What: Hedley with Carly Rae Jepsen and Francesco Yates
When: Tonight, 7 p.m. (doors at 6)
Where: Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, 1925 Blanshard St.
Tickets: $35-$75 at selectyourtickets.com, by phone 250-220-7777, or in person at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre box office
The storyline for the national tour featuring Hedley and Carly Rae Jepsen practically writes itself.
Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard, 31, grew up in Abbotsford. Jepsen, 30, was raised in nearby Mission, just 24 kilometres away. The two didn’t know each other growing up, but shared a similar path during their early years as artists: Hoggard rose to fame on the 2004 edition of Canadian Idol, where he finished in third place; Jepsen, who appeared on the 2007 edition of the contest, also placed third.
And while Jepsen is popular in the U.S., having scored the biggest hit of 2012 with Call Me Maybe, Hedley is equally massive at home in Canada, where the band has earned 30 Juno Award nominations since 2006. The roots connecting the two acts grow deeper from there, including the role played by Ryan Stewart, the former vocal producer of Jepsen, who co-wrote five tracks on Hedley’s 2015 album Hello.
But in the end, all that matters to fans is the music — plenty of which will be on display tonight when the Hello World Tour stops at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The tour (which also features opening act Francesco Yates) comes to a close Friday with a performance at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, just steps from where some of the band members are proud to say they live.
“We have a bit of a family on the West Coast, and it’s a much smaller community than Toronto or Los Angeles,” Hoggard said during an interview with the Times Colonist. “But it’s something that we all really care about. We’re always so happy to stick up for each other. There’s just something really special about being from this part of the world.”
Hedley, which is headlining the trek, is the big draw on the marquee, but Jepsen, who is touring to support her new album, Emotion, is no less excited to get back in front of Canadian audiences. “We haven’t been back to Canada in quite some time,” Jepsen said recently during an interview with the Vancouver Sun.
“Just the way we’ve pushed this album, it was always bugging me that we didn’t have it on the books of when we were going to get here. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. It would have taken a lot longer to get something else going on our own. It’s a wonderful way to get to see everybody, and do it quite thoroughly.”
Jepsen is splitting her time between Los Angeles and Vancouver these days, so the tour will give her a chance to spend time with her family in Mission. It will also give her an opportunity to catch up with friends in another former home, Victoria.
Jepsen spent the 2004-2005 school year at Victoria’s Canadian College of Performing Arts, where she learned valuable singing, dancing and acting skills that would later help her in a Broadway version of Cinderella and TV production of Grease. “I spent the year [in Victoria] training non-stop,” Jepsen said during an interview with the Times Colonist shortly after Call Me Maybe was released. “You couldn’t keep me away from it. I loved it.”
Hoggard and his bandmates in Hedley, guitarist Dave Rosin, bassist Tommy Mac and drummer Chris Crippin, are equally committed, particularly in concert. Despite the stateside popularity of Jepsen — Emotion was named last year to year-end lists for Rolling Stone, Time, The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly — Hedley is the name selling the majority of tickets on their current arena tour, and drawing better reviews.
Hoggard had the audience “eating from the palm of his hand” during the May 13 tour stop, according to a Calgary Sun review. Similarly glowing reports were filed during practically every other stop on the tour. The band has earned its keep on stage for a decade, learning what worked — and, more importantly, what didn’t — as it progressed from small rooms in Victoria to its current standing as an arena act.
“The band puts a lot of time into our tours,” Hoggard said. “It’s an exciting, very fulfilling part of the process. The live show, for us, is that final dimension. We eat, sleep and dream it. It becomes you, and you become it, in a way. I know that seems a little lofty, but at the same time, it represents how much more committed I am now than I’ve ever been.”
The group has hits by the handful, too. Hedley fans have grown up with the band, a relationship that pushed Hello into a No. 1 debut on the Canadian sales charts last year.
The band makes an effort to repay that level of support in the way it interacts with fans, Hoggard said. “I’m proud that we’ve grown into this place. I’m proud that we almost killed ourselves in a van for years and years. Bar after bar, club after club, here we are.”