After over five years of patient anticipation, Saskatoon music listeners will be treated to the Fjords‘ sophomore record, aptly titled Get it Right.

“Sounds better than Get it Close Enough, right?” asked Luke Ryalls, the singer-songwriter of the Fjords.

“Really, the name doesn’t refer to the record. The irony is just by accident. The title track is about bad relationships.”

Still, Get it Right has gone through numerous mutations and accidental destructions since the band began recording and mixing it over two and a half years ago. Like a biblical exile, the Fjords have traversed deserts of technical difficulties before finally bringing it all back home.

“The computer we recorded the thing on became less and less reliable over the years,” lamented Ryalls. “The title track eventually became corrupted and files went missing. Rumor has it that a few weeks after we finished the album the computer stopped booting up at all.”

With the years passing and the band aging, the sound of the Fjords has changed. The new record has a darker aesthetic than it probably had on earlier versions — taking it further away from the sunny power-pop of their first release.

“We hoped it would sound bigger and more put together than the last one, and hopefully it does,” said Ryalls. “We really changed as a band over the course of the record, and kept writing and recording new songs that would bump older ones, so the end result is a real mish-mash — like Chinese Democracy.”

The Fjords are known for a focus on songwriting and tight musicianship. Ryalls can tear up a guitar solo like few others, and comparisons to Bruce Springsteen are not wholly undeserved.

On the other hand, drummer Jeff Pederson has become infamous for heckling in the local scene (and, in fact, even heckled me during this interview, mocking my band and then using profanities). Accordingly, a cult of Pederson mocking has sprung up at Fjords shows. Don’t feel bad about barking out whatever obscenity comes to you during a Fjords show — just make sure you end it with a resounding, “Pederson!” Think of it as primal scream therapy, but directed at somebody.

Explaining why he is both a drummer in a band and a goaltender for a hockey team, Pederson said, “I think it suits my personality; there are so few goalies and so few drummers in Saskatoon that I can still be a jerk and not get cut or replaced.”

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photo: Tina Sparrow