The Wheat Pool

The Wheat Pool is a Canadian dark country rock band formed in 2004 in Edmonton. For a band frequently described as ‘driving music’, collisions would be something to steer clear of. However, the formula for a new record seemed ironically hidden inside the collision of many opposing forces. Hauntario is the sophomore recording by this western Canadian indie-alt-country band, an evolved collection of songs brimming with the layered tensions of their lives, played out between albums. The record itself was named for two colliding concepts that continued to bubble to the surface. Robb Angus tells us “From the very beginning, the first songs possessed a haunting quality, dark subject matter and melodies that wouldn’t get out of our heads.” Guitarist Glen Erickson adds, “Ontario wouldn’t go away, as a lyric, as a destination, or as the home base in our industry. For a western band it remains a necessary evil, a difficult girlfriend to win over, yet on a different level it possessed so much of what we love about our country.” Both ideas worked, and the concept crystallized on a recent eastern tour, while the album was being mixed.