For many artists, the pandemic was a low point in productivity.

But not Arkells. They came out of Covid with not one, but two full new albums.

Photo credit: Arkells

“It was sort of out of self preservation,” laughs frontman Max Kerman on the phone from hometown Hamilton. “A mental health exercise I guess.”

It’s popular opinion that Arkells were passed the torch from The Tragically Hip as Canada’s hardest working and most beloved live band. Touring relentlessly around the world for the past decade, the group has built stadiums of devoted fans that flock to their high energy shows. In 2018, they played to over 24,000 hometown fans, the biggest outdoor audience in Hamilton since Pink Floyd in ancient 1975. 

Playing live is the band’s lifeblood, so when concerts shut down for two years, they felt a little adrift.

“We had a lot of time on our hands because typically we spend most of the year touring,” Kerman tells VictoriaNow. 

“During the pandemic we were just trying to find ways to feel useful. It was, like, ‘how can we feel like we’re creating art and interesting music that we could put out one day’.”

That day finally came. Last year, they released the acclaimed Blink Once, and this fall a second release will follow, cheekily titled Blink Twice.

Never a band to rest on its same sound, the new material heads into a full and fat eruption of melody that ricochets between power pop, dance music, funk, and anthemic rock. Some of the songs are so catchy and butt-shakin’, it’s hard to believe they haven’t been written before. Horns blare, pianos pound mightily, and choruses are cannonballs of singalong sound. Guest stars like alt-pop fave K.Flay add new colour to Max Kerman’s confident voice.

“I think we’re really curious,” Max Kerman continues. “We love seeing what else is happening in modern music. I think there’s so much popular music that is interesting to us and that we can incorporate into our own unique way.”

“We’ve made a lot of music in the past and we don’t want to keep making b-rate versions of our earlier records. We want to make really exciting music that feels relevant today.”

Photo credit: Arkells

Kerman says it wasn’t always easy to find inspiration during the lockdown, but they pushed through with purpose. They embraced broader collaboration, shared lyric writing, encouraged input from friends, and seamlessly blended celebration and heavy topics into spirited songs.

“The process is the adventure. Because as soon as you go into the studio and have a sense of how things are going to go, that's when the music becomes boring,” says the singer-guitarist.

“But if you go in with an open mind and you allow the ideas to take you to new places, then you’re going to come out with something that feels different.”

The multiple Juno Award-winning band is now at the starting gate, poised to play live again — with two new collections of songs to boot. Their tireless shows are already renowned for being epic outgoings, but after the long hiatus, Max anticipates the energy will reach new heights.

“Coming back to live music, there’s such a profound sense of gratitude that we get to do this as our job. And we’re looking at it all with fresh eyes now.”

“I think the variety that we have in our music really makes a two-hour show fly by. To ask anybody to stay with you for two hours is a big ask, so you gotta provide the goods.”

Arkells will deliver those goods tonight, closing out the first night of Laketown Shakedown, the three-day music festival near Lake Cowichan, that also features big names like Wu-Tang Clan, Everlast, and Sugar Ray.

Arkells have that rare, organic way of performing that seems to erode the division of stage and audience. The band works hard every night to make their concerts a communal experience.

“One of my favourite things is reading a tweet from someone the next day going ‘my body’s sore, my voice is so hoarse’.”
 
“I like when everybody’s trying as hard as we are. The beautiful thing about live music is that everyone’s contributing to it. We’re working as hard as we can up there, and we want that same thing back.”

Info on the Laketown Shakedown Festival can be found here.