The Social Threat is coming to Banff.
And in this case, The Social Threat isn’t a chain store, but rather a punk band from Medicine Hat.
Consisting of Wade Hodgman (lead vocals and guitar), Kaleb Motz (bass) and Kyle Hodgman (drums), the trio will play Bruno’s Bar & Grill in Banff, Saturday (March 23).
“A lot of our music is about social justice issues – that goes hand in hand with playing punk – we really wanted to take advantage of the little bit of platform that we get to address some of the issues that we see,” said Kyle, speaking on behalf of the band.
“There’s a little bit about politics, and war, and starvation – and just trying to take care of people on our planet and not really calling out a lot of crap, just trying to call awareness to it and start a discussion,” he explained.
The band came together in 2009 and released its first album, a self-titled EP, the following year. Since then they’ve toured throughout the west, getting the chance to open shows for bands like The Mahones, Living With Lions and You Say Party!
Their focus remains social issues, however.
“Last September, on our third anniversary, we spent a month raising money for International Justice Mission – they’re an organization that we’re pretty stoked about,” said Kyle. “They try as much as they can to work within the legal system to free slaves and people trapped in the sex trade in third world countries.
“Lots of times those countries don’t even cooperate, so they go in and rescue these people and reunite them with their families.”
Currently based in Medicine Hat, the band has no plans of going anywhere else.
“We just all ended up here accidentally,” said Kyle, who originated in Prince Albert, Sask. “I came here for the college, and the lead singer, my brother, moved too because he didn’t have anything else to do and wanted to play music, and our bass player ended up there for college as well.”
Despite it being a small city, Medicine Hat has good access to a lot of other places, he said.
“We’re not planning on moving – it’s weird, I know it’s a small town, but we’ve got good access to Calgary and Edmonton and Saskatoon and Regina, so we’ve been touring the Saskatchewan-Alberta circuit a lot,” said Kyle. “This summer we’ll be recording a new CD and then looking to do a whole Canadian tour, but a lot of people think that if you’re in a small town you have to move to a bigger city for your music to work, and I don’t think that’s the case anymore.
“If you’re out on the road playing shows a lot, and have good Internet exposure, then it can work.”
That said, The Social Threat has been out on the road since its early days.
“When we first started as a band, after a couple months we realized there wasn’t a lot where we were, so we were lucky enough to hit the road right away. You can’t do a lot of shows in the same town, so touring has given us a chance to play more.”
This show in Banff will be their first in the Bow Valley, a place the band is very much looking forward to playing.
“We’ve tried booking there a few times, but it never worked out,” said Kyle. “We’re stoked we get to play there.
“It seems like not too many people are doing this style of music any more.”
Working within the three-member format has its pros and cons, said Kyle, but is a dynamic the band enjoys.
“We don’t need as huge of a van, because there’s just three of us and less gear, and whenever we get paid the money goes further, but that also means each of us has to do more work,” he said. “It’s tough doing all the promotion and bookings and writing the music.
“The singer’s a mechanic and can fix the van and I do graphic design – when you’re in a band there’s so much to do that has nothing to do with music – and with only three of us it can get intense, but we like the way our music sounds.”
Going with a record label is something they’d consider, if the option came along, but for the moment are happy with the way things are going.
“We’ve thought of the idea of a label as the next step of getting our music out there, but I think that business model is disappearing,” said Kyle. “It’d be interesting to see what would happen, but we really just want to do whatever we can to make our music and get it out there.”
The Social Threat released its first full-length album – Protest Songs – in 2011 and is now hard at work on its next project.
“We’ve been in the writing process for the last little while,” said Kyle. “We’ve got most of the songs done, it’s just nailing down the lyrics and tightening up the melodies.
“This summer we’ll do an EP, and then maybe an acoustic EP as well, and then leading up to the release of the big one.”
To hear some of their music, visit the band The Social Threat at thesocialthreat.com
