Losing time and finding space

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Regina’s Hours kicks off summer plans with release of new EP

Paul Bogdan
A&C Writer

Hours
The Distrikt
April 5
$10

You’re not the only one trying to plan out your summer. Regina post-hardcore band Hours have a busy summer ahead of them. First on their spring/summer bucket list was releasing their EP, Premonitions, which happened a few weeks ago, and next up is their show opening for Prop Planes at the Distrikt on April 5.

Premonitions features songs written across Hours’ four-year existence and highlights the band’s musical diversity, as well.

“The EP is a collection of some of our older stuff and our newer songs,” said guitarist Scott McGregor. “We’ve been a band for four years now, and out of all the songs we have, the EP has the best selection of the varying range of what our songs sound like. We have a slower song and more upbeat songs. It covers the gamut of what songs we have.”

Don’t dismiss recording an EP as opposed to an LP as laziness though. Hours has a full album more or less done and are using the EP as a sort of preview for the album.

“We have a full-length recorded; it’s just a matter of getting it mixed and finishing some vocals,” McGregor said. “We have a lot of music recorded. It was just a matter of timing, and we wanted to get something out because we’ve been around for so long and played so many shows.”

Because Hours has been around for a few years now, it’s a bit surprising that the band hasn’t released any recorded material yet, and fans have been waiting for them to do so.

“People have been asking, ‘When are you going to have something that we can listen to?’” McGregor said.

This wasn’t an easy question to answer, as Hours’ music kept getting impeded by drawbacks like school and work.

“Life gets in the way,” he said. We record three quarters of all of the songs, and then one of us has a whole bunch of school, and music gets put on the back burner.

“Then, we get a bunch of shows lined up. We can’t commit enough time … and a few years ago we lost our jam spot.”

Rehearsals sort of come to a halt if you have nowhere to rehearse, and Hours had to undergo a significant stretch of time without one because they lost their jam space.

“The store that we were jamming in the back of closed down, so we were without a jam spot for about eight months,” McGregor said.

McGregor, and many other musicians in Regina, understand that finding affordable jam spots in this city is “impossible … [and] one of the hardest things to do,” and Hours’ eight-month stint without one is a testament to that. The band actually came about finding their current jam space rather haphazardly, as their other guitarist, Brennan Zurowski, talked one of his hairdressing clients into letting them rent out the upstairs of her grandfather’s store. Had this not happened, Hours could have been searching for much longer.

“It was complete dumb luck,” McGregor said.

Having since found a new place to rehearse, Hours has a fully scheduled summer ahead of their, including the EP release, touring, and hopefully releasing their full-length album.

“We’d like to get out on the road and play shows in Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, or wherever,” McGregor said. “We all work jobs, so it’s kinda hard to leave work for a month and tour. We have to pick and choose our battles. Aside from that, we’d like to get the full length out and keep playing shows."

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