The McGill Tribune

There's a surprisingly light vibe to The Deep Dark Woods and their new album, The Winter Hours. The band's use of cold winter and dark woods imagery may lead you to expect stagnant, dark, and sombre sounds. However, they produce an album that is surprisingly warm and full of life.

If you stroll through The Deep Dark Woods, you will find that each band member is down-to-earth and natural, all trying to avoid a manufactured form of music. The five musicians have known each other since they were kids growing up in Saskatoon, and the decision to start a band came as the obvious consequence of liking each other's music. Lead songwriter Ryan Boldt performs lead vocals and guitar, Burke Barlow plays guitar, Chris Mason plays bass and sings, Lucas Goetz plays drums and sings, and Geoff Hilhorst plays piano and organ. Combine them, and you've got a Prairies alt-rock band that is capturing the nation's attention.

When it comes to their musical taste, The Woods are not picky. Boldt says they like everything that has a good beat to it.

"One per cent of every style of music is good in my opinion," he says. The band names influences ranging from The Beatles to Otis Redding in their music, making their tunes the result of a continuous search for good sounds without lingering on any specific style. The Deep Dark Woods' style is indeed quite unique, dipping into virtually all genres. As you listen to their records you feel a strong sense of folk and country, but in the end Boldt describes it as rock n' roll.

The Winter Hours is quite different from their previous work. "It's the same kind of stuff as the other records, but I managed to get closer to the sounds I really liked," Boldt says. However, their music is constantly evolving, and Boldt foresees that "the next album will be considerably different. [It will] be louder and not as folky as the last."

The Deep Dark Woods are intrigued by nature, as well as music's natural state, and even the songwriting is natural for them.

"It just comes out, you can't really think about it. It feels like you're not really writing a song, it's writing itself, you have to wait for it, but eventually it comes out on its own," says Boldt. Their new album was recorded from the floor, mimicking a live show and allowing the raw emotions of the album to assert themselves.

"That's what we're good at and that's what we like to do. Recording was stuck in between shows, and it was great to be able to record like you were live," Boldt explains.

The band has a promising future - winning Roots Group of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards and being nominated in the CBC's Great Canadian Song Quest as the Saskatchewan finalists has propelled The Woods into the spotlight. But as The Woods start to peek out of the darkness, they still retain their genuine ideals.

"It's pretty exciting and feels great," Boldt says of their growing success. "We love that people are enjoying our music and coming to our shows, but we're making music and that's number one."