Econoline Crush

ECONOLINE CRUSH BIO

Canadian rock veterans Econoline Crush, helmed by inimitable frontman Trevor Hurst, are back in the studio recording their first full-length album in over a decade, and the forthcoming documentary, Flatlander, out in the fall, will explain just what the singer has been doing in between writing songs and performing live.

It’s a unique and admirable journey one wouldn’t expect from a man who has spent the majority of his life in the spotlight, touring with Alice Cooper, opening for KISS at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Toronto's Rogers Centre, and headlining his own tours — Trevor Hurst is now a registered psychiatric nurse.
“We've been playing shows all the time. Never stopped,” Trevor says. “I went to university to take psyche nursing, so we could only play during the summer. Then, for the last three years, I've been working as a home and community care nurse and mental coordinator at Canupawakpa, in southwest Manitoba. I drive an hour and 15 minutes each way to get there. I have an office and an exam room. I look after 36 elders. I go into their homes and I treat their wounds and make sure they take their meds and make sure they’re eating okay.”
The film — directed by Dave Mansell, a former nightclub owner – is about how Trevor reconciled his farmboy upbringing in Brandon, Manitoba, and desire to make a difference with this narcissistic pursuit of rock stardom but in a world where people who are outsiders connect.
Trevor is now the only original member of Econoline Crush, which formed in 1992 and signed with EMI Music Canada in 1994, releasing its debut EP, Purge, that year. The full-length Affliction came in 1996, followed by the platinum-selling The Devil You Know in 1997, and final album for the label in 2001 called Brand New History.

After a brief period in Hurst, a lighter project with ex Collective Soul guitarist Ross Childress, which yielded the 2005 EP, Wanderlust, on MapleMusic/Universal Music Canada, Trevor reformed Econoline Crush. They put out the album Ignite, in 2008, independently, then an EP in 2011 entitled The People Have Spoken, Vol. 1.
When Trevor first formed the band, he wanted to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, have world domination, and although Econoline Crush went platinum (then 100,000 sales) and will forever be named with other ironic Canadian rock bands of the ‘90s, like I Mother Earth, The Tea Party and Our Lady Peace, he now says his mental health issues — something not spoken about back then — held him back.
“The reason that I went into psychiatric nursing is to learn more about mental health. I think I'm a pretty high-functioning mentally ill individual so there’s decisions that were informed inaccurately by mental illness, my depression, and greatly impacted my chances of ever achieving my goals in music,” he admits.
“I think that music made my life and then the music industry almost took it. Now coming forward, l feel like we're in a really good spot to use this platform that we have to be of benefit to those that struggle with mental illness and also just to make entertaining music. I want to use the opportunity whenever I get a chance to speak to that and to the marginalized population.”
For the current incarnation of Econoline Crush, Trevor is joined by close-to-original member Ziggy Sigmund (1997-2002, 2010-present), bassist Troy Zak (ex of The Real Mackenzie, and currently a mental health provider); drummer Dayvid Swart (ex of the Todd Kerns Explosion). They have been in and out of the studio in Vancouver, Edmonton and Oregon (with Sylvia Massy), cutting such songs as the self-explanatory “Invincible and re-doing Hurst’s “Going Under” about depression.
“There's still the industrial sound,” says Trevor of the new material, “but it's drifted towards more classic elements of rock. I hate that word ‘classic’ rock, but we're just evolving into a more songwriter-ish direction. The songs are taking a lead role. It's not a giant shift, but people will notice it in the sound.”
Trevor, now a married father, is amazed and grateful that the band he started 27 years ago still has a dedicated audience and allows him to tour.
“I don't know how to write songs that don't connect with me. But as a performer, I realized what a great gift was bestowed upon us as a band and as individuals to have this ability to make music and to entertain. I don't take this for granted. That's why everybody in the band feels this is not an opportunity to waste. ‘Let's make a really great batch of music from here-on out.’”