Many musicians might tell you the same thing: being in a band is just like a marriage. For Vancouver indie-rockers Dear Rouge, that’s literally the case.
Danielle and Drew McTaggart have been married now for over seven years, and have been performing together as the two members of Dear Rouge since 2012. Danielle is the lead vocalist and Drew plays guitar. The duo’s name is a play on Red Deer, Alta., Danielle’s home town.
On Oct. 12, Dear Rouge played a packed show at the Bronson Centre with opening acts Modern Space and Ellevator. The Friday night headlining show was their third in Ottawa this year. They opened for Canadian pop star Lights at Algonquin Commons Theatre in April and closed off Ottawa Bluesfest in July with headliners Three Days Grace and Rise Against.
Danielle says that their relationship makes them a great music-making duo.
“We know each other super well . . . we are a good team, so it’s easy to figure things out,” she said.
As performing artists, the McTaggarts have experienced a lot of success in brief years they’ve been around. They’ve toured across Canada multiple times, they won the 2016 Juno Award for Breakout Group of the Year, they’ve earned regular radio play on Canadian alternative and rock stations and they’ve released multiple EPs and albums.
This year, the duo spent a lot of time on the road. One of the defining points of 2018 was the release of their new record, PHASES. Danielle said that this year, the group has done more to take greater creative control of their packaging and messaging.
“We’ve just taken on a lot of stuff ourselves, like every piece of art that we’ve been releasing, every poster, videos and all of that stuff,” she said.
Having more creative control hasn’t been all easy. Over the years, Danielle describes how she and Drew had their challenges due to a number of creative barriers.
“We’ve sort of been frustrated with not being able to actually see through what we want to do, just because of barriers or not finding the people to work with. We’ve had a really challenging year, but it’s been a really beautiful year,” she said.
Audience interaction is also very important for Dear Rouge. As lead singer, Danielle often jumps down from the stage and gets close to the crowd, sometimes even jumping right into the pit. Danielle said that she doesn’t like the a disconnect between the stage and crowd, so she likes to make as many people feel included in the performance.
“I think it’s very important—no matter how big the crowd is—to make it feel small, because they’re all individual people, so I just try connect with people individually when I do that kind of stuff,” she said.
Dear Rouge takes the value of connecting with as many people possible with them when the show is over and when they’re on the road.
“We definitely take the time to try to meet everybody that comes out, and make it more about the community around music rather than ‘we’re like a big deal’ and everyone is just coming to our shows,” Danielle said.
By the end of the PHASES Tour, Dear Rouge will have performed in every province in Canada, plus a few American cities. Whether it’s a sold-out show in a big city, or only handful of people at a small town bar, Danielle said that reaching all these audiences is important to the group and that every show counts.
“We still want to go out and do those because we want to meet people and make sure that we’re reaching all the corners, to show that music’s not all about being famous–that the success is about the community of it, and that’s what we love,” she said.
After the tour wraps up around mid-November, Danielle expects to take a little break, then get back to writing.
“That’s what we’ll be doing for the next little while: just writing a lot and taking opportunities as they come,” Danielle said.
Photo by Jeff Pelletier
