The Sheepdogs Enlist Black Keys to Fight Radio 'Turds,' 'Stupid' Music Industry

Just over a year ago, the Sheepdogs were unknown, unsigned and unloved by the music industry after years of small-town struggle. But then Rolling Stone and AOL Music assembled 16 acts to compete to become the first unsigned one on the mag's iconic cover. They won.

Fast forward to now, and the Saskatoon neo-classic rockers are pretty much everywhere, most recently taking home four Indie Awards last Saturday during Canadian Music Week and rolling into this weekend's Juno Awards with another three nominations: New Artist of the Year, Rock Album of the Year and Single of the Year.

"I think a lot of people want to know if we're for real or if we're just some story - and that's totally acceptable," scruffy singer Ewan Currie tells Spinner before headlining the Canadian Blast BBQ during SXSW in Austin. Independent-band-makes-good is a great story, of course, but it's also interesting that all these industry accolades have been for Learn and Burn, an album they recorded by themselves long before they emblazoned on that cover.

"The industry is kind of stupid," Currie says bluntly.

"I mean, they just like to make the easiest money. There was a long time where people were telling us they liked our music, but they didn't know it was going to be marketable or going to sells records. I think they were just thinking too much in terms of what is similar to what is selling now, and maybe not listening with their hearts and thinking, 'Does this music move me?' I've come to accept that it's just the way it works - they're looking for the next thing you're already familiar with."

This is, well, true. But sometimes it's just about feeling familiar, not sounding familiar - which helps out a band like the Sheepdogs, whose biggest asset is a truly classic rock sound that not many modern-day rockers can pull off. Think of it as the Adele factor. She succeeds because she's genuine in what she's doing. The Sheepdogs tap into that same spirit.

"It definitely needs to come from the heart. People like Adele because she seems like she's real, she seems like she has her heartbreak. It's just her and her voice. I think people do respect that and that's what people want, especially when you look at pop music and it's so dance beat-based and auto-tuned. People just want good times rock 'n' roll. Look at the Black Keys."

Speaking of the Black Keys, before the blues-rock duo got ready for their impending arena tour, drummer Patrick Carney produced the Sheepdogs upcoming album.

"We met Pat in New York," notes bassist Ryan Gullen. "We played at this Tom Petty tribute called Petty Fest, and we were chatting with him. He'd heard of us because a mutual friend turned him onto it, and he obviously dug it because the guy has no free time and he took time out of his schedule in January to record our album."

They actually arranged the deal on their own via text message while Black Keys were touring Italy and the Sheepdogs were roaming Texas.

"It was cool to do it that way and then go to this American major label and say, 'we actually have Pat from Black Keys, he's gonna do it.'"

It was obviously a big departure for a band that self-produced and self-recorded their last album. But considering the Black Keys' own self-produced past as well as the band's work with the likes of Danger Mouse, Currie figured Carney would understand the Sheepdogs.

"They've done this at every level so he has the wealth of experience to draw on - not to mention we have a lot of the same musical taste. Also, he's from Akron, Ohio and we're from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. There's probably a similarity to those two cities in terms of not being Toronto or New York."

The mutual friend that set the Carney-Sheepdogs jean jacket summit, by the way, was Rolling Stone scribe Austin Scaggs because, yes, stuff with the Sheepdogs tends to dovetail back to that legendary rock rag. Not that they say it's caused any pressure for this new album.

"I think it'd be different if we never really recorded an album or toured," says Gullen, "but we did that for so long so now that we figured out how we work on the road and how we work in the studio. The hardest part is to grow and make better music. That's the challenge more so than being stressed about 'we're on the Rolling Stone cover, what do we do now?'"

But Currie assures that growing doesn't necessarily mean changing.

"We're not trying to push forward musically to some new form. I know that's what people want, they want an evolution. But we're just looking to make some good tunes that people haven't heard before and make you feel free and have a good time.

"Basically we want to have some good three-minute rock songs on the radio. Commercial radio's got so much turds and shit, y'know? It's time to bring back some nice juicy rock signals on the radio."

Watch The Sheepdogs' "I Don't Know" Video