‘We’re like an old married couple’: N.S. band The Town Heroes reflect on the past in new album

Mike Ryan and Bruce Gillis have driven and flown countless kilometres across Canada and beyond, and they’ve done it all together.

“There’s been a lot of long drives across the country, flights across the world and, yeah, you have to get along with someone to be able to do it that long,” Ryan said.

Ryan and Gillis are united by many things, not least of which is their love of music. The Nova Scotia duo, best known as the The Town Heroes, has performed together for the better part of two decades.

The band is dropping their seventh album, “Singin’,” this week.

“I think just our friendship chemistry is bigger than the music itself and I think you need that to continue to write,” Gillis said. “We’re like an old married couple, Mike and I.”

Ryan said the songs on the new album all involve the past in some way.

“The songs are all about memories in some capacity and how we look back at the past and how that affects us,” he said.

The band is known for their outside-the-box style – be it their music or their comedic music videos – but the duo is planning something completely new for their album release show on Saturday.

“Myself and Bruce have no idea where the show is,” Ryan said. “We know it’s somewhere in the Halifax area. We’ll be blindfolded (and) driven there. That will be livestreamed for the audience in the building.

“I think we see ourselves as entertainers more than just musicians. We like to create community and that’s what the music does and the videos do.”

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