TOTAL INSIDER
Canadian icons saga , release acoustic re-tellings of classic songs . RE-issues first 6 releases in vinyl .
In 1982 Saga ruled the progressive and rock airwaves with songs like “ On The Loose ”, “ Wind Him Up ” and “ The Flyer ” They have consistently put out 23 amazing records since then and have a reputation as one of the best live bands ever . I recently had the chance to sit down with co-founder bassist and songwriter Jim Crichton , about the band ’ s upcoming release Symmetry , a collection of acoustic retellings of the band ’ s classic songs .
What was the idea behind doing the album “ Symmetry ” and the acoustic re-telling of some of Saga ’ s greatest songs ?
JIM : Well , I mean , it was really simple . On the last tour that I did , which was 2018 , November , something like that , we decided to do something I always wanted to do which was open for ourselves as an acoustic band and play Saga acoustically . But don ’ t tell the audience . If you bought a ticket for that tour , you weren ’ t aware there was any opening act . Right now , when the show started , this band was being announced and half the room was empty , because nobody was showing up for the opening act . We walked out with no lighting , just white lights and actually started off with Jim Gilmore and Mike Sadler coming out and playing the beginning of “ Images ” by themselves . So as the thing started , I could see people weren ’ t even sure what they were watching . And then when the rest of us showed up , he could see the whole audience go that ’ s the band and what ’ s going on here . And then we did about a 45 minute acoustic set as an opening act . Michael , most nights would thank Saga for letting us open for them and say things like , It ’ s a really nice band except the singer ’ s really an asshole . It was pretty funny because we ’ re constantly thanking Saga for letting us open for them , and we just did an acoustic set which was a lot of fun to do . The record company saw it , really liked it , and asked us if we ’ d make an acoustic record . So we ’ ve had those arrangements and I ’ ve done some other arrangements that we didn ’ t do on that tour , and all those arrangements kind of turned into this record .
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Photo Credit : Saga Social Media
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across and authenticity is everything. It’s just real. It’s just
be real about it. And it will actually be more successful.
SUMO CYCO: I think the biggest problem some bands have is not
being honest about what they’re going through. We try to library
everything to explain what we’re going through. We wouldn’t even
be a band without our fans that understood what we go through to
get it done. We wouldn’t be considered successful in a major industry You are very DIY with social
media. What’s your approach to it?
You guys are pushing the norms, what
are some of your biggest challenges?
SUMO CYCO: I always try to be ahead of the game as
much as possible to try to plan a little bit ahead of time to
give myself some breathing room. It usually ends up where
the best posts always perform when it’s in the moment. It’s an
option because you’re actually feeling that way. For me, it is
very spontaneous to a certain extent, but it’s hard work. It’s
just always making sure we’ve connected with our fan base
that way. We follow a lot of them as well. Skye is always kind
of keeping in contact and keeping people up to date.
Did more content and reliance
on self-marketing become more
important because of the
inability to tour?
SUMO CYCO: Absolutely. Because of the fact that we’re
not on the road. Up until last year, every two months we
would be on the road. We’ve done almost five years of tour-
without our diehard fans. Our diehard fans have kept us be-
cause of the fact that I think we’re truthful with them. We tell
them how much our plane tickets are, how much our camper
costs, every goddamn thing that costs us to make this thing run.
I think people can appreciate that, instead of us trying to hide it.
When you lay that kind of stuff out and you start being truthful
about it, you know, you open your business up, and they kind of
become a label with you. For the past 10 years, these have been
our label mates, every single fan of ours, which is super organic.
Up until last year, we were just two of us with our two band
members, a couple other crew people that are tight that made
all this work for us. So it’s been yeah, getting that honesty
ing with on and off for months here and there. We did some
serious touring to try and keep the band running. Then, it all
comes to a complete halt. We would be on a regular sched-
ule. We would tour for two to three months, have a month
off where I can get things caught up and then I’m back out.
You get used to that life. You also get used to how the in-
come cycle works. All points of the business end. This is how
this works, that’s how that works. When this happened we
we’re like, man, we don’t know what to do with ourselves.
We actually have a media team member friend, Francesco
Alucard, who’s like our fifth member. She’s been on tour with
us and she does the media for us because we’re really busy.
So Fran is doing a lot of work for us, we come home and
we can’t even see friends anymore. Friends, you know, she’s
locked down over here. Skye has always been a media girl.
Anyway, she loves it, but it’s really one of those things that
keeps us sane. Being able to contact people and put stuff
out instead of just looking at each other every day.
How does a band/brand like that
keep its anonymity from its fans,
but yet still engage them?
SUMO CYCO: I think every artist and band
probably has those discussions within their own
band to be like, where is our line? Do we want people
to get so into knowing us that our phone whips out
as soon as we wake up, and we’re playing pranks on
each other where we’re filming each other? When
the other person doesn’t even know you are film-
ing them? I think it’s one of those things. It’s almost
impossible to get away from people now. You can
tweet anybody and talk to anybody in this day and
age. It is insane to really think how the younger fans
have grown up without any of the knowledge or understanding about what
those things are like. What you’re talking about, the rock star mystique, they
don’tkmow, they literally grew up with the internet so they don’t even realize.
You really have to put yourself into their shoes to be like, if I I could contact
and message any person at any time throughout my entire life, you know, it
seems weird that somebody wouldn’t be a part of that.
You have to be accessible. Think about when you were a 16 year old in this
day and age. You definitely didn’t buy a magazine to find out about events,
you never had to. So if you’re trying to connect with younger people
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THE VIDEO INTERVIEW
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