A grand reunion tour from Two Hours Traffic would have surely been welcomed by fans. The East Coast pop rock staples broke up in 2013, following a successful run that included a Polaris Music Prize nomination, the indie hits "Stuck for the Summer" and "Jezebel," and an appearance on the Exclaim! cover.
But rather than reunite with pomp and ceremony, the Charlottetown band have quietly returned for a trickle of shows over the past few years. Their first reunion gig took place in 2018, and they've continued with small-scale engagements ever since.
During shows this summer, the group have begun working some new material into the setlist, making it clear that these aren't so much reunion shows as a whole new era for the band.
Exclaim! caught up with singer-guitarist Liam Corcoran, who clarified that, even though they haven't recorded anything in a studio just yet, they do indeed have new songs ready to go. He also shed light on the exit of former guitarist Alec O'Hanley (who now plays in Alvvays), what the band members have been up to over the past nine years, and the possibility of larger-scale touring.
What have the members of Two Hours Traffic been up to since 2013, and what brought you back together?
A lot has happened since then. I trained as a teacher and now I work at Holland College in Charlottetown. I have three solo releases out. Both Andy [MacDonald] and Derek [Ellis] earned master's degrees in Environmental Science; Andy works at the climate lab at UPEI, and Derek works in the Department of Environment with the Province of PEI. Andy and Derek are in the band Golden Cinema together, and they recently released a collection of the songs they've recorded over the past 5 years.
Alec is no longer involved with THT — he's obviously very busy with Alvvays. Our friend Nick Doneff has taken over the lead guitar duties. He has some great solo records out and is one of the top hired-gun musicians on PEI.
We got a pretty good offer to come out of retirement for a show in 2018 and we've played sporadically since then.
What's it been like playing together again?
It's been a blast. A lot of the songs hold up pretty well, and it's been fun relearning songs from across the entire catalogue, including some very old ones.
What are your future plans for playing live?
We're taking things slowly — no firm plans for anything, but we think it would be fun to do a Toronto-to-PEI run of shows at some point. That will probably only happen if we release some new music.
Will you be releasing new music?
We have two new songs that are ready to play live, and we'll be unveiling those at a concert in PEI this summer. We've started workshopping maybe three others on top of that.
What's the new material sounding like?
The new material is not a major departure from our typical sound. Of the two new songs we've completed, one sounds like it could fit on our last album — Foolish Blood from 2013 — and the other one sounds more like the early days of the band. I do think we've all become better musicians since our touring days, oddly enough.
But rather than reunite with pomp and ceremony, the Charlottetown band have quietly returned for a trickle of shows over the past few years. Their first reunion gig took place in 2018, and they've continued with small-scale engagements ever since.
During shows this summer, the group have begun working some new material into the setlist, making it clear that these aren't so much reunion shows as a whole new era for the band.
Exclaim! caught up with singer-guitarist Liam Corcoran, who clarified that, even though they haven't recorded anything in a studio just yet, they do indeed have new songs ready to go. He also shed light on the exit of former guitarist Alec O'Hanley (who now plays in Alvvays), what the band members have been up to over the past nine years, and the possibility of larger-scale touring.
What have the members of Two Hours Traffic been up to since 2013, and what brought you back together?
A lot has happened since then. I trained as a teacher and now I work at Holland College in Charlottetown. I have three solo releases out. Both Andy [MacDonald] and Derek [Ellis] earned master's degrees in Environmental Science; Andy works at the climate lab at UPEI, and Derek works in the Department of Environment with the Province of PEI. Andy and Derek are in the band Golden Cinema together, and they recently released a collection of the songs they've recorded over the past 5 years.
Alec is no longer involved with THT — he's obviously very busy with Alvvays. Our friend Nick Doneff has taken over the lead guitar duties. He has some great solo records out and is one of the top hired-gun musicians on PEI.
We got a pretty good offer to come out of retirement for a show in 2018 and we've played sporadically since then.
What's it been like playing together again?
It's been a blast. A lot of the songs hold up pretty well, and it's been fun relearning songs from across the entire catalogue, including some very old ones.
What are your future plans for playing live?
We're taking things slowly — no firm plans for anything, but we think it would be fun to do a Toronto-to-PEI run of shows at some point. That will probably only happen if we release some new music.
Will you be releasing new music?
We have two new songs that are ready to play live, and we'll be unveiling those at a concert in PEI this summer. We've started workshopping maybe three others on top of that.
What's the new material sounding like?
The new material is not a major departure from our typical sound. Of the two new songs we've completed, one sounds like it could fit on our last album — Foolish Blood from 2013 — and the other one sounds more like the early days of the band. I do think we've all become better musicians since our touring days, oddly enough.