Colin MacDonald, far right, says his band the Trews has no "delusions of grandeur." The band plays major venues in Canada, but small halls in the United States: "We're certainly not freaked out by playing smaller places, loading our own gear and rocking out for however many people want to come check us out."
Colin MacDonald quotes the Dandy Warhols to explain his relationship to rock 'n' roll:
"When it's good it's fun and when it's bad it's funny," says MacDonald in a phone call from Nashville, where his group the Trews is performing the following night.
In Canada, the Toronto-based rock band has albums that regularly go gold and has opened for stadium-size acts, including the Rolling Stones, Kid Rock, Robert Plant, Guns N' Roses and KISS. In the United States and other countries, though, the band is still trying to find its audience.
The group was already a top draw in the Toronto area when the Trews played a United States debut in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"There was one person there," says MacDonald. "We had to learn real quick that it was different getting big in America than it was getting big in Canada. ... A lot of Canadian bands have come up against that in the past and it is what it is. We still love trying and we still love playing and we've had the philosophy that we'll put on the same show to 100 people as we do for 10,000."
MacDonald and his brother John-Angus MacDonald (guitarist with the Trews) grew up in St. John's, Newfoundland and Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
MacDonald cites Guns N' Roses' "Appetite for Destruction" as the impetus for his music career.
"I thought 'What the heck is this? Sign me up immediately!' Here are these guys in Los Angeles making this really powerful rock 'n' roll and I'm a kid listening to it in St. John's Newfoundland, the farthest east coast of Canada. ... Back even further, I remember being a kid and listening to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller.' My mom would put it on the turntable and me and John-Angus and John Syperek, who is our bass player and we've known since we were kids, we'd dance around to it."
A little later, he discovered Nirvana and the bands that influenced Nirvana.
He describes where he grew up as "laid back" and filled with people who have a good sense of humor. Los Angeles and New York seemed like "a distant universe." When the boys decided to form a teenage rock band, the community was behind them.
"We were the biggest fish in our puddle," says MacDonald. "We were packing the bars in our hometown and our parents would be there with permission slips for us to play. It would have been very different if we'd started out in Toronto or New York — people would've known we weren't very good!"
By the time the group moved to Toronto, though, they really had gotten good. Guitarist Jeff Healey (who had a hit with the song "Angel Eyes") heard the Trews and declared them "the best new band in Canada" and gave the group a regular gig at Healey's, the bar he owned there.
"House of Ill Fame," the band's debut album, was released in late 2003.
"We got pretty lucky," says MacDonald. "We got a hit song pretty much out of the gate."
He describes the song, "Not Ready To Go," and "just a simple rock song with a catchy tune," but it went to No. 1 and became one of the most played rock songs of 2004.
Other hits followed and the band established itself nationally on the concert circuit.
He says the group spends "off time" expanding its reach — touring Australia, the British Isles and the United States.
"We're catching on in other markets. I guess you'd call it a cult following. Then we can go back to Canada and play big shows and hear our music on the radio. It's not the usual path, but we're certainly grateful for it."
MacDonald also travels to Nashville regularly to work with other songwriters. While it might not surprise fans that MacDonald is a fan and friend of Nashville-based rocker Will Hoge, another group that MacDonald is a fan of might surprise Trews regulars.
"I just had a major obsession with Slayer recently," says MacDonald. "I like metal. No one else in the band does. I don't think Slayer fans would like our music."
© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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