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PETRIC’s Prairie Flashbacks

Roman Mitz - Open Spaces
Roman Mitz – Open Spaces

With over 14 million online streams and eight charting singles, including three Top ’20s, PETRIC has made quite the statement since forming back in 2014. The Winnipeg country trio, comprised of brothers Tom and Jason Petric, along with long-time friend Jordan Day, have just released their first full-length album Flashbacks.  The new record is really a mix of flashbacks and flash-forwards, as it includes three of their singles from 2020, two from 2019, plus four brand new songs. One of those new songs is the latest single “Kids”, a buoyant number that’s like a slab of country cake with pop icing, in which the band appears to be going for a youthful vibe.

“I don’t think the trick is so much about keeping a young kids vibe because I think everybody has a bit of kid in them,” says guitarist/vocalist Jordan Day, who’s calling from his Winnipeg home. “It’s just about having fun. As long as we’re enjoying playing I think that makes us feel like kids as well. It doesn’t have to sound like a young song or that kind of stuff, but it does have to have that feeling of joy so that we’ll want to keep playing the song over and over. ‘Kids’ also has a bit of an 80’s guitar feel to it because you’re starting to hear that come back into music.”

A song intended for bigger kids is ‘Déjà Vu’, as the guy in the song is recalling the time he spent time with his girlfriend ‘on the hood of that hatchback’, being smitten by her ‘midnight lips’. The tune also served as the inspiration for the album title ‘Flashbacks’, although it was a long time coming.

“I’d say we probably spent six months trying to find a name for this album,” Jordan says. “This is actually the first album where I’m the new addition to the band. I’ve always been in the group but this is the first record in which I’m considered to be part of the trio.  We were just going to call the album Three because it’s our third l.p. and there are three of us now. But we also got to thinking about how far we’d come, and one day it occurred to us that the word ‘Flashbacks‘ in Déjà Vu would be a pretty cool album title.”

The band co-wrote five of the album’s nine tracks, with four others coming from outside sources. Their 2019 radio hit “Single Problem” is an outstanding group number with a clever play on words and a chorus hook that just won’t quit. One of the new songs, “Safe With Me”, with its rhythmic accents and steady backbeat, maybe the strongest non-original track on the album.

” ‘Single Problem’ was written by us along with Jason Blaine,” he begins. “Any time we’re listening to music one of the first things we’re doing is listening to the lyrics, making sure they’re easy to understand and not too cheesy. But we’re also looking to come up with lyrics that could have a little deeper meaning to them and I think this song captures that.

“WithSafe With Me, we really didn’t have that much to go on when we started recording that song. It almost had one of those Mumford & Sons boom shaka kind of sounds. We loved what the lyrics were saying. That’s where we kind of strip the music back and get into what the words are, and decide whether it’s a message we’d like to convey. The song is really about just saying ‘You can trust me, I’m here for you and I’m going to protect you’. We bounced ideas around in the studio until we finally landed with the kind of guitar and drum sound we wanted. We’re really proud of it.”

PETRIC
PETRIC

Another new tune, “White Lyin’”, qualifies as the band’s official hurtin’ song on the album. Jordan suggests that these types of tunes, whether they be country or pop, tend to resonate with the masses. “It seems like everyone’s gone through it before so having a song that hurts tends to connect to more people.” Another thing that tends to grab folks is some hot electric guitar like the one that drives “Something To Do With You”, which serves as an homage to the band’s rock influences.

“I grew up listening to The Guess Who and classic rock bands like Harlequin and Streetheart,” Jordan explains. “In terms of guitar playing, Randy Bachman is one of the best players around. In 2008, the Canadian Country Music Association Awards were here in Winnipeg and Randy Bachman, who was one of the hosts, played at the end of the show. I’ll never forget seeing him up there. I wasn’t in the industry as I had just graduated from high school, but to see all of those musicians around you just kind of standing in awe of what they were seeing was pretty amazing. That’s a pretty inspirational feeling that this guy could mean so much to everybody.”

Randy Bachman has an international following and PETRIC are doing their utmost to expand their horizons as well. They’re receiving strong press praise from both the U.K. and Australia, which is pretty amazing considering the fact that the band hasn’t been able to leave the country in a year due to the Covid outbreak.

PETRIC
PETRIC

“One of our goals over the last 12 months was to try and expand outside of Canada,” he says. “We definitely don’t think that we’ve reached our pinnacle here but we wanted to start exploring because country music is really growing across the world. It’s not just North America anymore. We’ve been seeing more and more people playing these huge concerts in the U.K. and Australia so, during this period when we were unable to tour, we sifted through a bunch of different people, publishing companies and radio heads in both of those countries and established our presence.”

Jordan is hopeful that “Flashbacks” will cement the band’s reputation in Canada and abroad, and he is really excited about the new release especially since he’s now a card-carrying member of the group.   While it took over six years for Jordan to become an official member, he can’t hold a candle to Darryl Jones who has been the ‘guest’ bassist for The Rolling Stones since 1993. He figures the process for PETRIC was a little quicker because the band wanted to introduce a democratic practice when it came to making decisions.

“We kind of joke that I was the person brought in to sway the vote one way or another,” he laughs. “But I don’t get too many positive bribes in order to make a decision.”

Other stuff:

Alberta born and raised with farming in his blood, Drew Gregory has remained solidly entrenched in the landscape and soil of his rural homestead. Discovering his passion for music through his local radio station and his dad’s classic rock vinyl collection, Drew has continued to return to his roots to draw inspiration and learn life lessons. His brand new single “Beer With Anyone” delivers a down-home country feel and is an easy-going tune about throwing back a cold one with ‘damn near anyone’.

Canadian platinum-selling singer-songwriter and award-winning artist Tebey releases his new album “The Good Ones” on January 22 via all streaming services. The new album pairs Tebey’s pop roots with his cool, contemporary country voice and signature catchy choruses. The 8-song collection contains three popular hit songs including the stunning title track, a powerful duet with Quebec pop superstar Marie Mai that achieved top ten at country radio nationally. Talking about the sound of the album Tebey says “I’ve never shied away from stepping outside the box when making a record. I love to experiment with melodies that you wouldn’t typically find in country music. Songs like ‘Shotgun Rider’ and ‘See You Around’ are examples of where you’ll hear that the most.”

Multi-award winning Canadian blue-collar country outlaws The Divorcees are taking a moment to reflect with the announcement of their new album, “Drop Of Blood”, which is now available. The release includes the premiere single, “Dying Breed.” Two-time winners of the East Coast Music Association’s Country Album of the Year Award, the Moncton band celebrate their 16th year as Americana trad-country aficionados this year. With nearly two decades and five studio albums under their belt, “Drop Of Blood” offers a glimpse into one of Canada’s most bona fide country acts. “The Divorcees have been a story of never, ever taking the easy way out,” says singer/guitarist Alex Madsen. “And on this record, we most definitely did not. It’s called “Drop Of Blood” for a reason.”

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