If anyone in Regina knows where to get a good cabbage roll dinner, Simon Ward wants to know.
The frontman of alt-country group The Strumbellas says the most satisfying meal he ever had on the road was near the Cultural Exchange during the 2013 Juno Fest.
“My best food story of all the touring I’ve done is a restaurant in Regina,” says Ward. “It was a cabbage roll dinner … and the worst part is I can’t even remember the restaurant.”
But he has other reasons to look forward to returning to this part of the country in support of The Strumbellas’ latest release, We Still Move On Dance Floors.
After forming in Toronto in 2008, he says The Strumbellas gigged around the city for a few years and built up a dedicated fan base before heading west, where their reputation spread more quickly.
“For some reason, out west they were just kind of very receptive at the start,” says Ward. “We’ve been out four or five times now and it seems to be getting a bit bigger every time.”
One possible explanation is the band received national recognition when its 2012 debut, My Father and the Hunter, was nominated for a Juno in the roots and traditional album category.
We Still Move On Dance Floors took home that award this past March, and it’s also on the long list for the Polaris Music Prize.
The question is how do you top such a banner couple of years?
“The No. 1 thing I strive for in terms of ambition is just growing the audience and people telling me the music is doing something good in their lives,” says Ward.
“When somebody tells me I broke their heart, that makes me feel really good.”
In The Strumbellas’ most recent music video for the track Sailing, all six members appear on a frozen lake around Sudbury, Ont., while a heavily bearded Ward sings over an expansive hook: “We can walk just to burn all the books in the fire/We can dance to the stars in the sky in the darkness of nights.”
“I kind of have a melancholy brain,” he says.
Although he hopes to move away from folk and into a more pop direction on the next record, he still has a lot of personal experience to draw from to keep finding those silver linings in sad songs.
The band’s first full-length album was written in memory of Ward’s late dad. Now, he leaves behind two young kids of his own each time he goes on tour.
“It’s without a doubt the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my entire life,” says Ward.
So, in other words, he could really use that cabbage roll dinner.
