But the Little Girls Understand
Canadian Idol idol knows he has to prove his musical worth after getting a head start
John Kendle

I have to admit I was a little bemused. I’d never heard of this band Hedley. So when Dominic Lloyd, artistic director at the West End, sent an e-mail announcing the group’s Oct. 5 show had sold out a couple of weeks back, I was scratching my head.

A couple of days later, another e-mail arrived. The band had added a second show on Oct. 6. A day later, a third gig was announced.

That week I caught a bit of Canadian Idol (a show I’ve never seen) while flipping channels. A kid in a Hedley shirt was singing, so I stopped to watch. He wasn’t bad, but it didn’t seem that he was actually in the competition.

A few days later Hedley’s self-titled debut album arrived in the mail and a mystery was solved. The kid on TV was Jacob Hoggard, Hedley’s frontman, who says he entered the TV talent show in 2004 on “a drunken dare.” He finished in the Top 3 in that season’s run — and made a name for himself and his band along the way.

So much so that Hedley — a group he was actually in when he entered the Idol competition — is now touring the country, playing sold-out shows and adding dates where it can. The album has gone gold — 50,000 copies sold — in just two weeks since its release.

But Hoggard desperately wants the world to know that, while success and numbers and being able to play music is great, he knows he’s a target in the eyes of the discerning — and sometimes disdainful — world of the Canadian music scene. A lot of people can’t wait for Hedley to become the next Sugar Jones or Ryan Malcolm, punchlines to so many lame ‘Where are they now?’ jokes.

“There’s a stigma attached to me, sure,” Hoggard says from his band’s van. “I come from the same premise as a lot of other people who are in bands, but I got my start much quicker than they did. I know that, and I see the people who stand there with their arms folded. I can’t kid myself about the built-in fan-base that comes with the TV show. But that’s just made me more determined. We have a lot to prove.”

By all accounts, though, Hoggard, 22, and his bandmates — bassist Tommy Mac, guitarist Dave Rosin and drummer Chris Crippin — are doing their best to raise the roof at the places they play. Their shows are described as sweaty and intense and many fans remark online that the group seems quite approachable, too.

“It’s been crazy, dude,” he says of the recognition factor TV has brought him. “But what we’ve done is make (the fans) a first priority. We’ve set up a huge forum and there are thousands of fans in there.”

So what’s the music like?

Well, it’s unabashedly commercial modern rock, with a bit of a punk/pop twist thrown in. Producer Gggarth Richardson (Red Hot Chili Peppers) helmed five of the 11 tracks on the band’s album. Modern rock radio has responded enthusiastically, and two Hedley songs — Villain and On My Own — are currently in the Top 20 in Canada.

The U.S. is next on the agenda.

“That is where my goal lies right now,” Hoggard says. “I hope we are going to crush down there. I can guarantee that America hasn’t been watching Canadian Idol, so if we can break down there…”

Hoggard doesn’t even need to say the rest.