If you’ve ever read a review of Toronto five-piece The Wilderness of Manitoba, chances are it included some sort of mention of just how amazing all the voices in this band blend together.
Frontman Will Whitwham credits that to the music the band members listened to when they were growing up.

“We were all raised listening to Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Crosbie Stills & Nash, and Simon & Garfunkel,” he says. “I think just sort of lionizing singers like that and trying to emulate that ourselves. We just do what sounds right to us and run over parts over and over until they sound right.”

And, in going over those parts again and again, the members of The Wilderness of Manitoba have found a unique way of harmonizing their voices.

“A lot of the time, they’ll actually swim into each other so you’ll get this weird sound happening where they kind of weave in and out and I think that’s why it blends so well,” Whitwham explains. “You’re trading registers and going into someone else’s part while they’re going into yours.”

It’s a strategy that has worked well for the band, who is currently on a tour that will take them through the rest of the summer, right through the fall and into the winter months.

After that, the band plans on recording a new album that will be just as homegrown and down-to-earth as their previous two offerings. That’s because they plan on recording it in their basement.

“We’ll probably approach a producer for this record for at least some of it,” Whitwham says.

“Then, just like our last two records, we’re going to do our own thing in the basement for a while. Just get into all those little details and basically nerd out for a while. That’s kind of what we like to do when it comes to recording.”

For now, Whitwham says the band is just happy that folk music seems to be slowly creeping into the mainstream, although they’re a bit surprised it’s taken so long.

“It feels like, to us, folk never left,” he explains. “I know a lot of people, even academics who have been writing about this folk revival happening for years now. That’s great but to us it’s like, ‘Well it’s about time.’”