You can't conquer the world if you never leave your own home.
The Statistics are a local band intent on making their living from music. The two members of the pop-punk duo - brothers Erin and Darby Yule - are set to invade other communities in the Western Canadian region to spread their musical word beyond their local territory.
The Statistics are already adding up those miles. They were in Quesnel on Wednesday for a gig at The Occidental. They were on stage at The Grind in Kamloops on Thursday night. Today they are somewhere on the road between there and Vancouver where they play Saturday at The Media Club. After that it is off to Alberta for a gig in Edmonton this coming Wednesday at Bohemia, then down to Calgary for a show at Vern's Bar the next night.
"This is the first part of the tour. We are going across Canada in the springtime," said Darby. "This will get us a bit more ready for that, and we need time to put all those dates together."
The band has a goal of 200 shows in 2016. Erin said "we've hit almost 75 shows so far this year" playing piecemeal gigs, almost all in local conditions, so adding in a tour to other regions would make the 200-gig universe a realistic benchmark.
The duo was also seen scurrying around the city last week with a video camera in hand, capturing local scenes and people for a promotional video. Different than a music video tailored to a specific one song, this short video will be posted on their website, Facebook page and other online locations, plus they will blast it out in emails and web links to concert promoters, talent buyers and media outlets. It's a video that talks about who The Statistics are, and it became a love letter to Prince George itself as they assembled the footage.
"This is a new step for the band. We're getting more aggressive with our marketing," said Darby. "Being a duo has given us that opportunity. When we were a bigger band, we've had members who were really good at the music but didn't want to go out on the road. Erin and I want to be out there, working the songs, building an audience. That's what it's all about for us."
Their latest project is called Haunts and refers to the places and situations of greatest familiarity.
Again, it is an homage to their home region.
"The video is about The Statistics, but The Statistics are about Prince George, so the video shows the landscape here, the forests, the industry, and also the great people here, too," said Darby.
It's on their Facebook page now.
