Calgary’s punk child returns

By Chris Tihor

Tour and they will come.

That’s the strategy so far for Calgary’s Belvedere, who’ve spent the last five years establishing a fan base across North America. The four-piece melodic hardcore-punk act know that as an indie label band, the only real way to get people to turn on to their music is to make it happen live.

"You don’t have a lot of the money that’s put behind bands for advertising and making big videos, but we’re not really all that interested in that anyway," says guitarist and lead singer Steve Rawles. "We’ll probably make videos, but as far as the band goes, we’ve always been a band that’s built our following on touring. I don’t think we’re going to change that."

As a band who has played over 350 shows in the last two years alone, Belvedere will maintain a rigorous road schedule for quite some time in support of their new album ‘Twas Hell Said Former Child, due out Nov. 6. With the new record comes a new label and a much larger distribution range than the band previously had. Montreal’s Union Label, will release the new album in Canada along with Jumpstart, an American label who also released their previous album, Angels Live in My Town.

"We used to do [international record sales] through mail order," says Rawles. "Now, Jumpstart has Japan and the States, and Union has Canada and Europe, so both of these labels will be able to push our music in different countries."

Currently, Belvedere will focus on the release of their new album. Recorded locally at Night Deposit Studios, and much quicker than previous albums, Rawles says that Belvedere put in extra effort to make sure that this record stands out from the rest.

"You don’t ever want to record the same album twice, but at the same time, you don’t want to ignore what’s worked for the band in the past," says Rawles, adding that some songs they thought weren’t working were simply cut. "For the most part I just think that it’s a lot better than the last album. We’ve progressed."

Belvedere will already have started an extensive cross-Canadian tour that will include about 40 shows by the time ‘Twas Hell Said Former Child is released, and Rawles couldn’t be more excited.

"I really appreciate that people like our music, and that alone makes me want to make more," he says. "Touring is a blast. I think we’ll continue to do it as long as we can."

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