Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, the Juno Award-winning indie rock outfit Said the Whale crafts songs built around winding melodic lines and offbeat yet wistful observations shaped by the region’s frequent gray skies. The group, fronted by songwriters and vocalists Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft, first surfaced in 2007 through a pair of favorably received EPs that showcased a distinctive folk-pop approach reminiscent of peers such as Arkells and Wintersleep. Electronics entered the mix on the 2017 release As Long as Your Eyes Are Wide, after which the band reverted to a predominantly guitar-driven palette for both Cascadia in 2019 and Dandelion in 2021.
Worcester and Bancroft established Said the Whale in 2007 following stints in earlier projects including My Buddy Dave, the Millionaires, and WordsOverMusic. The lineup soon grew to five members with the addition of bassist Jeff LaForge, drummer Spencer Schoening, and keyboardist Jaycelyn Brown. Once the roster stabilized, the ensemble focused on EP material, issuing two of those recordings as free downloads. Their debut full-length, Taking Abalonia, appeared in 2007; a Canadian reissue the following year added bonus tracks under the title Howe Sounds/Taking Abalonia. The well-regarded Islands Disappear followed in 2009, and in 2011 the band earned the Juno Award for New Group of the Year. After bassist Nathan Shaw replaced Jeff LaForge, the third studio album Little Mountain arrived in 2012, achieving solid placement on the Canadian albums chart thanks to the singles “Heavy Ceiling” and “Loveless.” Hawaii, released in 2013, also charted successfully, reaching the Top 20. Reduced to the core trio of Worcester, Bancroft, and Brown, the group delivered its fifth album, As Long as Your Eyes Are Wide, in spring 2017; produced by Cayne McKenzie of Vancouver’s We Are the City, the record shifted away from acoustic textures toward a more electronic sound. Cascadia, issued in 2019 on Arts & Crafts, signaled a return to the warm, acoustic-driven indie folk style of the band’s earliest work. Early 2021 brought the singles “Honey Lungs” and “Sweetheart,” setting the stage for the seventh album Dandelion, which surfaced that October.
