54.40 is what True North Records president Geoff Kulawick calls "a legacy band" in Canada. Founded in 1981, the Vancouver rock act is currently touring behind its 12th studio album, "Northern Soul," and the label will release it in the U.S. and Europe in April.
"I've always been a big fan of 54.40 and the fact that they are signed to True North was one of the many reasons why it was an attractive label to be involved with," says Kulawick, who acquired the legendary Canadian indie label in November, 2007, from founder Bernie Finkelstein.
"They are still completely credible and political. I think they are Canada's U2. That's how I see them," says Kulawick.
The band -- comprising lead singer/guitarist Neil Osborne, bassist Brad Merritt, drummer Matt Johnson and guitarist Dave Genn -- has released two singles from "Northern Soul, " but Kulawick says the climate at Canadian radio is not favourable to established homegrown talent.
"We took a track to radio, 'Snap,' and as usual there are issues at radio," he says. "Commercial radio just can not be counted on to support Canadian artists, even ones that have a great legacy and history like 54.40. Lots of their older stuff gets played on rock radio, but rock radio doesn't play a lot of new songs so there aren't a lot of opportunities at radio.
"But we finished a video for 'Snap' and that's was just delivered to MuchMusic this week, plus we're doing all the marketing around the tour and doing everything we can to reach 54.40's fans and let them know about the new album. We've done a lot of national marketing, buying print music magazines and advertising online."
Internet marketing for the new album actually began as far back as the spring when Toronto's Sol Friedman (who did the CD illustrations) animated a video for the title track, a strong anti-war lyric. "That's been downloaded tens of thousands of times," says Kulawick. You Tube registers more than 13600 views, and there are another 4000 on vids.myspace.com, plus the video is on current.com, nme.com, video.aol.com, and other sites.
54.40's national tour, booked by Toronto's Ralph James president of The Agency Group Canada, ends on November 30 in St. John's, NL. "The Canadian tour has been going very well," says James. "We will be looking at opportunities outside of Canada once their brilliant new CD starts to impact."
True North is distributed by Universal Music in Canada, Koch in America, and a network of independent distributors overseas, including Proper in the U.K., Alive in Germany, ZTX in France, Go in Benelux, and Rootsy in Scandinavia.
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