For those people that haven’t heard of you could you tell us a bit about yourself, your story?
I am Jeremy Hrdlicka, singer, and co-founder of the Brother Bicker Band. Tom Mogan (co-founder, guitars and vocals) and I take on the main songwriting duties with the band. We started the band about 8 years ago out of my solo project, Brother Bicker, which Tom had laid down all the guitars and bass on. We had known each other for a while but hadn’t played music together. Once we worked in the studio, everything fell into place. We added Ben Ellard (Keys), Jim Duncan (Bass), and Matt Dawe (drums) filled out the band. While recording the last album, we added Jennele Coulson and Claire Wilkes to fill out the band and fill up our sound on vocals.
I came late into music and songwriting though I did sing in a frat band in university. Years later, I took some time off and stayed home when my oldest was born and learned guitar off the internet. I then started dabbling in songwriting and continued working with other great musicians to get better. I started playing around town with open mics, house parties, and sell-your-own-ticket shows until I was able to find some like-minded- players and start a band. Twenty-three years later and this is what it looks like.
Who inspired you to get on stage and perform?
I don’t think I can put it down to one person. I grew up in musical theatre and listening to 80s hair bands. That is probably as close as I get to an inspiration.
What artists and albums have stuck with you and influenced your sound through the years?
The older that I get the more I fall back to my early influences in 70s and 80s rock. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Damn the Torpedoes), The Band (Music from Big Pink), Fleetwood Mac (Rumours), The Black Crowes (Shake Your Moneymaker), Bruce Springsteen (Born in the USA) all find themselves in our music in some way or another.
Could you tell us a bit about the writing/recording of the ReverbNation Winning track “No Straight Lines”?
This song was born from a keyboard riff. It was brought into a band jam and it pulled together pretty quickly and the lyrics fell out pretty quickly. When we recorded it, we wanted a BIG sound! It was one of the songs along with Nothing at All from the album that we wanted huge “Gimme Shelter” backing vocals in it. During the recording process, we brought Jennele and Claire in to build up the song and they never left the band. This song took on this “Memphis Blues” kind of sound and if we had the time, I would have explored adding horns to it. But even without them, it has the huge, chaotic sound that we are really proud of.
You recently released “Another Kind Of Train” How did that release go?
We had a soldout release party at one of Calgary’s iconic music venue, the Ironwood Stage, and it was amazing. We had 120 of our friends and had our friends, Josh Dillon, and the Cody Hall Band open for us. It was incredible to see the response to the album and the support from our fans, friends, and family. We had an opening acoustic set in the front room of the venue with an upright piano, which gave us the opportunity to show our softer, unplugged side.
What is your proudest moment as a band so far?
We were a finalist for our local Calgary, YYC Music Awards for Rock Recording of the Year, this year for our single, Storm Chaser and we were honoured to be invited to perform the awards ceremony in front of 1000 or so of our peers at a large casino venue in town. It was definitely a Bucket List moment for all of us.
What have been some of your favourite places to perform?
The YYC Music Awards is definitely a favorite. The Ironwood and Mikey’s are my two favorite local venues. In 2017, we made it on National television when we performed at a Saturday hockey broadcast called Rogers Hometown Hockey. We played on a closed down mainstreet in the mountains in beautiful Canmore Alberta in the middle of February (-20 C) in a celebration of Canada’s National Sport. It was awesome.
Here at Artistic Echoes, we are always on the lookout for new artists do you have any to recommend?
I am going to give a shout-out to a couple of my favorite local Alberta Artists. The first is our friends, The Rooks. Their drummer, Darryl Swart, was our temporary drummer for COVID and for seven of the ten tracks on the album. The Rooks (https://wearerooks.com/) are a classic rock n roll throwback band with great songs and lyrics. The second is the Cody Hall Band (Home | codyhallmusic) from Lethbridge, Alberta, an up-and-coming country band. These guys are the real deal and I expect to do great things in the future.
What plans do you have for the rest of the year?
We are playing the Rose in Crown in Banff, Alberta from November 16 -18 and then play a great afternoon show at a local pub on November 24, 2023. Going into next year, we have a January gig at another Calgary, iconic venue the King Eddy, which is part of the National Music Centre. We are hoping to leverage this new album and hit the festival circuit in Western Canada this summer. We are always looking to expand our fan base and play bigger venues. It makes life fun!
