Sun, June 6, 2004
By ROB WILLIAMS, ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
Emerson Drive is cruising. The six-piece Alberta country band have been so busy on the road none of group members have had an apartment for the past three years, living on their bus during the day and sleeping in hotels every night.
"It's part of being a road act. You're on the road all the time and living out of suitcases. We're used to it," says singer Brad Mates.
Of course, it could be worse.
They could be stuck in Mates home town of Grand Prairie, Alta., playing the same bar every weekend.
Instead Emerson Drive is in the middle of a four-month North American tour with Shania Twain, playing in front of 15,000 people every night.
"It's been amazing just to think about. It's only been a few years since we've gotten signed, and to be touring with one of the biggest artists in the world is exciting," Mates says.
Mates and a group of high school friends started the group nine years ago and slugged it out in every dingy venue they could before catching the attention of Dreamworks in Nashville, who signed the band and are set to release their new album, What If?, later this month.
The band's second album features more band written originals and was more relaxing to record, since they already had one album under their belt and a solid fanbase, Mates says.
"It's a progress in this group to make sure we find the best songs possible and one of those things is picking the best songs, so sometimes that means dropping one of our songs for a better song," says Mates, 25, who is the only original member of the band.
Emerson Drive's 2002 self-titled debut earned the group several awards on both sides of the border, including three Canadian Country Music Awards and an Academy of Country Music Award for top new vocal group.
The current lineup features Mates, Vancouver's Dale Wallace on keyboards and four Montreallers: guitarist Danick Dupelle, fiddler David Pichette, bassist Patrick Bourque and drummer Mike Melancon.
"I joked once that we pulled every Frenchman that knew how to play country music in Quebec and pulled them over to Alberta," Mates laughs.
Emerson Drive open for Twain at the Winnipeg Arena Tuesday.
EMERSON DRIVE
June 8, 7 p.m., Winnipeg Arena.
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