LAFLECHE – It’s a long song, but one that ends far too quickly.
Road Waves - a jam band based out of the Niagara Region - recently released Frog Rock, a 10-minute single that’s appealing to fans of all ages. They brought this and many other amazing melodies to Lafleche recently, with a backyard performance at Wood River Inn & Studio on Aug. 10.
“I kinda broke the rule, dropping a single that’s longer than three minutes … by a lot,” said Road Waves founder Ji Sharp. “For the type of band we are, it’s not that big of a deal. We’re not trying to break into the mainstream.”
Fans of the band are showing overwhelming support for the new release - sometimes even coming to shows wearing frog hats.
“We had a lot of fun doing that one, a silly song and all the layers on top of it,” Sharp said. “It took a while because of Covid. I wrote that song in late 2021, it hit the studio in 2022, but didn’t have the funds to master and mix it until we started playing gigs again.”
It would be over a year from the beginning of recording to the early-summer release of Frog Rock.
“It’s hard to sit on a song like that for so long - I wanted to show everyone!” Sharp said. “Frog Rock was the song we needed to break us in a little bit. It’s essentially a kid's song, repackaged into some adult listening.”
When asked about the impetus of the song, Sharp explained it writing it was a way to cope with the constraints of Covid; an “effort to bring silliness into my life.”
“Frogs are cool. I just started looking up frog facts and writing poetry about it,” he said. “People ask me ‘what's the message - what's up with the frog?’ Everyone loves frogs.”
In essence, there is no mystical message, it’s simply up for the listener’s own interpretation.
As for life on the road, the show in Lafleche marked roughly the one-third mark on the band’s current North American tour. After dates in BC and Seattle, Road Waves will return for a couple shows in Saskatoon and Langenburg later this month before returning east.
All that time travelling provides inspiration for the band, as Sharp hinted at a possible new album being released in the future.
“When you’re on tour, you’re filling your well,” he said of the inspiration to write new music. “We have one tune that was recorded in the same session (as Frog Rock). It’s a bit of a slower one, so I’m wondering if I should just wait till the end of this tour.”
A few changes to the line-up over the years means that there are just some songs the current formation (Sharp on guitar and vocals, Dave Ruigrok on bass, and Phil Bosley on drums and vocals) doesn’t perform anymore. However, after this tour, the plan is to write more new material hitting vinyl soon.
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