Dave Genn sometimes feels like he should pinch himself when he realizes where he is.
The 54•40 lead guitarist is a younger member of the legendary Vancouver-based rock group that has delivered a jukebox full of bona fide hits to Canadian listeners since their humble beginnings in 1980.
Part of Genn’s teen years were spent admiring the band and its distinctive, easily recognizable sound as a youth growing up in British Columbia.
“I have to pinch myself to remind myself of how lucky I got,” Genn says during a phone interview with MidlandToday from his B.C. home.
“If you had told me in high school I’d be with the band, I probably would have fainted on the spot.”
Genn has made six records with the band since joining in 2003, “but also loves to play those songs that were the soundtrack to my youth. It’s an absolute joy to be playing."
54•40 brings some of those hit songs plus more, including tunes from their new album West Coast Band to go along with their just-released Live At The El Mocambo album, to the iconic Kee to Bala Saturday for their annual sojourn to Muskoka.
The gig could be almost looked at as a kind of residency given the band’s regular appearances at the unique Muskoka stop since 1997.
“It’s an impossible venue to describe,” Genn says, noting that while the Kee is well-known in Ontario, the distinctive, old-hall-style building that borders the water and doesn’t have modern amenities like air conditioning, doesn’t hold the same reverence in other parts of the country.
“I love the gig,” he says of the Kee. “Everybody’s there for a good time. It’s a really positive, joyful place.”
And the band’s popularity doesn’t seem to be waning as they continue to make new records and get solid airplay from their bevy of hits, including songs like She-La, I Go Blind, Ocean Pearl, One Day in Your Life and Love You All.
“We’ve been playing all over the place, the last month has been very, very hairy,”
Established 43 years ago at Vancouver’s famed Smilin’ Buddha Cabaret, 54•40 have penned countless iconic, enduring, chart-topping gems, capturing a steady stream of fans at home and around the globe.
“When I started playing, I was an angry young man with a big mission,” co-founder and lead singer Neil Osborne says of their New Year’s Eve start in 1980. “I used to say, ‘If I’m still doing this when I’m 30, I’m going to shoot myself.’ And then I said, ‘If I’m still doing this when I am 40, someone please shoot me.’
“Now it’s like, ‘If I am still doing this at age 50 and over... Wow, eh?!’”
And with the sea change given how musicians now make their money as online streaming services have greatly replaced record and cd purchases for many, Genn says it’s important for bands to tour since it creates an essential revenue stream.
“For a music fan, it’s amazing, but for a creator, it’s annoying,” he says of streaming services, adding that he, himself, does appreciate having so much music history at his fingertips since "songs take you to a place in time (in your life). I love that.”
And as a middle-aged rocker with other band members even older, Genn says he realized he wasn’t a 20-something musician any longer when the recent WestJet strike forced the band to rent a small bus to log the many kilometres on the road between shows rather than fly, including a 12-hour jaunt between Fort McMurray and Regina.
“There were some grumpy middle-aged men (on the bus),” he jokes: “But you get up, take a couple of Advil and drive to the next gig.”
