As their profile continues to rise, Toronto's Great Lake Swimmers are consistently surprised by just who is embracing their music. Over the last few years, Robert Plant shook the hand of leader Tony Dekker and told him he had a great voice; Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has tweeted his love; and just this past February, the band's 2007 song "Your Rocky Spine" was utilized to score a dramatic scene on American Idol.
For Dekker, the attention is certainly appreciated, but he takes the power of his songs in stride. While discussing their fifth album, New Wild Everywhere, Dekker reveals that the most meaningful aspect of having his music embraced is less about big names and more about striking a human touch.
"When you can have a real conversation about the music and what it means to somebody, and a real connection to music that you believe in, that to me would be the importance of something like that," Dekker tells Exclaim! "It's nice for a little band like ours because, when you put your music out into the world, you never know where it's going to end up.
"And sometimes people really get it, y'know? And you never how it's going to affect somebody or how someone is going to read it. So it's nice when people that you respect or people that have achieved something great can say that they get something back from it."
When pressed for a highlight in terms of such an interaction, Dekker recalls an interview conducted by NBC News anchor Brian Williams, whose love of indie rock has come to light in recent years.
"He really connected with the song 'Everything Is Moving So Fast,' and he was just talking a little bit about what it kind of meant to him. I didn't really want to say, 'Wow, that's totally...' there's layers of meaning that he was getting from it that I hadn't even really considered. I had written it from a different vantage point, but... I mean, it was a really cool thing, you know, for him to interpret it that way."
Great Lake Swimmers are currently in the midst of a North American tour, and you can see all their upcoming dates here. New Wild Everywhere is out now via Nettwerk, and as previously reported, the band's soundtrack to the new e-book One in a Thousand just arrived last week.
For Dekker, the attention is certainly appreciated, but he takes the power of his songs in stride. While discussing their fifth album, New Wild Everywhere, Dekker reveals that the most meaningful aspect of having his music embraced is less about big names and more about striking a human touch.
"When you can have a real conversation about the music and what it means to somebody, and a real connection to music that you believe in, that to me would be the importance of something like that," Dekker tells Exclaim! "It's nice for a little band like ours because, when you put your music out into the world, you never know where it's going to end up.
"And sometimes people really get it, y'know? And you never how it's going to affect somebody or how someone is going to read it. So it's nice when people that you respect or people that have achieved something great can say that they get something back from it."
When pressed for a highlight in terms of such an interaction, Dekker recalls an interview conducted by NBC News anchor Brian Williams, whose love of indie rock has come to light in recent years.
"He really connected with the song 'Everything Is Moving So Fast,' and he was just talking a little bit about what it kind of meant to him. I didn't really want to say, 'Wow, that's totally...' there's layers of meaning that he was getting from it that I hadn't even really considered. I had written it from a different vantage point, but... I mean, it was a really cool thing, you know, for him to interpret it that way."
Great Lake Swimmers are currently in the midst of a North American tour, and you can see all their upcoming dates here. New Wild Everywhere is out now via Nettwerk, and as previously reported, the band's soundtrack to the new e-book One in a Thousand just arrived last week.
