artist Flying Fox and the Hunter/Gatherers

Ten months in the life of Flying Fox (rehearse...record...mix...tour...mix...tour...play croquet...tour....) By Lindsey Collins (FFOX bassist, a.k.a. "The Gov'ner of Giv'n'er") This past ten months have been epic. Our drummer, Aaron Klassen, joined the group in October, a mere 6 weeks before we were scheduled to record our debut full length Hans My Lion. We rehearsed like mad to get ready for the recording process, even squeezing in a weekend in Ottawa to showcase at the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals during this very hectic time frame. The recording of Hans My Lion was extremely intense; we recorded the entire album in about 3 weeks. That may seem like a lot of time, but when you are recording 6 musicians and adding a small orchestra and several extra instruments the time can fly by pretty quickly. On our last scheduled day of mixing we hopped in the van and played a show that night in Brandon followed by one in Saskatoon the next day. We sure were wiped after that weekend! We added a few more half days of mixing to get final mixes that we were happy with before the holiday break descended upon all of us. Huge kudos and thanks to our amazing production team of John Paul Peters and Clayton Turner for seeing Hans My Lion through to the end. There were a lot of long days and late nights in the studio to make ends meet. Once we were done with the studio I had more time to devote to booking our cross-country album release tour. Long days of e-mails and phone calls replaced long days in the studio with the end result being a 30-date tour from Vancouver Island to Montreal in the spring. Our western leg crammed 19 shows in 17 days, an ambitious schedule that we learned results in a very exhausted band. I originally scheduled one day off in the middle of the tour, but we got a great show offer in Vancouver on the date that seemed too good to turn down. To prepare for the spring tour we hired a talented local trumpet player named Phil Collins (real name) to fill in for Steve T. Kay, as Steve’s teaching job prevented him from coming on the road with us. After a few shows it was clear that Phil was going to work out great. The spring tour was the best tour we’d ever done; we played to many enthusiastic crowds across the country and met a lot of lovely human beings that were very happy for us to be sharing our music with them. Spring tour highlights for me were the Black Dog in Edmonton, the Art We Are in Kamloops and the Palomino in Calgary. We also saw a Grizzly Bear about a kilometer away during our morning load-out from Stella’s in Southwest Alberta. It was pretty awesome to see this ominous creature, even from a distance. Our hometown CD release at the West End Cultural Centre in Winnipeg was probably our best show to date. I felt bad that we had to turn some people away at the door because we reached capacity. The Winnipeg show included a small orchestra, a 4-piece horn section, a men's chorus and 6 additional drummers for the Drumpus during The Wild Things. We pretty much used all of the tricks up our sleeves that night and it was met with great enthusiasm and appreciation form our biggest hometown crowd so far. After our spring tour was over we had just over 2 months at home before we piled back in the van to played another 21 shows in Western Canada. For our summer tour we had to extend our musical family even further to keep the foxes flying; work and personal commitments prevented Paul, Darren and Aaron from coming on tour, so we enlisted Chuck McLelland on saxophone, Patrick Keenan on keyboards and Jaime Carrasco on the drums to round out our lineup. We hit every nook and cranny in Western Canada and brought our music to another batch of lovely, receptive human beings. Summer tour highlights for me were the Railway Club in Vancouver and Lydia’s in Saskatoon. Patrick Keenan was able to verify the urban legend of Burton Cummings’ drunken dismissal of a young pianist serenading some little old ladies on the public grand piano in Winnipeg’s downtown Bay location. Apparently Patrick Keenan was the protagonist of this story; which involved early evening inebriation and audible nose-breathing, neither of which were from our beloved Mr. Keenan. Another summer tour anecdote came from bumping into legendary Canadian punk band SNFU while stopped adjacent in our respective vans on Whyte Ave in Edmonton. We were headed to our gig at the Black Dog and they were trying to make their way out of town. SNFU initially thought we were going to a wedding based on our attire (apparently punk bands and operatic indie jazz bands wear different attire), and after a few polite exchanges we let them pull in front of us to make their appropriate turn to vacate Edmonton. I find myself writing this blog from yet another journey in the van; this time we are headed to Vancouver for Jesse’s wedding. This is the third time for me in the last 6 months driving from Winnipeg to Vancouver; I’m pretty sure I could now describe most aspects of Western Canada in great detail. Maybe I could market a trivia app for indie bands to pass the time in the van? We’re going to take a bit of a break from touring in the fall and winter, but should be hitting the road again next spring and summer. We’ve attracted attention from several music festivals in the last few tours and I am hopeful that we’ll have a busy summer on the festival circuit. I’m looking forward to getting back on the road in 2012 and reconnecting with some of the awesome people we met in 2011. Lindsey / Flying Fox

We're giving away a couple free mp3's (Winter and Starlyng from our upcoming album, Hans my Lion) to anyone who signs up for our email list.

Visit flyingfoxandthehuntergatherers.com to sign up. You'll also find tour dates, news, photos, music, videos and more!

love, Flying Fox

Just back from the recording studio, Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers are preparing to present their premier full-length album:

Hans my Lion is a mosaic of orchestral interludes, flamboyant pop songs, and gritty gypsy folk.

Available for sale March 23 and promoted with a string of concerts across Canada.  Check out a sneak preview of two singles from the upcoming album: "Hammer in the Night" and "Vanity," by visiting flyingfoxandthehuntergatherers.com

U of W's The Uniter has reviewed The Wild Things, our latest recording and the rock opera soundtrack to our hit Fringe Fest production. They called us weird and gave us five stars - what more could we ask for?

For $10 we'll send you your very own freshly pressed copy in a fancy, scary case! Check out our website store.

Here's the full review:

FLYING FOX & THE HUNTER GATHERERS 5 out of 5 stars

Winnipeg’s own weirdos have created a rock opera based on the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are. To listen to The Wild Things is a one-of-a-kind experience. Flying Fox take us on an amazing journey to the wild and back, in only eight tracks. Drawing from opera, indie and jazz (see three-part instrumental The Wild Rumpus) it’s all about meandering piano, blaring horns and shouted choruses, with vocalist Jesse Krause clearly channeling Freddy Mercury on acid. This album is so far out to lunch that it’s brilliant. Highlight: Monster Island, a clinking, clanking stomper about eating children, which references Martha Stewart, Dr. Seuss and The Joy of Cooking.  - Robin Dudgeon (Culture Reporter)

Check out the review at the Uniter website: http://uniter.ca/view/4516

After months of anticipation, Flying Fox is proud to bring about the return of "The Wild Things" - our first original rock opera (with the help of 14 other musicians, dancers, visual artists and go-getters).

This time as a part of the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, we are presenting 7 shows in 7 days at the Tom Hendry Theatre (MTC Warehouse). Sendack help us.

Ticket Info:

1) Online: http://www.winnipegfringe.com/fr_performer.aspx?kw=Flying+Fox+and+the+Hunter+Gatherers

2) By Phone: Call 942-6537 or 1-877-446-4500 (MTC Box Office)

3) In Person: At Fringe Central, 174 Market St. (MTC Box Office)

**Remember when you buy advance tickets, you have to pick them up at Fringe Central before you come to the venue.**

Tickets are $10, $8 for students.

Show Times:

Sat, July 17 9:45 PM

Sun, July 18 12:45 PM

Mon, July 19 5:30 PM

Tue, July 20 6:15 PM

Wed, July 21 2:45 PM

Thu, July 22 1:45 PM

Fri, July 23 10:00 PM

Flying Fox's first tour of Ontario is now booked.  Although there may be a few dates added, the tour is essentially solidified and tour dates have now been posted.  We look forward to bringing our music to fresh sets of ears all over Ontario. 

We have a tour kickoff show booked on Sunday, August 24th at the Cavern.  The show will be an early one, starting at 8pm and finishing by midnight.  The Honeybuckets and The Vinyl Penguins will be opening the show, so come early to hear these two great Winnipeg bands.

We recently recorded the new song Nurse at MidOcean and will be adding it to our EP for this tour.  Anyone who already owns our EP (sans-Nurse) can e-mail me at collinslindsey@hotmail.com and I will send you an MP3 of Nurse.  Lindsey