The Cape Breton rockers rolled into F.M. Lounge June 22 for a drink with the Lance


H.G. Watson
ARTS EDITOR

he fact that the Town Heroes are from Cape Breton is so apparent that it oozes out of everything they do, from their friendly attitude to their music. The Town Heroes (comprised of singer/guitarist Mike Ryan and singer/drummer Bruce Gillis) sat down with Lance about their blog and a challenge against Blue Rodeo.

H.G. Watson: How did your ball hockey challenge to Blue Rodeo go?

Mike Ryan: Warner Music tweeted it! Warner Music sent out the official challenge to Blue Rodeo and their manager sent it to Jim Cuddy directly. But I think he’s pretty afraid.

HGW: But there’s only two of you! There’s so much more of Blue Rodeo

MR: They’re not from Cape Breton [laughs].

Bruce Gillis: I’m hoping they take the challenge but I’m guessing we never hear from them.

MR: We’re ready for them though.

HGW: How long has it been since you’ve been back to Cape Breton?

MR: We’ve been in Ontario now for, how long?

BG: Just over a week

MR: But we’re playing every night and sleeping on floors— no fancy hotels. It’s an 11- or 12-day tour and then we go back and tour the Maritimes right away.

HGW: What’s your long-term with the band?

BG: I think that anything that can better us career wise. Our goal is to do this as long as people don’t get sick of us or even hear of us.

MR: If we can make self-sufficient nowadays. A realistic goal for a musician is just being able to survive off your music … I just want to play for people and have people enjoy it.

HGW: What’s the best place you’ve been on this tour?

MR: Every different show has been great in its own way— in Toronto we played at a rooftop party.

HGW: So you were doing NXNE? How was that experience?

[in unison] Amazing

HGW: How many shows did you play?

BG: Four. It was awesome. We played Sneaky Dees and a couple of rooftop gigs— everything had its own perk. We also got to play the Horseshoe.

HGW: You guys are pretty big bloggers. What are you reading in the blogosphere right now?

MR: I don’t read that many blogs. I read books I guess. We played in England a month ago and I grabbed a book by Irvine Welsh who wrote Trainspotting. This is the prequel to that called Scag Boys.

BG: And I’m currently reading Ashley MacIssac’s autobiography

MR: He’s been reading it for 12 years.