The Sit Down with Jake Vaadeland
Jake Vaadeland is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from Saskatchewan, Canada. His traditional sound and unique style could be defined as a blend of Bluegrass and 50s Rockabilly. Jake strives to write and play with a focus on storytelling and messages that he hopes his audience can relate to, all packaged in foot stomping, high energy performances with The Sturgeon River Boys.
The band have developed a reputation as one of the hardest working independent bands in the business. True road warriors, they are passionate about taking their music directly to their quickly growing fanbase around the world which will see them appear at this years C2C: Country to Country festival at London’s O2 Arena in March.
Hey, Jake, Thanks for taking the time to chat this afternoon, we’re really excited that you are coming back to see us next month as a lot of people were talking about how good you guys were at The Long Road Festival, which was the first time that I really got to see what you guys do.
“Yeah, I really enjoyed The Long Road and all the different all the different festivals that we did. It seems like we've been over a lot more to me, but that's because both times we've come over, we've been there for almost a month playing. The first time we went over for The Long Road and stuff, we got there and I felt like much more of a big deal than I actually was or that I feel like I am anyway. Back here in Canada here at the Bluegrass festivals, when we would get the bands from the States that would come in and when I was a kid, that was such a big deal because those were the people who really knew how to play Bluegrass. At the time, I guess they weren't that big of a deal either, but we all thought they were because they were the big shots there that knew how to play it better than the Canadians did. The way that I felt about them was kind of how I felt that we were being received there, which was which was quite an interesting feeling. Everyone seemed to know who we were when we showed up and usually at festivals here we're getting yelled at by volunteers and stuff telling us you can't park there all this, but as soon as we showed up everyone was just like, oh, you know, Jake Vaadeland and the Sturgeon River Boys are here. So overall, that festival and everything else that we've done there has been a lot more professional and successful, then we have been received quite well everywhere in Europe, including the UK. We played in in Germany and they had never heard my songs before, I'd never been there before and all the young people in the front row were singing along word for word to almost all the songs and that doesn't happen here. We really enjoyed that festival and all of the others.”
The reception in Europe has clearly been so good because looking ahead through the first half of the year, you're either a big aviation enthusiast or things are going well enough to make multiple trips over worthwhile.
“That’s what my guitar player Joel keeps telling me, that in the end it is four times we're going back between Europe in general and the UK.”
I was looking at your dates and you’re heading to Spain this weekend then some shows in the Netherlands before the UK run in March, then you're back for another festival in Rotterdam and then heading to Denmark at the end of summer for Tønder, which is a festival which I have heard great things about.
“Yeah we were there last year and that was a really good festival too. Again, we were just treated so well and we had never been there before. At festivals here, we don't get a green room and there they said, yeah, this is your designated space before your show, here's your rider and everything. I thought, geez at festival here, we don't get a rider, they give us give us some chips in a bowl, some pop and it's all communal so, we were treated so well there.”
What you and the Sturgeon River Boys do on stage is really cool and really unique to us where you can tell how influenced you were by Bluegrass. How did you first sort of get into that sort of music? What initially drew you to Bluegrass and that fifties style Rockabilly?
“Probably just my surroundings, there was a lot of riding the bus to school from the farm where they had the regular on so I’d hear everything new and it's not like my parents listened to just Bluegrass. My parents were both in bluegrass bands and my mother was in a Celtic band too, so I had that style too. Then there was the Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Time Music Society that put on all kinds of things based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and they put on a festival out at the Ness Creek site which was only fifteen minutes from the ranch. That’s when they would have some bands from the States and they would be the headliners because they were always so good at playing Bluegrass. I was surrounded by it, but my father, he listened to John Fogerty's crew, CCR and The Beatles so I heard all that and I could have I could have liked that too, but I guess I just I was exposed to so many I had the option to pick. The other big thing that I always remember is where I was sitting with my mother and everybody would be jamming Bluegrass in the living room. People I didn't really know at the time, but I still know them today now because I saw them ever since I was a little kid, then at Grandma and Grandpa’s place families would come over, you would see lights coming down the driveway and Grandma always said, that meant you turn the coffee pot on and brought the instruments out, you didn't ask any questions. They never locked their doors out there either, which you got used to, but now that I live in town, I lock them all the time, but people could just come in the house if they were stranded in the wintertime and you could help them warm up and stuff. It was kind of that friendly mentality there and of course there were always jam sessions and stuff where whether you were good at it or not, you kind of were involved.”
The band have developed a reputation as one of the hardest working independent bands in the business. True road warriors, they are passionate about taking their music directly to their quickly growing fanbase around the world which will see them appear at this years C2C: Country to Country festival at London’s O2 Arena in March.
Hey, Jake, Thanks for taking the time to chat this afternoon, we’re really excited that you are coming back to see us next month as a lot of people were talking about how good you guys were at The Long Road Festival, which was the first time that I really got to see what you guys do.
“Yeah, I really enjoyed The Long Road and all the different all the different festivals that we did. It seems like we've been over a lot more to me, but that's because both times we've come over, we've been there for almost a month playing. The first time we went over for The Long Road and stuff, we got there and I felt like much more of a big deal than I actually was or that I feel like I am anyway. Back here in Canada here at the Bluegrass festivals, when we would get the bands from the States that would come in and when I was a kid, that was such a big deal because those were the people who really knew how to play Bluegrass. At the time, I guess they weren't that big of a deal either, but we all thought they were because they were the big shots there that knew how to play it better than the Canadians did. The way that I felt about them was kind of how I felt that we were being received there, which was which was quite an interesting feeling. Everyone seemed to know who we were when we showed up and usually at festivals here we're getting yelled at by volunteers and stuff telling us you can't park there all this, but as soon as we showed up everyone was just like, oh, you know, Jake Vaadeland and the Sturgeon River Boys are here. So overall, that festival and everything else that we've done there has been a lot more professional and successful, then we have been received quite well everywhere in Europe, including the UK. We played in in Germany and they had never heard my songs before, I'd never been there before and all the young people in the front row were singing along word for word to almost all the songs and that doesn't happen here. We really enjoyed that festival and all of the others.”
The reception in Europe has clearly been so good because looking ahead through the first half of the year, you're either a big aviation enthusiast or things are going well enough to make multiple trips over worthwhile.
“That’s what my guitar player Joel keeps telling me, that in the end it is four times we're going back between Europe in general and the UK.”
I was looking at your dates and you’re heading to Spain this weekend then some shows in the Netherlands before the UK run in March, then you're back for another festival in Rotterdam and then heading to Denmark at the end of summer for Tønder, which is a festival which I have heard great things about.
“Yeah we were there last year and that was a really good festival too. Again, we were just treated so well and we had never been there before. At festivals here, we don't get a green room and there they said, yeah, this is your designated space before your show, here's your rider and everything. I thought, geez at festival here, we don't get a rider, they give us give us some chips in a bowl, some pop and it's all communal so, we were treated so well there.”
What you and the Sturgeon River Boys do on stage is really cool and really unique to us where you can tell how influenced you were by Bluegrass. How did you first sort of get into that sort of music? What initially drew you to Bluegrass and that fifties style Rockabilly?
“Probably just my surroundings, there was a lot of riding the bus to school from the farm where they had the regular on so I’d hear everything new and it's not like my parents listened to just Bluegrass. My parents were both in bluegrass bands and my mother was in a Celtic band too, so I had that style too. Then there was the Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Time Music Society that put on all kinds of things based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and they put on a festival out at the Ness Creek site which was only fifteen minutes from the ranch. That’s when they would have some bands from the States and they would be the headliners because they were always so good at playing Bluegrass. I was surrounded by it, but my father, he listened to John Fogerty's crew, CCR and The Beatles so I heard all that and I could have I could have liked that too, but I guess I just I was exposed to so many I had the option to pick. The other big thing that I always remember is where I was sitting with my mother and everybody would be jamming Bluegrass in the living room. People I didn't really know at the time, but I still know them today now because I saw them ever since I was a little kid, then at Grandma and Grandpa’s place families would come over, you would see lights coming down the driveway and Grandma always said, that meant you turn the coffee pot on and brought the instruments out, you didn't ask any questions. They never locked their doors out there either, which you got used to, but now that I live in town, I lock them all the time, but people could just come in the house if they were stranded in the wintertime and you could help them warm up and stuff. It was kind of that friendly mentality there and of course there were always jam sessions and stuff where whether you were good at it or not, you kind of were involved.”
“I guess with all of that, I sort of grew up with it more as a part of I guess what I would call it my own culture within a culture, you know. I grew up mainly Norwegian in a way, because it was the Scandinavian settlement, so a very Scandinavian upbringing, Grandpa and all the people his age, they still speak Norwegian to each other because that was their first language growing up when they settled. That’s the interesting thing about being from here, you go to a different part of your own country, but everybody is more a German or people are more French and I was from Scandinavian part so, I guess that would be what why I'd call it a more of a cultural thing because we can all be Canadian, but I kind of think we each have our own individual new variations of old cultures that have bloomed anew within so called Canadian culture. That's why I give credit to that, it became sort of our own culture out there to just play that kind of music on our own time with the family. Yes, I was still exposed to other music and stuff, but when we get together for birthday parties, for Christmas or even going to church for Pete's sake. Most people just have a piano or an organ, but everybody would bring guitars and banjos which I thought was funny because you know, maybe this was years back, but I know there's stories of people calling that the devil's instrument and stuff. But here we are playing it in church with fiddles and mandolin, you could just bring an instrument and play along to the songs so, I guess church for us was really just a jam session again. That's probably why I ended up making that as it really is in my roots, it's not so much just music that I like, because I've been exposed to all the other music, but it was this kind of music that I grew up with and became a part of my culture and my life, so that's the style I play now.”
So, from there, how did the Sturgeon River Boys come along? How long have you played with those guys for and how did you all get together?
“When I was young before I really knew who Jaxon, my banjo player was, we have one of those relationships where we never actually officially met, we weren't necessarily friends, but I can never remember a time when I first saw him, he's just always been there. The first time we talked, that's a different story, but he was always around, I saw him all the time, you know, at the Debden grocery store or at Bluegrass festivals in Saskatoon. He moved to Saskatoon with his family, but he originally came from a more French settlement called Victoire which was only 20 minutes on the grid roads from where our Norwegian settlement was. When I say settlement, I mean not a town or anything, but just farms very close to each other with a with a sort of a communal building somewhere. It was farmland, but it did have a name, it was called Park Valley and it just happened that there was these three or four main Norwegian families that settled in that area and it’s the same with Victoire. He moved to the city of Saskatoon and that's where he lives now, then Joel, my electric guitar player was born and raised in the city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, which to us would be quite a short drive from the farm which at an hour and a half was the closest city to us. Joel lived pretty close and our first bass player Stephen, actually grew up just across the border in in Alberta but he lived in Prince Albert too and still does with his family now, although he doesn't play bass for us anymore. Now, our bass player is for the most part, when we can have him, is Jake Smithies from Sheffield, England so we fly him over a lot for things, but of course, it doesn't work for everything because of the distance. Otherwise, I’d be inclined to call him my new full-time base player because he would be if he could be.”
So, from there, how did the Sturgeon River Boys come along? How long have you played with those guys for and how did you all get together?
“When I was young before I really knew who Jaxon, my banjo player was, we have one of those relationships where we never actually officially met, we weren't necessarily friends, but I can never remember a time when I first saw him, he's just always been there. The first time we talked, that's a different story, but he was always around, I saw him all the time, you know, at the Debden grocery store or at Bluegrass festivals in Saskatoon. He moved to Saskatoon with his family, but he originally came from a more French settlement called Victoire which was only 20 minutes on the grid roads from where our Norwegian settlement was. When I say settlement, I mean not a town or anything, but just farms very close to each other with a with a sort of a communal building somewhere. It was farmland, but it did have a name, it was called Park Valley and it just happened that there was these three or four main Norwegian families that settled in that area and it’s the same with Victoire. He moved to the city of Saskatoon and that's where he lives now, then Joel, my electric guitar player was born and raised in the city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, which to us would be quite a short drive from the farm which at an hour and a half was the closest city to us. Joel lived pretty close and our first bass player Stephen, actually grew up just across the border in in Alberta but he lived in Prince Albert too and still does with his family now, although he doesn't play bass for us anymore. Now, our bass player is for the most part, when we can have him, is Jake Smithies from Sheffield, England so we fly him over a lot for things, but of course, it doesn't work for everything because of the distance. Otherwise, I’d be inclined to call him my new full-time base player because he would be if he could be.”
“When it comes to how I met them and got together, like I said, Jaxon was just always around and I knew he was a banjo player. In fact, seeing him play banjo was one of the reasons I decided to play banjo, he had already been playing banjo for some years before I started and I would watch him at the jam sessions with that campfire and I just said, you know, I want I want to be cool like that guy and play banjo. He didn't come along until after the Sturgeon River Boy was started, I started out with a guy named Ira Amundson as just a duo, we had planned to add a bass player, a fiddle player and stuff at some point but he ended up moving to Oklahoma in the US with his family, so that's why I wanted to start the Sturgeon River Boys. I had the name in mind before the bandmates came along because I raised and grew up by the Sturgeon river on a place called Sturgeon River Ranch and the river was actually only about two hundred feet from my bedroom window so you could walk there. Anyway, my dad sold that ranch some years ago and I moved to the small town of Cut Knife where I lived now and he moved into Prince Albert where he lives now. He had been doing bluegrass all of his life so he wanted to do a little bit of a country rock kind of a thing, more like Waylon Jennings. He started playing with these guys who would have been my age at the time, these younger fellows, Stephen and Joel and a couple of other guys. I didn't like that music, I didn't like electric guitar, electric base and all that. I wanted to stick with Bluegrass, all my songs were written in a Bluegrass style and were intended to be performed in a Bluegrass style which isn't necessarily what is happening now, which is okay, I have come round to the idea and people seem to like it. When I went there, I tried out a throw together band to audition for a music festival and we got into that but then the band changed completely, I thought I’ve got to find people that can be permanent members. Dad said, well, try out these guys, maybe all they need to succeed is to switch out the lead singer, which was himself.”
“We went and had a jam session at Joel' place and I wasn't too thrilled about it because he was playing the electric guitar and Stephen had never played an upright bass before. He'd been playing electric bass, and I said, well, I'll try the electric guitar, that'll be fine, but we have to have a real upright base, the electric just doesn't sound quite right and doesn't look the part either, it’s not as fun. He played upright and it took him a while, he would come up with his own style that's in all of the recordings that we have recorded that are out or that are coming out and it's got that sort of that unique style that he came up with himself. We played a few shows, just the three of us and when it finally came around for the so called big show at the time which was the Ness Creek Festival, we wanted to bring Jaxon along, so I talked to him and said, do you want to come and play banjo, things are going good, but we've lost the Bluegrass sound too much. These Bluegrass songs that I wrote sound pure Rockabilly and country , we need to still have something to keep the bluegrass there, we can have all these other things, but I really wanted to have the Bluegrass obvious to people. He came along and played which was sort of the first time we all played as the full four piece with all the instruments that the band needs to put on a half decent show. Jaxon was kind of on and off with us for the next year, he had a couple of his own projects and Joel even, they had full-time jobs at other places. Joel is one of the best sound men in the province and he was working for one of the big theatres before he had to quit because we got so busy and for the most part Jaxon had to give up on his bands that he had so he could work full time with me. I guess that’s a good thing, it means that we’re busy but was definitely not an easy decision for them to do, our old bass player had a family and decided to step back so, now we have this new committed fellow from England, which makes it even all the more reason to come over there more, one less ticket to buy for the plane. That there’s kind of a long wordy story of how everything came together.”
I know we have two new songs coming out on Friday which will lead into a new record called “One More Dollar To Go” so, what can you tell us about that and when that will be on the way?
“For some reason I don't actually know when it's supposed to come out. I thought it was supposed to come out soon, like within the next month, but something about April comes to mind. To me that seems like a stretch, but maybe that is what it is. Otherwise, I'd say March would be a good time for it to come out, but I'd say within the next month or two it should be out, I’ll put it that way but the sooner the better. We used to release albums whenever we wanted, but now we have these people that know better, they have the strategies so I end up waiting for the perfect release date. We’ve got two singles coming out as the focus tracks for the album, both are new songs of mine but we have been performing them live, we did in the UK last time that we were there and here we tend to perform songs live before they are released because I don't feel the need to wait. Yeah, the recordings will be coming out and followed by the entire album which will be 10 songs, also all new songs, some of which we have been performing live which will also be coming out vinyl and on CD as well. Actually, when we are in the UK, whether it's released or not, we will have physical copies for sale already. Whether it's officially out online or not, we are supposed to have CDs and vinyl there unless we sell out by the first show, because we can only bring so much over at a time.”
We touched on the fact you're coming back to the UK in March to play in York, Huddersfield, Settle in West Yorkshire, Liverpool, Birmingham and then you're going to come and play at Europe's largest country music festival. What have you heard about Country to Country and the O2 in London?
“Well, I've seen pictures of it, my bass player was trying to show me pictures of the O2 and said it was a lot of people. I said, boy, I don't know if our show would go over that well in a place like that and what room it's going to be in but I've heard a lot of good things. A lot of people saying that it will be good exposure, because regardless of where they put, there'll be a lot of people front of you. So even if it is just a little show, it's still in front of a lot of people and it will definitely, hopefully help to get the music even more known and spreading even more than we are. Then we can come back more and make it even make more sense financially so that we can stay there longer and play venues that can fit more people in. We have had quite a few people saying about York being sold out already and you should have picked a bigger venue, I don’t know what’s in the works but there was talk of adding a couple more nights on the trip so more people can get in. Our show works best in a nice sized theatre and It would be nice to be able to bring a nice clean, professional show to people as soon as we are able to make the step up to those venues over there, so I hope C2C will be good for progressing in that direction.”
We know you are going to go down so well at the festival and you and your boys are actually going to be the third act from Saskatchewan to play at C2C, following Tenille Arts and Jess Moskaluke who both have a little bit of a different sort of sound but we love equally as much.
“That’s cool, I know of Tenille’s name, then I know Jess Moskaluke as I worked with her on a live telethon here in Saskatchewan and we have been together at shows for The Hunter so it’s always nice to run into people like that who you get along with and are nice to work with in the business, so I’m glad to hear that I’ll be following in her footsteps over there.”
Another guy from Canada that has played C2C before and is another pal of ours is Tebey who you put a track out with last year. How did the Bluegrass cover and recording that with him come about?
I know we have two new songs coming out on Friday which will lead into a new record called “One More Dollar To Go” so, what can you tell us about that and when that will be on the way?
“For some reason I don't actually know when it's supposed to come out. I thought it was supposed to come out soon, like within the next month, but something about April comes to mind. To me that seems like a stretch, but maybe that is what it is. Otherwise, I'd say March would be a good time for it to come out, but I'd say within the next month or two it should be out, I’ll put it that way but the sooner the better. We used to release albums whenever we wanted, but now we have these people that know better, they have the strategies so I end up waiting for the perfect release date. We’ve got two singles coming out as the focus tracks for the album, both are new songs of mine but we have been performing them live, we did in the UK last time that we were there and here we tend to perform songs live before they are released because I don't feel the need to wait. Yeah, the recordings will be coming out and followed by the entire album which will be 10 songs, also all new songs, some of which we have been performing live which will also be coming out vinyl and on CD as well. Actually, when we are in the UK, whether it's released or not, we will have physical copies for sale already. Whether it's officially out online or not, we are supposed to have CDs and vinyl there unless we sell out by the first show, because we can only bring so much over at a time.”
We touched on the fact you're coming back to the UK in March to play in York, Huddersfield, Settle in West Yorkshire, Liverpool, Birmingham and then you're going to come and play at Europe's largest country music festival. What have you heard about Country to Country and the O2 in London?
“Well, I've seen pictures of it, my bass player was trying to show me pictures of the O2 and said it was a lot of people. I said, boy, I don't know if our show would go over that well in a place like that and what room it's going to be in but I've heard a lot of good things. A lot of people saying that it will be good exposure, because regardless of where they put, there'll be a lot of people front of you. So even if it is just a little show, it's still in front of a lot of people and it will definitely, hopefully help to get the music even more known and spreading even more than we are. Then we can come back more and make it even make more sense financially so that we can stay there longer and play venues that can fit more people in. We have had quite a few people saying about York being sold out already and you should have picked a bigger venue, I don’t know what’s in the works but there was talk of adding a couple more nights on the trip so more people can get in. Our show works best in a nice sized theatre and It would be nice to be able to bring a nice clean, professional show to people as soon as we are able to make the step up to those venues over there, so I hope C2C will be good for progressing in that direction.”
We know you are going to go down so well at the festival and you and your boys are actually going to be the third act from Saskatchewan to play at C2C, following Tenille Arts and Jess Moskaluke who both have a little bit of a different sort of sound but we love equally as much.
“That’s cool, I know of Tenille’s name, then I know Jess Moskaluke as I worked with her on a live telethon here in Saskatchewan and we have been together at shows for The Hunter so it’s always nice to run into people like that who you get along with and are nice to work with in the business, so I’m glad to hear that I’ll be following in her footsteps over there.”
Another guy from Canada that has played C2C before and is another pal of ours is Tebey who you put a track out with last year. How did the Bluegrass cover and recording that with him come about?
“It was one of those things, he just thought I want to do this now and if people told him that it’s not a good idea and him being him was like that’s fine if people don’t like it but I like it, I want to have a Bluegrass version of this song. He had thought of that after we met each other, I think it was at the CCMA Canadian Country Music Awards, but his manager at the time was and still is the lady who does my distribution so we were going to meet each other eventually anyway. We didn’t have a lot of time but we talked to each other for a bit there and then when we went to Toronto for a bit, I ran into him there and I guess that some point after that, he had that idea of doing it Bluegrass to merge the two. Then when we were in Nashville for a showcase type thing, we went to the to the studio and recorded that which I believe only took a day. We did it all live off the floor and he kind of got scared at first because he always did his vocals after. We've never done that for ourselves, so I wasn't even thinking of that and up until recently we’ve recorded all of our songs live off the floor and with separate tracking and stuff but because of publishing now we have to do it with vocals over separate because otherwise the movies don't want them. That’s too bad because I think my voice sounds better when I sing it whilst I'm playing, it just sounds more realistic, competent and stuff, but that's okay. We did it live though for that for that track and it was a lot of fun, he’s great guy to work with and I think the last time I saw him was when we did those funny videos for where we were releasing it. The release of that song didn't hurt him at all, but it helped us quite a bit just streaming wise so it that opened another door of audience for.”
Really appreciate you taking a lot of time with us today. It's been fun and we’re really looking forward to seeing you in just over a month at the O2 in London.
Jake Vaadeland & the Sturgeon River Boys will be appearing at C2C: Country to Country in London across the weekend of March 14th to 16th where they will be performing on the BBC Radio 2 and Countryline stages. Full festival details and ticket information are available on the WEBSITE or socials (INSTAGRAM X & FACEBOOK)
The new album “One More Dollar To Go” from Jake Vaadeland is on the way soon with the first offerings: “Bound to the Road” (pre-save HERE) and “Lonesome Motor Inn” (pre-save HERE) being released on Friday February 7th.
For full listings of his upcoming dates and ticket information, you can check out his WEBSITE or follow Jake socially to keep up with all that he is up to on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
Really appreciate you taking a lot of time with us today. It's been fun and we’re really looking forward to seeing you in just over a month at the O2 in London.
Jake Vaadeland & the Sturgeon River Boys will be appearing at C2C: Country to Country in London across the weekend of March 14th to 16th where they will be performing on the BBC Radio 2 and Countryline stages. Full festival details and ticket information are available on the WEBSITE or socials (INSTAGRAM X & FACEBOOK)
The new album “One More Dollar To Go” from Jake Vaadeland is on the way soon with the first offerings: “Bound to the Road” (pre-save HERE) and “Lonesome Motor Inn” (pre-save HERE) being released on Friday February 7th.
For full listings of his upcoming dates and ticket information, you can check out his WEBSITE or follow Jake socially to keep up with all that he is up to on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
