Bleeker Ridge is headed to St. Mary's Cultural Centre in Yorkton for a Feb. 24 gig showcasing their style of straight ahead rock.The band is a four piece outfit from Ontario including Taylor Perkins, Dan Steinke, Cole Perkins and Dustin SteinkeLead Singer Taylor Perkins said the band came together easily after hearing each other at a jam session.
"We met in the summer of 2003. It was love at first sight," he said, adding they were "playing at a local bar on a blues jam night. No one sang. Cole and Dustin played drums, and Dan and I played guitar."
From there Bleeker Ridge was born, drawing on a range of musical interests.
"We're influenced by all kinds of music," said the band's lead singer Taylor Perkins. "We try to stay very open minded about everything we hear and be aware of which way music is going.
"Dustin will have Sevendust and Three Days Grace in his car, while I'm listening to U2 and Chris Cornell in mine. But we don't mind turning on the radio and listening to a 'pop' station. A good song is a good song. I would call us rock, but it's hard to label yourself as one type of music. (It's) a mix of different styles at different times while keeping a heavy rock edge and live show."
Since forming Bleeker Ridge the band has stayed busy, performing "all over Canada," said Perkins.
"We played Rock on the Range which was a great day all around. Toured with some great bands and had some great crowds. It's never the venue that makes it great but the vibe you get from the crowd. A 100 people who love to have fun and be loud are better than 1,000 people who don't just let go and enjoy themselves the way they want to."
The band has also found time to write, record and release a debut disk.
"A lot of the songs were written on acoustics sitting around in my living room, or out on Dustin and Dan's deck," said Perkins. "We're always looking for that 'cool' moment where we make something we all love playing and singing over and over. We were writing all the way up to the actual recording of the songs! One great thing about writing with each other is one of us is never satisfied so it always evolves, even into playing the songs and making them a little different live."
The band went south to record, working to the last minute to get the material together.
"We recorded the album in L.A. with our producer Bob Marlette," said Perkins.
"A lot of the songs on the album we had written right before we moved down. Some were actually written when we got there! So we hadn't played any of them live yet.
"The studio can be fun, but it can be hell. Luckily we had Bob on our side and had some of the best times we've ever had making it."The good experience in the studio helped create a disk the band is proud of.
"We're extremely happy with how everything turned out and how everything feels," said Perkins. "We put a lot of hard work into the songs, and the recordings and happy to say it paid off in our minds."
The disk has already spawned a successful single.
"We released the title track 'Small Town Dead' to Canadian radio and it hit Top-5 on rock radio which is crazy," said Perkins. "We are releasing our second single, 'You Would've Liked It' this week and are really looking forward to people hearing it for the first time."
