Royal Canoe

Canadian sextet Royal Canoe deliver a bright, percussive style of indie pop, high on multi-instrumentalism and tuneful, layered songwriting. After breaking through to the national mainstream in 2013 with their Juno-nominated second album Today We're Believers, the band offered up a unique interpretation of songs from Beck's sheet-music-only Song Reader collection, then continued to push their own creative boundaries on 2016's vibrant, Ben Allen-produced Something Got Lost Between Here and the Orbit and the more streamlined 2019 outing Waver.

Formed in 2010 from the ashes of several prominent Winnipeg bands, Royal Canoe came together around the songs of frontman Matt Peters, counting acts like OutKast, Beck, and the Knife among their early influences. Along with guitarist Bucky Driedger, keyboardist Matt Schellenberg, bassist Brendan Berg, and dueling drummers Derek Allard and Michael Jordan, Peters and his crew recorded their debut, Co-Op Mode, released by Canadian indie Head in the Sand Records. A national tour introduced audiences to Royal Canoe's dynamic stage presence and complex, hooky sound, and in 2012 they followed up with the Extended Play EP.

Their second LP, 2013's Today We're Believers, put them on the map, reaching number 19 on the Canadian National Alternative chart and netting them a Juno Award nomination. Major festival appearances and national and international tours with Alt-J, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Of Montreal followed as their momentum continued to build. In an unusual twist, their next project would be a tribute of sorts to one of their heroes, as they recorded an interpretation of Beck's 2012 sheet music-only collection Song Reader in 2014. For their third album, Royal Canoe enlisted co-producer Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley), who helped them continue to expand their genre-mashing musical palette on 2016's Something Got Lost Between Here and the Orbit. Three years later, the band returned with the leaner, more lyric-driven full-length Waver. ~ Timothy Monger, Rovi