WIN TICKETS: Said the Whale are playing a popular music festival this May.  What’s the name of the festival?  Be the first one to email me at jason.gonephishin(at)Gmail.com

Buy tickets for April 28th and April 29th shows at Habitat.

Tickets also available at Leo’s Video (2680 Pandosy St) & Mosaic Books (411 Bernard Avenue).

Said The Whale formed in 2007 as a collaboration between songwriters Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft. The pair’s debut EP, Taking Abalonia, featured sunny west coast indie pop, with breezy harmonies, shimmering guitars, and lyrical tributes to their home city of Vancouver. In 2008, the album was rereleased as Howe Sounds/Talking Abalonia, featuring seven additional tracks that stretched the band’s stylistic palate to include bubblegum folk “The Light Is You”, thundering hard rock “Last Tree Standing” and gentle ukulele ballads “The Real of It”.

After several personnel changes, the group settled upon a five-piece lineup that included bassist Peter Carruthers, drummer Spencer Schoening, and keyboardist Jaycelyn Brown. The quintet embarked upon a rigorous touring schedule, crossing Canada numerous times and landing high profile gigs at V-Fest 2008 in Calgary and the nationally televised Canada Day celebration on Parliament Hill.

Following the teaser EP New Brighton, all of the band’s efforts have culminated in the new full-length Little Mountain, out on March 6, 2012. Named after the band’s home neighbourhood in Vancouver, the 15 track collection was recorded at the city’s Blue Wave Productions studio by returning producer Tom Dobrzanski (The Zolas, We Are the City). The producer’s experience working on both of the band’s previous albums meant that he was able to help the Whales realize their clear vision for the project, which they fine-tuned during an extensive two-month pre-production period.

“Tom is amazing to work with because he’s a friend and in the studio he becomes like the sixth member of the band,” explains singer-guitarist Bancroft. “He knows how we operate and he knows how to make us perform our best, and is able to capture it on record.”