The Spice of Life

The Deep Dark Woods refuse to limit their sound (or act their age)

The must intriguing thing about Saskatoon folk/country/rock band the Deep Dark Woods isn’t their name (although it’s awesome), it’s that their music sounds like it’s made by wizened grandfathers, or at least fathers. But man, these dudes look like they could be my kooky younger brothers. What gives?

“A lot of the music that we listen to and that influences our music is 30 to 50 years old,” says drummer-vocalist Lucas Goetz. “It seems that the songs written then had a lot more soul and meaning to them, and those kinds of songs don’t fade away. That’s one of the things we’re going for.”

Given that the band’s sound is equal parts indie rock, old-school country and traditional folk, one wonders what exactly those influences are. Turns out they’re about as varied as expected (most bands of today don’t consider European folk songs from the mid-20th century an influence).

“We’re influenced by a lot of different styles of music; we don’t necessarily appeal to one type of audience,” says Goetz. “Our influences range from old English and Scottish folk songs from hundreds of years ago, to blues and bluegrass from the 1940s-50s, to country, rock and r&b;from the 1960s.”

This diversity will definitely be a factor in the band’s show this Friday, which will be the quartet’s third time playing at Logan’s (“It’s been great each time,” says Goetz), but rest assured: even if you’ve been at the first two performances, you’ll get something different.

“We try to keep our sets changing from night to night, never the same set twice,” he says. “We do a lot of traditional songs in our own style—bluegrass songs, folk songs, blues songs, ones that aren’t on our recordings. But, of course, we’ll bring out songs from our two records as well. We’ll be doing a lot of new material that’s going to be on our next album.”

Goetz—who adds they’ll be recording said album in October—says it’s this diversity that helps the band play a nice amount of different types of venues and festivals and also appeal to a wide range of music lovers, young and old. All of which is fine and dandy, sure, whatever; let’s talk about that cool, creepy band name.

“I’m not really sure exactly where it came from. There’s a Robert Frost poem called ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ that mentions woods that are dark and deep. There are also lots of folk songs that talk about deep dark wells and woods,” he says, adding, quite simply, “And it’s got a nice ring to it.”

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The Deep Dark Woods
(with The Gruff)
9:30pm Friday September 26,
Logan’s Pub, 1921 Cook
Tickets $8 • 250-360-2711