Canadian indie rock bands Hey Rosetta! and Stars are stopping in Victoria during their upcoming North American tour.
With both bands busy promoting new albums, it seemed natural for them to team up.
“We both had records that came out at the same time and we were both planning a pretty extensive tour,” says Hey Rosetta! bass player Josh Ward.
Not unfamiliar with each other, Hey Rosetta! and Stars have toured together before, and, according to Ward, they had a lot of fun together.
Meanwhile, Hey Rosetta!’s new album features a wider variety of sounds than their previous work, he says.
“We went into the studio and our producer was really cool and he sort of allowed us, and forced us, to experiment with a bunch of different tunes,” says Ward. “It was a fun studio with all kinds of fun toys, and we went a little crazy and just filled it up with weird little sounds and things.”
This meant changing up their show a bit, says Ward. “You have to stop and go, ‘Wait, hang on, how are we possibly going to do all this stuff?’”
For the concert-goer, this means you might see a lot more happening onstage during this tour than on previous ones.
“There’s a lot more ground we have to cover, sonically, so you’ll see people on stage playing two or three things at once and people running around and playing different things,” says Ward.
The band has also added a seventh member: singer, keyboardist, and brass player Mara Pellerin.
In addition to the more electronic sound, Hey Rosetta! added special effects as well.
“We have a pretty cool light show that’s happening,” says Ward. “Stars have a really cool thing going on visually and we decided to kind of step it up as well.”
Hey Rosetta! is hoping this will help the show match the sound of their new album, says Ward.
“We definitely put some effort into making the visual component of it sort of match the whole aesthetic,” he says.
Stars have been around for over a decade; Ward says it shows.
“Stars are really masterful performers,” he says. “We always watch their show.”
Ward hopes that Hey Rosetta!’s passion for what they’re doing translates to the audience.
“We’ve been having an amazing time doing this and I hope that we get to share that with other people,” he says. “It’s really a lot of fun.”
Hey Rosetta! (with Stars)
Sunday, March 1
$28.50-$44, Royal Theatre
rmts.bc.ca