As one of Canada’s most original musical collectives, Rheostatics have always occupied a unique place in the Canadian musical landscape, producing a hybrid wholly shaped by the individual influences and diverse musical tastes of its members. Such disparate predilections could make it challenging for a band recording its first album of original material together in 15 years, but according to guitarist Dave Bidini, the musicians exacting the greatest influence on Rheostatics members these days has changed.

“I think really we’re really more influenced now by each other rather than outside influences and forces,” said Bidini, in reference to the band’s 2019 release, Here Come The Wolves. “You bring your influences in when you first start playing together as a band. Now there’s a lot more of each other reflected in the compositions. We’re more on the same page then we’ve ever been. You get older and your demands get less trenchant. Your ego is less fragile and tender. You learn to work toward the whole a little bit more. That’s where we’re at now. It’s easy for us to see ourselves as a strong unified collective.”

As united as Rheostatics are musically on their new album, the 12 tracks on Here Come The Wolves are not exactly harmonically homogenous. In fact, fans will be happy to know that the songs on the new album reflect all the quirky diversity found on Rheostatics classics like Melville and Whale Music. The title track, for example, takes three very distinct musical threads and weaves them into a tightly-knit sonic tapestry that somehow manages to showcase the individual influences of each band member. It’s a gear-shifting suite of guitar riffs and vocal volleying that delivers exactly what you hope for in a Rheostatics song – originality.

Given its subject matter, its blasts of discordant fury, and its length, you’re not likely to find Here Come The Wolves in heavy rotation on pop music radio stations. No worry. Rheostatics have never relied on radio to attract fans, and success for the band’s new album will be defined in other ways according to Bidini.

“We want people to hear it, that’s for sure. We want people to see themselves in it, and we want people to understand the world a little better because of it. We also want to remind people of what we do and the way we do it, and take away that four, five or six people who are different in many ways have come together to make something they can all enjoy.”

How will that translate live, and what does that mean for fans headed to FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre to see Rheostatics November 27^th?

“We’ll be playing a lot of the new record,” said Bidini. “You’ll see a collection of really committed musicians and voices. I just hope we don’t suck at the end of the day. That’s all you can hope for really.”