HAVING STARTED OUT AS A TRIBUTE TO CANADIAN ROCK LEGENDS
THE BAND, HAMILTON'S ARKELLS HAVE SINCE COME A LONG WAY.

Touring coast to coast opening up for bands like Sam Roberts Band and Matt Mays & El Torpedo, while earning a Juno for New Group of the Year along the way, vocalist/guitarist Dan Griffin asserts that “it’s going to be hard to stop moving.”

While they spent a sizeable chunk of the year out on the road, the Steel City boys know that home is where the heart is. Their album, Jackson Square, is named after Hamilton's downtown mall, and Griffin says that much like the mall anchors the city, so does it tie their album together thematically.

“A lot of the experiences that are on the album led us back to Jackson Square, the mall, in one way or another,” Griffin said.  “The song 'Abigail' takes place in the food court.  You have 'The Boss is Coming' about a telemarketing job, we have songs coming from movie theaters in there.  It anchored the album dramatically.”

Although Jackson Square was named after a Hamilton landmark, the band’s name is no reference to their home town.

“We liked it because we thought it sounded like an all girl doo-wop group from the ‘50s and ‘60s.  If we could be born again, it would be a sixties Motown all-girl group.”

Though he may sincerely wish he could be rebirthed as a Ronette, Griffin was more than slightly thrown off by the proposed idea of a sex change.

“We’re not talking about sex changes, we’re talking about teleporting,” Griffin laughs.  “It was just sort of a nod to that era.”

Graciously reflecting on their experiences opening up for many great Canadian bands, Griffin says that not only have they learned the ways of how these bands perform onstage, but how they live their lives off-stage as well.

“They way they treat each other, they way that they treat their crew, the way that they treat the opening bands, like us.  I think there’s real sincerity to what these guys are doing, which makes what we love about Canadian bands ring true.  What we’ve learned from these guys is what kind of band we hope to be and the way we would like to treat the people around us too,” Griffin said, nodding to Sam Roberts Band and Matt Mays & El Torpedo.

Despite their growing success, Griffin says the band has managed to stay level-headed.

“If anything will ground you, it’s literally sleeping on the ground to save money on a hotel,” Griffin said, adding that each of the members help to keep each other grounded.

“I think the physical size of all of our heads are relatively the same size.  Although, I’ve been telling Max that as his haircut gets smaller, I feel like his head expands,” Griffin jokes.

With Canada on their side, The Arkells' “plan right now is to just attack the U.S.”

Musically speaking, we assume.

“The name of the game is start all over, and same goes for the UK.  We’ll release the album and just get behind it, like we did in Canada, and hope that it connects the same way.”

Written by: MELISSA RENWICK

Arkells