Tyler Bancroft, co-founder of Vancouver’s Said the Whale, said of their first record that “it’s all songs about Vancouver and the places we knew.”

“This last record reflects the months that we have spent on the road,” Bancroft explained over the phone last week from Corner Brook, Nfld., surprised that his mobile phone didn’t work in the tiny Rock ‘burgh.

STW’s latest record, Islands Disappear, produced by Howard Redekopp (Tegan and Sara, The New Pornographers) and Tom Dobrzanski (We Are the City, Hey Ocean) on Montreal pop label Hidden Pony, explores the relationship between people and their unique environments, attempting to solve the quintessential geographic query: Why are things where they are?

One of their ballads, Out on the Shield, references Precambrian topography and the challenges of living “for the gold” in an unyielding and unforgiving landscape of what could be northern Ontario, giving us a glimpse of the people that got stuck there whilst searching for riches.

“Even if you’ve got a map, you should never travel alone,” Bancroft sings on B.C. Orienteering, giving the impression that he knows of what he speaks.

“ Even if you’ve got a map, you should never travel alone.

Tyler Bancroft, musician

This is not only because the singer has four talented bandmates - co-founder Ben Worchester, percussionist Spencer Schoening, Jacelyn Brown on the keys and Peter Carruthers on bass - but also because the five of them have logged thousands of kilometres across the country and beyond promoting this and their earlier slough of EP releases.

“It’s great,” Bancroft said, regarding the band’s newfound success. “We have never played a sold-out tour and all of our shows out this way have been packed.”

The band’s sudden popularity could be credited, in no small part, to the loads of attention they’ve garnered from CBC Radio 3.

STW pushes a funked-up folk mix, straddling storytelling with ceilidh-steeped sea shanties with thoughtful piano-driven and ukulele-spiced ballads with mid-paced quirky pop rock - a mix that shouldn’t be much of a stretch for east coast audiences to swallow.

“We couldn’t wait to get out here and play these songs for them,” Bancroft said.

Many of their songs have maritime themes which, apparent at their shows, transfer well across the 4,600 kilometres that separate Corner Brook from their home in Vancouver, B.C.

In the past, Winnipeg audiences have also received the band well, showing that the roll of the sea is alive and well on the prairies.

“Our last time through we played the same night as Elvis Costello (at the Folk Fest) and still had a great crowd of about 50 in the Lo Pub.”

Their show at the Pyramid this Monday, Nov. 2 will likely continue their trend of packed houses and ever-receptive fans.

Published in Volume 64, Number 9 of The Uniter (October 29, 2009)