Acres of Potential: An Interview with Acres of Lions

By: Curtis Sindrey –

On the heels of the success of their second LP “Collections,” released last year, Victoria B.C. natives Acres of Lions will begin the cycle again when they start recording their new album this fall.

Their debut album “Working” was released in 2009 and according to singer/guitarist/songwriter Jeff Kalesnikoff, “The first album was just a collection of songs that I personally wrote over a couple of years and we just threw it together in an album. There was only a loose theme of working really hard at your passion for music and touring but as far as the songs went it was just a random collection over the years,” he said.

During the writing process for “Working,” Kalesnikoff acted as the sole songwriter, whereas the band came together as a group and began writing collectively which found most of their creations on “Collections.”

“[Writing together] has changed the dynamic greatly because we all understand where we’re coming from and everything has been shaped together and it’s a great thing to be working as a team as opposed to solo because when you do have ideas you can put it together so much easier,” said Kalesnikoff.

Playing Edgefest 2012 is a big step for any band. Great exposure, huge crowds; however, when you’re the second band of the day on the side stage, it isn’t always the best of circumstances, but that’s why the band had a few tricks up their sleeves to drive fan engagement.

“[Writing together] has changed the dynamic greatly because we all understand where we’re coming from and everything has been shaped together.

“Our first scheme was to have free ice cream and say ‘free ice cream, come and get it,’ and than our second scheme was that we were able to wrangle a couple of backstage passes out of the promoters and we got kids to ‘Like’ us on Facebook and than we would pick the winners from the stage,” said guitarist Tyson Yerex.

“It was a little bit different from when we played the Keloha Festival where we had more of a headlining spot so we didn’t have to do any goofy promotion,” he said.

In addition to keeping crowds cool during sets, they are also very generous with free songs via download cards, a tactic in which has garnered a positive response from fans.

“Download cards get kids to our website and listening to our music and looking at our tour dates and from there we can get them on our mailing list where we mug them at regular intervals the next time that we’re going to be in their town or whatever,” said Yerex.

“You can’t sell things to people first, and than have them become fans, you need to make them fans first. It’s like dating you need to give her your number or your name to get it started,” he said.

While it can be said that their influences ranged from many notable 90s  bands including The Get Up Kids and Jimmy Eat World, they have a developed a more eclectic tastes as their sound developed with Canadian folk bands like The Weakerthans and The Constantines.

“You can’t sell things to people first, and than have them become fans, you need to make them fans first.”

“Those bands like that really resonate with us because they’re hard working and they write incredible songs and it’s the kind of music that we love to play,” said
Kalesnikoff.

The band is currently talking to a producer from Toronto, and while they aren’t sure whether they’re going with him, they’re looking to do a new record later this November of early December.

“Jeff has a few ideas that he has been working on during this tour and the plan for the summer is to do a bunch more summer festivals, then in August we’re going to spend two or three weeks just in a remote cabin and get away from all of the distractions and sit down together and demo songs for a new album,” said Yerex.

The band will be playing many parts of B.C. this summer with stops at the Kulth Festival in Coombs, BC, the Biltmore Cabaret for the Steamwhistle Unsigned Series with Canadian Music Week alumni Rococode, and Familia and the Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver, BC.