harmonies with their family and at church. Now they're working on their latest album, touring with their mentor Paul Brandt, riding the crest of the wave of success as recent nominees for Juno's Country Album of the Year for their self-titled album.
High Valley's new album Love is a Long Road will come out in May, with the first single Have I Told You I Love You Lately out now.
"Things are going pretty much as good as they could be," said Brad Rempel. "It's pretty fun being a member of High Valley right now. We're really excited about our new single. It's doing better than anything we've ever done and then the day it was released is when we heard about the Juno nomination so it's been kind of busy, crazy and exciting."
Paul Brandt is a massive Canadian country music star, Rempel said.
"For him to say 'hey guys, I'm going to help you out any way I can' that's a pretty major endorsement," said Rempel. "Paul is a really nice guy and he's helping us out like crazy and hopefully when our career is established we can return the favour and help out some new kids on the block -- just like he's doing for us right now."
The group won the 2011 Country Radio Music Award for Best New Group / Solo Artist (Country) and garnered five wins at the 2011 Gospel Music Association Covenant Awards. In 2010 and 2011, they were nominated for the Rising Star Award at the Canadian Country Music Association Awards (CCMA). High Valley continues to build on the success of their self-titled debut album which saw four singles chart in the top 25 on country radio, including I Will Stand By You, On The Combine, A Father's Love and Call Me Old Fashioned.
"When people listen to our music they're going to realize that we come from a small town just like a lot of other country artists," said Rempel. "Because we're family we feel we bring a whole new dynamic to the whole lifestyle. We showcase the family harmonies and lyrically there's a lot of talk about family in our songs and we can tell our stories as a whole -- what's true for one guy in the band is true for the other two because we grew up the exact same way. I think that brings a level of honesty to a country vocal band."
The trio has traveled together for years performing in small towns like Burns Lake, Vanderhoof and Hazelton and now they're coming to the big city of Prince George, Rempel said.
"The best part of traveling with your brothers is that you get to see them every day and the worst part of traveling with your brother is that you get to see them every day," he laughed. "We're going to have a great time at the concert in Prince George and we're going to showcase our rockin' upbeat tunes like On The Combine and Stand By You but we also want people to get to know High Valley and hear our stories and there will be some acoustic stuff as well to feature our harmonies. For us there's nothing more exciting than a good sound system and a bunch of people ready to hear some country music and going home remembering the music, remembering the words and also feeling like they've become our friends."
Tickets for Paul Brandt's Sunday concert with special guests High Valley are available at all Ticketmaster outlets.
