The Statistics are checking the latest numbers, as they are wont to do, and it looks like they've found a new direction.
They've been all over Canada in the making of their latest music and it turns out that home was where their creative sweet spot was all along. Their latest single is entitled True North and it points directly at their Prince George roots.
"I think it's our best song, no word of a lie, because it's so personal, the way we wrote it on tour, away from home, away from our friends and family," said Darby Yule, half the brother duo that comprises The Statistics along with sibling Erin. Guitarist Roman Kozlowski is also a member of The Statistics.
"It's a coming of age song, a growing up song, a song about the way relationships change and people become different within themselves as they go, and for us it came down to our home, our community, our True North," Darby said.
"We've been able to talk a lot about the way people connect to this song, because it's about all of us, really, from Prince George," said Erin. "We heard from a guy who works on a highway crew painting the lines on the road and he said he likes to listen to it on repeat as he's working. It doesn't get any more local, northern, Prince George than that."
Collaborating with Darby and Erin on this song is a music star who knows firsthand the power of Prince George. Shaun Verreault is the celebrated guitarist/vocalist for blues-rock band Wide Mouth Mason.
He and the band members once disclosed that they wrote a significant portion of their breakthrough eponymous 1997 album during their downtime in Prince George while they were on a multi-night stand performing under a different band name at now defunct nightclub The Generator. Verreault contributed some of his musicianship to True North.
Another collaborator on the song was go-to keyboard player Darryl Havers who has worked in the past with stars like BTO, Farmer's Daughter, Michelle Wright, Alan Doyle, Raffi and others.
The tune took about a year to create, from initial tracking to its release last week on social media.
They didn't wait for an album's worth of material to assemble around True North, and that's not how the modern music industry works anymore. In that sense, this song is their compass towards a long, fruitful career in the difficult music business.
"It's the general strategy of the industry now," said Darby, to release one or a small number of songs at a time. The technology now exists to do that, whereas in the previous century of recording artists, an act had to commit to the hard costs and distribution realities of physical records.
"Realistically, doing a single or an EP gives songs a better chance of standing on our own," said Erin.
"When you were forced to put out a whole album, it was more difficult for an audience to root through that extra material and find what they liked. Now there's a closer connection between each song and its own audience. You're not stuck with a bunch of other songs whether you like it or not."
"We have a plan," Darby clarified. "There is a bigger picture for us. This song is one of three that go together. We will give True North a chance to be a single, then another will come out sometime this summer, and the third one will come out this fall. They will all have videos."
"Once we build up a body of work, then we will package it together into an album knowing that every song has its place with our audience, so fans get full value. And that's probably when we will head back out for another tour," Erin added.
It's a formula they've been working on through past single releases. They've scored thousands of views for their pop-punk songs like Jealous Heart, .22, Old Habits, and others. None of them, though, have hit numbers like True North. They set the song free on June 2. Between that Sunday launch and the end of the day Saturday they had amassed 6,000 clicks, a landslide for an indie band.
"We picked up 200 more just since we woke up this morning," said Erin, checking the online Spotify metrics over breakfast on Monday. By Tuesday afternoon he called to add "it'll hit 10,000 plays within the hour."
Those are impressive statistics for The Statistics.
