Canadian band The Commoners carry on the classic rock tradition

Supporting Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton at the Cambridge Junction this October will be exciting Canadian blues-rock band The Commoners.

The Toronto-based, Southern rock-chanelling collective – comprising Chris Medhurst (lead vocals, guitar), Ross Hayes Citrullo (guitar), Ben Spiller (bass), Adam Cannon (drums) and Miles Evans-Branagh (keyboards) – will be performing tracks from their current album Find A Better Way, which includes the singles Fill My Cup, Find A Better Way, Too Much, and More Than Mistakes.

The group are known for their high-energy riffs, authentic, soulful vocals and rich harmonies. Speaking to the Cambridge Independent while on his way back to where he lives in Mississauga, Ontario, singer Chris – who is also a professional dog trainer – says that he and his bandmates are currently recording a new album and notes that it’s coming along “excellently”.

“We probably were in there [the studio] almost every night for a few weeks there, just writing new material, curating stuff, trying to fill in the gaps, have a good concept of how we wanted the album to flow,” he explains, “and I think we’re in a really good place.

“We’ve got a few of the songs already recorded and we’re going to be going in in the next few weeks to finish it up.”

The album is due for release in November. “That’s the plan,” says Chris, who undertook a successful tour of the UK with his band (their first over here) alongside Troy Redfern, ‘the UK’s king of slide guitar’, earlier this year.

“I try not to look too far ahead of where I am and always just keep my head down on the next task, but I do believe that’s the broader plan.”

Find A Better Way, the quintet’s second album, was produced and mixed by the band’s guitarist Ross Hayes Citrullo, while the title track was mixed by award-winning record Australian record producer Kevin Shirley, who has previously worked with the likes of The Black Crowes, Iron Maiden, and Led Zeppelin.

Classic Rock Magazine described the album itself as “rootsy, soulful and bluesy, these are timeless songs steeped in classic rock tradition”.

That “classic rock tradition” means that although The Commoners may sound similar to highly-respected bands of a similar ilk such as Free, Blackberry Smoke, and The Black Crowes, they have succeeded in crafting a sound all of their own, one which creates a fine balance between the old and the new.

On how the new record differs from Find A Better Way, Chris, a fan of soul singers such as Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, says: “There’s a lot of different themes on the [new] album; we’ve tried to really put things in the album that necessarily weren’t in Find A Better Way, but it’s still very cohesive as far as what our sound is and who we are as a band.

“So there’s a few more really uptempo songs, a few more midtempo tracks, and just overall different themes as far as the content of the songs...

“There’s going to be a lot more of those kind of tracks like Find A Better Way on this record – really like uptempo, want-to-get-up-and-move and make-people-want-to-get-out-of-their-seats kind of music.”

The Commoners have existed in their current incarnation since about 2018, although Chris has known Ross and Ben since he was 16 or 17.

It was when he was around 14 or 15 that Chris decided he’d quite like to follow music as a career.

“I spent a couple of years just learning how to play guitar,” he recalls, “and then I kind of figured out pretty soon that the guitar was really more of a tool for me to be able to compose and write music – and that’s when I started to sing, almost as a necessity of wanting to communicate ideas, and I believe the very first time I ever performed was when I was 15.”

Chris concludes by saying “a really big thank you to all the UK audiences for how warm and welcoming they’ve all been and the support they’ve shown us...

“As musicians, and as a band, we do this because we really want to reach out and communicate with people.

“And to know that there have been so many people in your country that have listened to our music, bought tickets to our shows – even know the words to the songs – it’s humbling and extremely gratifying.”

The Commoners will be appearing at the Cambridge Junction, opening for Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton, on Wednesday, October 25 (they will be the headline act at the Bourne Music Club in Kent on November 1).

For more information, visit junction.co.uk. For more on the band, go to thecommoners.ca.