By Katie Ryan
Last stop, Lloyd. Canada’s tight-knit rockers, State of Shock will be rolling into town this weekend for the last show on what’s been a busy, month-long tour.
The band has been on the road for the most part since releasing Life, Love and Lies and according to SOS’s Jesse Wainwright, he’s looking forward to leaving it all on stage, so to speak, when the band plays the Kooler Nite Club.
“The last night is always a big debauchery night. A lot of good time rock and roll, drinking and smashing stuff,” said the guitarist, of how he thinks Saturday night’s show is going to shape up.
“I can give you a hint, Gibson (Guitar) gave us a bunch of stuff and there is probably going to be a bunch of stuff broken on that night.”
The Vancouver-based band has been making the most of their chart success since 2007 from Life, Love and Lies, watching the nominations, awards and Top 10 singles add up. State of Shock’s trophy case holds three Canadian Music Radio Awards and a Western Canadian Music Award.
“We basically toured for three years off this record,” said Wainwright. “Life on the road is great. We are all on a bus and it’s good, we’re a nice, cozy family.”
Following a brief holiday break, State of Shock will re-group in the studio to release a new album come April and of course, another road trip.
“I have another 40 years of touring left in me,” he laughed, “as long as the Jack Daniels doesn’t get us we should be good.”
The hard-working band has been playing shows for all ages while on the road. With Gibson Guitar as one of their tour sponsors, the band has been doing acoustic sets in Long and McQuade stores and other major music shops, allowing the band to play almost every night of their tour.
“It’s something the kids can come out to, so it’s a good opportunity. We’ve always been wanting to do more all ages stuff, so this is a good opportunity to give an all ages show,” said Wainwright, who said unfortunately, the band won’t be playing an all ages show in the Border City.
Holing up in a studio in the new year is music to Wainwright’s ears.
“We’ve been writing constantly because we are songwriters to begin with, so we are always writing. We’ve got lots of material that has been stacking up,” he said. “I have a studio in place that we have been demoing at and we are just kind of weeding through them and hashing out what we like.”
The last few years has been more than a party added Wainwright, it’s been a huge learning experience, although not from conventional educators. From Papa Roach, to Aerosmith and Nickleback, State of Shock has toured with a number of hard rocking bands.
“You learn a little bit from everybody, but as far as a live performance, touring with Papa Roach was probably one of the best,” said Wainwright. “They are an amazing live band, so we’d sit and watch them every night, picking up pointers to see where we could improve.
“We’ve toured with a lot of bands and educated ourselves. At the end of the day we are going to make another record we are happy with and hopefully it works the way this one did.”
The rock’n roll recipe for success includes more than an award-winning album said Wainwright. If any band wants to make it in a fickle industry, he continued, they have to give it their all.
“You’ve got to have good quality songs and a good, entertaining show,” he added. “You can’t just kind of half ass it or else you are not going to last.”