By Jessica Schwitek, Golden Star
One of Golden's favourite bands is coming back to Revelstoke, hot off the heals of a successful CD release show in their hometown last month.
"I think it's every musician's dream to have one (an album). Just to hold it and be like, this is mine. I created this," said lead singer Jeremy Borschneck. Willhorse, although its members have played together for years, has only been around for less than a year. And what a year it has been.
The southern rock influenced indie band also features Branden Winterholt on guitar and vocals, Nick Petrowich playing the drums and singing backing vocals, as well as Todd Menzies on bass.
"(Winterholt) and I are cousins, and we toured together for about two and a half years acoustic, just the two of us," said Borschneck, reminiscing about the band came into being. "And then we met (Petrowich) at a gig. We were playing in Swift Current.
"When I saw them play, it was just the two of them sitting on chairs on this big stage with two acoustic guitars. And people were up dancing to it. I thought these guys were so cool, I should go talk to them. I was a musician, playing with another band and thought I should branch out. And we just hit it off," said Petrowich.
Since then, the three have been playing together under different names and different bands. They took a bit of a hiatus, and Borschneck moved to Golden to start his business, the Crooked Antler.
"I had decided to move out here, and explore this part of the world, and I noticed that there was music happening here every night of the week pretty much. So I called these guys and convinced them to come down," he said.
"I was working in Edmonton, and I’d get calls from (Borschneck), and he’d be like ‘it’s so great, you’ve got to come down here.’ You don't expect it to be as good as it is until you get here,” said Petrowich.
“I've always lived in cities, nowhere as small as Golden. But it doesn't seem that small because there's always people coming through, and great culture and great shows."
The writing process is a very collaborative process for Willhorse. They each try to bring in their own individual flavours, and hopefully put it all together to come up with something special.
“If any of us write a song we bring it to the band and then we all work on it together. But individually we will all sit down and write music,” said Borschneck.
"You can't get possessive over your writing in a band. It should be like a big pot, you throw it all in the middle and share it," said Winterholt.
Wanting an album for years, and never being able to make it happen, Willhorse came up with a plan a few months back. They began a donation campaign to help make this dream a reality. It worked better than they ever imagined.
"We initially wanted $3,000, and we got that in 24 hours. We ended up getting almost $7,000," said Borschneck. This allowed them to press more CDs, and do the mixing at the famed Fader Mountain Studios in Vancouver.
"Nick was curious, as he always is, so he looked it up. It turned out that Fader Mountain evolved out of Little Mountain which was one of the most sought after recording studios in North America. Guys like Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and Metallica recorded in those rooms," said Winterholt. "There was definitely a vibe when we were in there."
Prior to mixing the tracks at Fader, the boys spent eight days recording at the Blaeberry Mountain Lodge with producer JP Maurice.
"It was really fun. The eight days in the cabin got a little bit hazy. We didn't really know what day it was, it was just five dudes in a cabin for eight days. But it was a blast," said Borschneck.
The final product of that cabin-fever session is a 10-track release featuring their signature old-fashioned southern rock that fans has come to love so much. CBC Radio and EZ Rock have already began broadcasting their songs.
Willhorse played 23 dates in December, including a show at the Big Eddy Pub, and are now back in Revelstoke, this time hitting up the Last Drop this Friday, Jan. 11, at 9 p.m.