Beaumont Music Festival: 54-40 interview

54-40, hailing from British Columbia, is a Canadian rock-band. Before they hit the stage at the Beaumont Music Festival, Dave Genn, one of the band’s guitarists and backing vocalist, sat down with The Gateway to announce their upcoming album and talk about their most recent. 

The band’s most recent release, West Coast Band, came out in 2023. On the record, Genn detailed the story of its conception. 

“During COVID[-19], when everything was shut down, we knew we didn’t have any gigs. So we started making a record. We started sending files back and forth and we had Zoom meetings. We ended up talking about old road stories and Neil [Osborne] started writing them down, and we decided to make a record that’s entirely autobiographical, literal, and devoid of any metaphor or figurative speech,” Genn explained. 

“All the songs on the record are entirely about the band. We have one for each member and there’s one about our manager. It’s the weirdest record I’ve ever made. I like that though,” Genn added. 

On new music, Genn said “this wednesday we’ll be putting the finishing touches on our new record. We went to Porto, Portugal, this spring for a couple weeks and we recorded for our new record. We’ve just been finishing it up in Vancouver the last couple of weeks. It’ll be out later this year,” Genn said. 

“We change producers, themes, and environments when we make our records to try and keep it fresh and interesting for us,” Genn says

As of right now, the record’s name is Porto, because of the band recording it there. Genn says that may change though. 

He said recording “was done very quickly” and that being away from home really aided in the record’s creation. “It’s amazing how much you can get done when you don’t have the responsibilities of home and you’re there just to focus on something. Just the band and producer over in Porto making a record for a couple of weeks.” 

On content, Genn said that it’s Osborn who wrote the words, but he thinks there’s lots of reference to “youngism and zen.” Genn added that “of course, all our songs are really about love in some form or another.”

Instrumentally, he said the upcoming record is “meat and potatoes riff-rock. Just guitars, drums, and a little bit of keyboards.” Comparing the sound of their upcoming record to their 2023 release, Genn joked that he wanted to call it Saxophone instead of West Coast Band “because there was so much on it.”

He said they try to make changes each record to keep things unique. “We’re the same guys with the same skill sets. We change producers, themes, and environments when we make our records to try and keep it fresh and interesting for us. 

The band brought back the producer who produced the first record Genn was on when he joined 54-40 in 2005, Warne Livesey. Genn was the guitarist of Matthew Good Band before joining 54-40. 

With the new record in production, the band has been crowd-testing new songs each night, changing the set list for each performance. 

“We rotate through the new songs and change the list throughout the summer to keep ourselves interested. I write the set list. I’m a fan first, so they’ve been letting me do it for about 20 years,” Genn said.

On being a fan first, Genn said 54-40 was his favourite band in high school. “It’s like that movie called Rockstar with Mark Wahlberg where he’s a singer and he joins his favourite band. I get to live my high school dream every night.” 

A release date for their upcoming record, Porto, can be expected within the next year.