Saint John’s Sheik are on the edge of releasing their new EP, Love And Hate Someone, but they’ve found an opportunity to release their first single early in support a of good cause. The band are donating the proceeds from “Stoned” to Local-107.3fm’s annual Fun[D]rive.
As the title would seem to suggest, the band penned the song in ode to Canada’s recently legalized coping mechanism: getting stoned.
“Whether it’s thinking about moving, or trying to ignore that evil voice in your head, or looking back at how your life has changed the past few years, or trying to finish writing a song, or just to simply try to forget everything,” explains Sheik’s Colin Ferris.
For extra points in the ambiance department the band wrote the song in an old children’s psychiatric hospital on the west side of Saint John.
“The old Dr. Robert’s Hospital, that’s where our jam space was for like a year. Quite a few of us used to jam there for most of 2016 and the start of 2017.”
The atmosphere of the city landmark wasn’t enough to influence the song itself, with “Stoned” being one of the more chipper melodies in the Sheik catalogue. Having crafted the music first, Ferris decided to balance it out with some somber lyrics.
“I wanted to meet that lyrically with serious thinking and/or real issues in my life. I’ve always been very inspired by how The Smiths write such catchy, jangly, cheery sounding songs that are matched with rather serious, non-sugar-coated lyrics about life’s harder or sadder sides. So, I just started to write down lyrics about real things I was feeling at that time. Honestly, it was one of my favourites lyrically when it was made, because it was one of the first times I felt really good about how I was able to put my feelings into words.”
The decision to donate the proceeds to the campus and community radio station came when the band heard Dan Chamberlain of Saint John bands Gold Punks and SHRIMP Ring suggested he’d do the same. Given the band’s connection to the radio station, and the support it has shown local music in the city, their choice seems unsurprising.
“Lorne [Kirkpatrick] and I started doing our own radio show there almost a year ago now,” says Ferries. “I’ve seen up close more of how much they contribute to our local music scene, and felt it’s the least we could try and do to try and contribute to that growth. They’re insanely supportive, creative and passionate towards improving the station and I genuinely want them to accomplish everything they set out to do.
Also Glen is Sheik’s official number one fan and we just love him to death.”
Local 107.3fm are currently sitting at just over halfway to the stations $3000 goal for their annual Fun[D]rive. The station also recently received $47,000 from the nation Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC), for the implementation of “Introducing, Increasing, and Improving Spoken Word Programming for/by Saint John,“ as part of CRFC’s Radiometres program. To donate click here.