Petric follows feuds with balance

Band releasing new album after making connections across Canada

Winnipeg country music fans will soon have a new album to help keep them dancing through the winter months. Petric, comprised of sibling duo Jason Petric and Tom Petric, will release their latest EP on Nov. 17, followed by an album release show on Nov. 24.

Petric’s process emphasizes connection.

“Music’s there to connect with people, whether it’s on a massive scale or just a smaller scale,” Jason Petric, lead guitarist and songwriter, says. “We just want to meet people and hope our song resonates with them.”

The band has spent the past year working on 18 Ends, which comes two years after their previous EP. Since releasing It Girl in October 2015, Petric has toured Canada from coast to coast, playing shows and visiting radio stations across the country.

They also won a 2017 Manitoba Country Music Award for “Group or duo of the year.” 

Siblings Jason and Tom Petric

Chris Ising, Manitoba Country Music Association (MCMA) director, thinks connecting with radio stations is an important move for musicians.

“Radio is still a primary tool for breaking music to the mainstream audience,” he says, describing that it can be pivotal in an artist’s career.

Touring in between albums, Ising says, can be just as important as touring in support of a recent release.

As part of their work on this album, the brothers made a concerted effort to work with other songwriters.

“That was a cool process,” Jason Petric says. “We hadn’t done that before, and I think it benefitted us as artists.”

The album is an upbeat one, he says, mentioning that they want to go to shows and have fun.

“We don’t want to put people to sleep,” he says, adding that the songs are ones “we could relate to at our age and songs that we can play at our shows that our fans are going to want to throw a drink up in the air and listen to and sing along with.”

Jason Petric laughs as he tells stories about the band’s early days. The brothers have another guitarist, Jordan Day, who’s been with them for years.

“I actually hired Jordan because I fired Tom,” he says. “Tom just didn’t want to practice, and he was a huge pain.”

The EP’s title track, “18 Ends,” is “a song that we relate to so much,” Jason Petric says. “It just kind of captured where we were at in our lives.”

Far past one firing the other, the brothers have developed a balance of respecting each other and working together, even when on tour and spending every waking moment with each other.

“I think we’ve kind of figured out who we want to be as artists,” Jason Petric says, adding he’s “got a good feeling” about the coming year.

“I don’t think we’re done musically creating,” he says.

Ising says that Petric is proof of the great talent that exists in Manitoba.

“Jason and Tom know how to craft a song,” he says. “They not only know what works for the current radio market, but also what will resonate with their fans and bring in new fans.”

The Petric CD release party is Nov. 24 at Nashville’s (826 Regent Ave.). Tickets are on sale for $21 plus GST at petricmusic.ca.

Published in Volume 72, Number 10 of The Uniter (November 16, 2017)

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