The Statistics, one of the hottest music acts to ever come out of Prince George, is up for a Toronto Independent Music Award.
Repeat: The Statistics - you read that correctly, of Prince George - are up for a Toronto (as in, Ontario) Independent Music Award.
The TIMAs may not be the Junos or the CCMAs but they are powerful in their own right. Some of the past winners include well-known acts like Dala, The Good Lovelies, Sarah Cripps, Leah Daniels, Birds Of Bellwoods and many others. And there is a category especially for quality independent acts who hail from outside of Toronto. It is that branch of the awards show on which The Statistics have sprouted.
"They emailed us - so I have the proof - asking us to submit an application," said Darby Yule, one half of the brother duo. "We are pretty sure the time we spent in Toronto recording and playing at Canadian Music Week played a role in us being noticed."
"I'm not kidding, there were times during Canadian Music Week we heard people say 'yeah, the Toronto music scene is doing great internationally these days' and by that they meant the Canadian music scene, so it's true that some people in Toronto forget there is a whole nation out there," said Erin Yule, the other 50 per cent of the band. "But our overall experience in Toronto is a lot of collaboration and acceptance and excitement between musicians. There are a lot of musicians supporting other musicians there, and we came away with great experiences."
The Statistics just performed a concert in Vancouver alongside Birds Of Bellwoods who are up for a TIMA again as well.
They will be out of town for concert appearances again on the night the TIMAs are announced, so they can't be back in Toronto to personally attend the ceremonies, but the city is on the tour schedule they are putting together for this coming fall.
"We are going out on the road on the strength of our new single, Old Habits, that we just released," said Darby. "It's a duet we did with Amy Kirkpatrick, it's a little different for us, it's our first duet project, and we are also releasing a video for that song. Amy was wonderful to work with, she's a rising star, so we want to do whatever we can to get the song out there to sort of thank her for being so cool with us."
Kirkpatrick is originally from Victoria, was in Vancouver band Data Romance, then moved recently to New York. Her vocals are prominent on Old Habits. The Statistics will be sourcing guest vocalists on each tour stop in the months ahead to take on Kirkpatrick's part.
You can hear Amy Blanding of Black Spruce Bog take on the role when The Statistics perform at this year's UNBC Backyard Barbecue. They also have a full solo concert coming up in mid-October, details to be announced soon.
They are also heading to Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto, with other stops still being established.
"Erin and I both agree that art should be shared," said Darby.
"There's a reason it is called 'performance art' because it isn't meant to be just Darby and me sitting in the basement playing stuff just for ourselves. This is intended for people at large to enjoy," Erin concurred.
"In Prince George we have been very lucky to have the support of our friends and a lot of people we know who have attended our shows and bought our albums, but when you see that happening in other towns, from strangers, people who found your music some other way, that is a different, amazing feeling altogether," Darby said.
"It even happened at a Foo Fighters concert we were at in Vancouver. Someone recognized us. Surreal," Erin said.
The most recent release by The Statistics is the six-EP entitled Haunts. They also have the previous EPs The Boy Who Would Be King and the acoustic Do You Bleed Like I Do available on the download market.
