Two Hours Traffic Return, Talk Miracle Fortress, Canada Day Plans & More

Two decades after releasing their full-length self-titled debut, Prince Edward Island pop rock quartet Two Hours Traffic are back with the I Never See You Anymore EP. The group featuring singer/guitarist Liam Corcoran, bassist Andrew MacDonald, drummer Derek Ellis and guitarist (and new member) Nick Donneff, were Polaris Short-Listed in 2008 for Little Jabs. But after their fourth album, 2013’s Foolish Blood, the quartet called it a day. Polaris spoke to Corcoran about the band’s reunion, the new release, Polaris memories, and what lies ahead for Two Hours Traffic.

Why was now the right time for the band to get back together and release I Never See You Anymore?
Liam Corcoran: It’s been six years since we quietly reformed. We did a gig way back. We were asked if we wanted to do this gig in Charlottetown; it was a special event. And we did it, and we really enjoyed ourselves. So we were just taking a couple of gigs a year. It got to the point about three years ago where we thought, “If we’re going to keep doing this, we’d really like to do what we enjoyed most, which is writing songs and creating the arrangements.”

What’s one thing that you’re working on now that excites you?
Now we’re working on material that will hopefully be a full-length album for us. That’s a goal that we have now that we have the EP done is to make a full album. I’m trying to present the material to the band that’s different. I think we need to push ourselves a little bit further past what we did on the EP. So I’m excited to start workshopping some of these new song fragments that I’ve been working on the last six months or so.

Looking back, what impact did the Polaris nomination have on either you or your band’s music?
I think it’s had a huge impact. It brought us to a larger audience just to be able to say that we got Short-Listed, and it put us in the company of some amazing artists that we really respect. It became kind of the marquee item on our bio, I would say. It makes people take notice and think of you as legitimate artists if you get recognized in that way. It’s been a huge impact.

What’s your favorite Polaris memory?
I think about the [2008] Gala event. We were quite young, and it was overwhelming for us to be there. But to share the stage and sit at these tables amongst these people. We were treated as peers among these amazing Canadian artists. It was just a moment where we felt like we got to a new level, and the Gala was a celebration of that. I have fond memories of playing that night.

What’s your favorite Polaris-nominated album that’s not your own?
I’m going to say Five Roses by Miracle Fortress. It was on the Short List in 2007. That’s a project, and that album in particular, we listened to incessantly in our van when we were touring around back in the day. Really liked all of the work that he (Graham Van Pelt) has done. So that was a little more under the radar than some of the big names you see on those lists. That album was one that was very special to us.

Why do you think celebrating exceptional and artful Canadian music matters?
I think it matters because the larger industry is not always set up in a way that artistry can be celebrated in a big way. Sometimes it is, but sometimes it is not the thing that’s going to be as marketable or make anyone a million dollars. So I think it’s important for acts that are really just trying to create the best art possible. To have an award that explicitly takes out the clicks, followers, or sales. I think it just gives a lot of encouragement to those artists who might not be getting a lot of other accolades.

What are the plans for the rest of the year?
We’ve got four nights in Ontario. We’re doing the big Canada Day show in our hometown in Charlottetown July 1 and the Joel Plaskett Emergency is also on that show. We’re doing some other one-offs around the Maritimes throughout the summer. And we’re hoping to do a big celebration of the EP on PEI in the fall. We decided to hold off and just focus on Ontario for now. So just do another string of shows here and there to celebrate the EP and soon enough I expect we’ll be workshopping some new tunes for the future.