IN CONCERT
What: Default with The Vidos
Where: Distrikt, 919 Douglas St.
When: Saturday, 7 p.m. (doors at 6:30)
Tickets: $36.50 at Lyle’s Place, 770 Yates St., Strathcona Hotel and Eventbrite.ca
Vancouver rockers Default have not played a show together since splitting in 2013, and while their breakup was not attributed to differences among members, fans of the band were under the assumption a reunion tour wasn’t in the cards. The band reinforced that opinion in subsequent interviews.
That changed in early September, when the group was announced as the opening act for a cross-Canada tour by Stone Temple Pilots and Seether. The idea of the tour made sense, considering Default rose to the top of the charts in the early 2000s, when both Stone Temple Pilots and Seether were rock-radio juggernauts. But it was the idea of a tour with two bands he respects and enjoys that eventually brought Default singer Dallas Smith around. He had been on the fence about a reunion over the years, and only wanted to come back if Default found a project that made sense.
“From the very beginning, I said: ‘If I never get to sing those songs with those guys again, it will be a real shame.’ I just didn’t know if it would happen, when it would happen and under what circumstances. I didn’t rule it out, but I thought it was kind of doubtful.”
Victoria is the first stop on the reunion tour, and the show at Distrikt will have the parents of many of the members in attendance. Everyone associated with the group is treating the tour, which wraps Nov. 19 in Halifax, like it will be the band’s last — even Smith doesn’t know what will come of the group.
The singer, who embarked on a hugely successful career as a country artist following Default’s split, is not ruling out further gigs with his former high school classmates, even though he has committed to a new solo record in 2019.
“If there’s interest, and it makes sense to do, I can’t see us saying no to it,” Smith said. “I don’t think these will be the last shows that we do, but as far as another tour goes … who knows? We’re treating it like the last hurrah. If something happens later on, so be it. We’re going to enjoy it.”
Smith and his bandmates — guitarist Jeremy Hora, bassist Dave Benedict and drummer Danny Craig — didn’t have much time to enjoy the experience the first time around. Everything happened at a rapid clip after the band won the Vancouver Seeds band competition in 2000, including songwriting and recording sessions with Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger (after Kroeger produced the band’s early demos, Default became the first Canadian band to sign with U.S. label TVT Records).
A Juno Award win for best new group in 2002, brought about by the hits Wasting My Time and Deny, helped the band sell one million copies of its 2001 debut, The Fallout, in the U.S. alone.
Smith said band members had little time to enjoys the spoils. Despite its success, Default wound up owing $350,000 in taxes due to oversights by its previous business manager. Re-cut, an album of newly recorded Default classics, arrived Oct. 12 to give fans another way to experience Default 2.0.
“Looking back at some of the old stuff, we always wished we could have gone back and re-recorded it. I was really green in the studio — when we cut Wasting My Time, it was only my second time in the studio,” said Smith, who was just 24 when Default broke big. “Listening back to it on the radio, I always changed the channel, because I hated the way my voice sounded.”
Smith, who has charted 18 songs as a country artist, making him one of the most successful acts of his kind in Canadian history, sounds smashing on the new Default recordings. He had the most to risk of any member, considering his solo success — Lifted, his second album as a country artist, won the Juno Award for best country album in 2015.
Smith need not have worried about how a return to rock would affect his country music career. Several country music stations that regularly play Smith singles are now playing Default songs.
“It had to be a great look for the band, but it also had to not affect what I’ve been working on over the last eight years. The timing had to be right, and everybody had to be on board. A lot of things had to align, and I’m really happy now that they did.”
The new recordings will put the band in a better financial position, Smith said. “We weren’t getting compensated for the masters on the old contract. So this is a bit of a middle finger to whomever owns the rights to the originals, and since we re-cut them, we now own these versions ourselves. Because we’re on a tour, it gave us the platform to do this, instead of just being out of the blue. It’s part of a whole narrative.”