If there's anything The Sheepdogs want to be known for, it's for making good and honest rock music. And they intend to do that again with their upcoming album, Future Nostalgia, which releases on October 2 via Dine Alone Records. Going back to their '70s rock roots, the Canadian quintet were adamant about making this record fully their own as they did with their first LP, Learn & Burn. Produced by guitarist and lead singer Ewan Currie with Matt Ross-Spang as the engineer on the project, The Sheepdogs built their studio in rural Canada to create the album. We chatted with bassist Ryan Gullen about the recording process, the album's inspiration and his views on the band's success so far.

Since you guys jumped back into the studio soon after touring for Future Nostalgia, did a lot of the songwriting happen on the road?

We definitely came up with ideas and demo-ing and stuff for a while and trying to do different things. But on weekends between shows last summer, we spent time working, rearranging and rehearsing the songs so that we could go [into the studio] ready. Then we can focus on the songs and how we can make them better and add different things to them. So it was one of those things where we made the songs tight so that when we went into the studio we could make them the best that they can be. We also tried to add to those songs instead of trying to get the takes right. We recorded a lot of it live, stand-alone vocals, a lot of us singing together around one microphone. We were pretty well-rehearsed so we could nail it and then we just spent our time vibing them out making the songs better.

Future Nostalgia is supposed to be a return to your more rootsy sound. What inspired this?

I don’t think it was a conscious thing. We’re not necessarily trying to push out a certain vibe, but it’s something that comes natural to us. We’ve been playing together for the past 11 years. And what brought us together as a band [has] kept us together. We love melodies and harmonies but also has the vibe of the '70s. That, to us, is the purest form of rock and roll that we’re into. So we did a record a few years ago called Learn & Burn where we recorded ourselves.  And yes, the fact that we had no money or studio; so we just figured out how to record it ourselves and how to do everything because we didn’t have any other options. It was a very successful record for us, especially in Canada, and what kind of broke us out and had people excited about our band.

So we wanted to kind of [recreate] that in a way where we set up a studio in a barn in rural Canada along a lake and lived together. We wanted to capture the essence of that last record that we really liked but also do it in a way that’s going to sound really good and we can actually afford to put more time and focus on it. And I guess that’s what came out of it—a more organic and natural sound and where we’re from. We didn’t have a lot of people interjecting because we were doing it ourselves except for an engineer who we brought in to make sure we sounded really good and made sure the room sounded good. So it wasn’t intentional but an organic thing that came out of living in a barn for three weeks and just recording all day and all night and trying to make as good as we possibly could.

What is "Downtown" about?

It’s kind of funny because it’s a song we’ve been working on for a while. It was actually the last song to be cut. We were recording it earlier, but we weren’t happy with it. So we continued to record other music then came back to that at the end of our three weeks of recording. Part of it was that we wanted to figure out how we wanted to present that song and how we wanted to record like trying to do a different setup. But then when we almost thought we weren’t making the record and that the song wasn’t working, we realized that we loved it and really liked how it turned out. At first we were trying to figure out if [the song] made sense because it has this nice melodic part. So we were trying to figure out if it worked together, but, in the end, we realized it was one of the best songs to put forward and get people excited about the new album coming out. It’s kind of great that the last song you record is the first one you put out.

It’s the song people know and is what we’ve been playing live now. When we’ve been trying to push new music live, this [song] is the one people have been identifying with really quickly. We’ve been playing it in our sets long before syncing tracks up for the record. People have been digging it so that’s good. It’s a nerve-racking thing to put music out there, especially if it’s something that you’ve been working on. The response has been really good, and people are now kind of aware of the direction of this new record.

As you mentioned, The Sheepdogs have been a band for a while. You got a lot of recognition from the first studio album then made history when by being the first unsigned band on Rolling Stone. What can you say about the band’s success since that moment?

As a band, I think the moment you start getting comfortable, people get to a point where you’re making mistakes. I mean the Rolling Stone [cover] was kind of a weird thing. Being in a contest meant that we’re eventually on the cover of a very iconic magazine, but it’s kind of a weird thing. And that didn’t necessarily meant that we were really successful, but it put us in the spotlight and position where people can find out about our band, which is a very hard thing to do. There’s so many bands and all sorts of music choices that are out there now with the internet. I think you always have to be on your toes and be out there. Because the moment we get lazy, people won’t pay attention to you.

I don’t think we necessarily feel like rock stars by any means, but we’re excited about the fact that we can do this full-time. For many, many years, we were working at full-time jobs, making records and then going on tour. And now we can do it all and take it very seriously. Because we’ve been a band for so long, we’re in a comfortable situation where we don’t have to let go of who we are. Before we did get any kind of break, we were really comfortable in who we are. So we didn’t have people telling us we had to be a certain way because we were a little bit more seasoned I guess. I think we are in a good place because the band is always evolving even though we probably won’t become an EDM band or something like that. But we’re definitely all about challenging ourselves to write better songs and become better musicians. In the end, we’re happy to be doing this and happy to be involved so we’re always trying to make ourselves better.