A somewhat heavy silver human figurine may be walking into Scarborough in April, but it won’t be walking alone. The figurine may be in the hands of a Toronto band member, as this year’s Juno Awards have a tie to Scarborough.
Andrew Kekewich and his band, The Wooden Sky, have been nominated in the Roots and Traditional Album of the Year: Group category at this year’s awards, for their latest record, Every Child A Daughter.
The minute we heard, we all sort of got on our phones and called our moms.
—Andrew Kekewich
“It’s a nice feeling to be in the company of the other artists that were nominated as well,” says Kekewich, who is the band’s drummer. “It feels very rewarding. it was a nice surprise that we were nominated.”
This nomination is the band’s first and they were more than excited to hear the news.
“The first feeling was to call my mum,” Kekweich said. “I think the minute we heard, we all sort of got on our phones and called our moms, that was the instinct.”
Kekewich said the group was invited to a nomination breakfast party where the nominations are announced. “It was really exciting for us,” he said.
The guys are looking forward to the Juno weekend. Their flights are booked and they can’t wait for the events that await them that weekend.
That weekend will include a number of events such as a game of hockey, The Juno Cup, on Friday; a dinner gala on the Saturday night; and then the televised event on Sunday, April 21.
The Juno Cup is where some of the musicians face off against former NHL players. Lead vocals and songwriter of The Wooden Sky, Gavin Gardiner is going to be participating in the Friday game. Kekewich is looking forward to watching his band member indulge in the game.
“Watching Gavin play hockey is going to be pretty good. He’s like a six and a half-foot man, so on skates he’s going to be like a seven-foot presence so that’s going to be pretty funny I think to see,” he said.
Aside from watching Gardiner play hockey, Kekewich is most looking forward to the dinner gala on Saturday, as that is when the award they are nominated for, will be announced.
The Wooden Sky has been together for about six years. The members met through Ryerson University.
“Gavin meet Wyatt at an open mic night at Ryerson, and so they sort of met and started playing music together,” Kekewich said. “Wyatt grew up with Simon who just got back from school in Dalhousie. They called him up, he moved to Toronto joined the band, and then I would say about a couple months later I joined from meeting the guys through Ryerson.”
Right now the guys are working on some new stuff.
“We’ve spent most of the wintertime writing new songs,” Kekewich said.
They converted Gardiner’s garage into their own studio where they can write and demo their songs.
“It’s been a pretty productive winter for us, so we have quite a few new songs,” he said. “It’s shaping up pretty nice.”
The Wooden Sky will be stepping into the studio for a few days before they head to Regina for the Junos, to track three or four songs. Kekewich is looking forward to how the new record will turn out.
“There’s always such an interesting evolution from when you first hear the songs, and then how you work them out and arrange them to how they actually end up on the record,” he said.
“So just that process of change and of realizing the songs and then finally being able to hold that record in your hands. I think that’s what we’re all really excited about right now.”
