Said the Whale is a Canadian band formed in 2007 as a collaboration between songwriters Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft. The pair’s debut EP, Taking Abalonia, featured sunny west coast indie pop, with breezy harmonies, shimmering guitars and lyrical tributes to their home city of Vancouver, “nodding at times to the sea shanties of Neutral Milk Hotel and at others to the boat-shoe-gazing of Vampire Weekend” said The National Post. In 2008, the album was re-released as Howe Sounds/Talking Abalonia, featuring seven additional tracks that stretched the band’s stylistic palate to upbeat folk (“The Light Is You”), thundering rock (“Last Tree Standing”) and gentle ukulele ballads (“The Real of It”). After several line-up changes, the group has settled into a quintet rounded out by drummer Spencer Schoening, keyboardist Jaycelyn Brown, and bassist Nathan Shaw.
In late 2009, their sophomore, full-length album Islands Disappear was released on Hidden Pony Records. Produced by Howard Redekopp (Tegan and Sara, The New Pornographers, other Mother) and Tom Dobrzanski, the album is rich in vocal harmonies and often beautifully references the country they encounter so frequently on tour as in (“Emerald Lake, AB”) and (“Holly, Ontario”). The album would go on to spend 24 weeks on the ChartAttack’s weekly campus Top 50 chart and would see the band nominated for Artist of The Year at the 2009 XM / The Verge Music Awards.
