Hey Rosetta! Hope to See Their Fanbase Bloom With New Album 'Seeds'

Posted on Apr 1st 2011 11:00AM by Melody Lau
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Jill Willcot

For Hey Rosetta!, the namesake of their latest release, 'Seeds,' isn't just a "cool, brief title" -- as bassist Josh Ward puts it while chatting with Spinner -- it embodies much more.

"If you think of what we do as a band, we travel around," says Ward, likening the band's tour in Australia later this month supporting City and Colour to sowing seeds. "We plant them everywhere we go and hope that it will grow into something..."

And it seems like the Canadian indie rock sextet's fanbase is growing quite strong, with the Hey Rosetta! gospel clearly making a believer out of folks -- a serious believer.

"There's a guy in Calgary who's got [our] lyrics tattooed on his forearms," says Ward. "He just came to our show one night and was like 'I don't want to creep you out but check this out!' and showed us these awesome tattoos."

Ward isn't looking for that kind of devotion from most of their fans, though. All he asks is that you spend some time with Hey Rosetta!'s new record, which was produced by Tony Doogan (Wintersleep, Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai) and showcases their most polished sound yet, the result of honing their skills with constant gigging.

"Just playing together as a band, sleeping, eating, doing everything together, you just get more comfortable with each other," he says. "Musically, I think we've grown up and the album might be more concise, in a way, but it's still got that epic flavour."

Watch the Video for 'Yer Spring' by Hey Rosetta!
As an added bonus on the first 5,000 copies of the disc, the band fittingly included seed paper made from recyclable magazines and paper, an idea lead singer Tim Baker got from a neighbour. Also printed on the CD insert and the band's website are links to sites that talk about sustainable food industries.

"It was a way to try and educate people about something as important as food and eating," says Ward. "There's a problem out there in the world today with the way the food industry is running and if, in some way, someone can be affected by that and make some change then that's great.

"I think we're lucky to be a band in that we get to exert some sort of influence. We have a sort of responsibility to use that fame, or whatever it is, to kind of do something positive."

Wards is committed to his cause but stresses Hey Rosetta! aren't suddenly getting all political.

"I don't want to lump us into some category," he says. "I don't want us to be some kind of political thing. I don't think that's the goal for the band. But if we can maybe influence someone in some sort of way then all the better."