In 2007, Vancouver band, Said the Whale was formed with original members Tyler and Ben before they picked up, Spencer, Jaycelyn and Nathan along the way. Since this, the band has lost Spencer and Nathan and brought in new members.

I recently watched CBC’s Documentary, Winning America, about Said the Whale going to the South by Southwest (SXSW), music festival in Austin, Texas. This was their first time playing in the US. The doc aired July 23, 2011 in BC and April 7, 2012 across Canada.

The doc starts with Tyler Bancroft struggling with the lock to get car, which added a bit of humour to the beginning.

Tyler has always been passionate about making music. He explains that at 13, everyday he would fax network records with the logo of his band and nothing else. they finally replied to him saying “please stop faxing us this, you’re wasting our paper.” He was always trying to get a record deal. For his day job, he works on tug boats in False Creek

Then, we meet Ben Worcester who grew up in Vancouver, where he says, he feels “connected” to and all of his good memories have been in this city. Spencer knew Ben from high school and before he even auditioned, Ben said he is in. Nathan Shaw met Spencer at a party where they played music and bonded during the night.

Jaycelyn Brown is the only girl in the band. She loves being the only girl because she gets the “most attention”. She’s been playing piano since she was five and couldn’t think of doing anything else with her life other than this.

The band starts going through their schedule and are discussing playing SXSW for the first time. SXSW is a music festival in Austin, Texas. Ben says, “there are so many bands people will be seeing and everyone is being compared to the next band and forgotten immediately after,” he continues, “if we aren’t forgotten immediately after, I think that’s a bonus round.”

Spencer says the one thing he wants out of this festival is “complete and utter fame.” Which every other musician attending wants. He says, there are going to be five best bands from every city in the world all playing in the same city together and “it’s hard to get our hopes up.”

The only way for the band to quit their day jobs is to “break into the United States.” At this point, the band itself isn’t making much money at all. They pay for their own merchandise, their tour van, rehearsal space and basically anything to do with their band.

Four days into their road trip to Austin, they found that their trailer was broken into. All their equipment had been scattered along the road, with the lock being cut and lots of missing gear. From keyboards, to clothes but most importantly Jaycelyn’s custom dress for the Juno’s. Ben told CBC, “it was just ‘things’ and nobody was hurt,” he continues, “we are turning lemons into lemonade with a lot of sugar.”

SXSW Itinerary:

Day 1:

Rest up.

Day 2:

Said the Whale played a show in a record store and Tyler said, “this is an intimidating place to play a show because every greatest recored ever made is within 30 feet of us right now.”

Day 3:

They started their day by playing an XM Radio Session. Then they went out on the streets and had a box of Walkmans with their tapes inside. They got scooped up by people lot quicker than they thought.

Then came “The Mustard Incident.” A lady on the street started squirting mustard all over Spencer. Gross! I hate mustard and the smell is so strong, that must have been disgusting. Spencer started going after the lady and then the police got involved and told him to leave it alone. I can’t believe she did that. Following this, Said the Whale decided to get their first ever band tattoo which was “lemons” because they are turning lemons into lemonade…once again.

Day 4:

They pretty much played all day. They did their first gig and then had to haul all their equipment eight blocks, on foot, for their next show, which they barely made it to.

The band walked through the busy, lit up streets, which seems to be a constant party and Tyler says, “it’s absolutely crazy. It’s like the Olympics of music.” They may have joined the party a little too hard, as they went home and made breakfast as a late night snack which was bit of a disaster.

Day 5: The Last Day

This was a rough day for the band, suffering major hangovers and lost voices as the spent the night drinking and shouting over music. Tyler could barely keep his head of the table at lunch.

After the first show, Tyler was disappointed because he felt he wasn’t able to give it everything he had but Ben had a different feeling about it. He thought it was a laid back show and no one was stressed out so he enjoyed playing the gig.

Their final show of SXSW, Said the Whale played their hearts out and gave it everything they had.

After that, Said the Whale hit the road and headed to Toronto for the Juno Awards where they were up for Best New Group which they won.

Since 2011, Said the Whale released three more albums and has continued touring. Tonight they have a Zoom Livestream starting at 7:30pm.