Now approaching a quarter-century in existence, Skydiggers are a band that needs little introduction.

The groups 1989 self-titled debut and the still-devastating single A Penny More from their 1992 follow-up Restless long ago earned the bands roots-folk sound a deserved spot in the CanRock canon.

Northern Shore, released last month on the Latent Recordings label, is their eighth studio release and marks the beginning of a new chapter for the group. Its their first recording since 2009s The Truth About Us, a best-of retrospective that doubled as a 20th anniversary celebration of their career. As singer Andy Maize explained on the eve of setting out on the bands latest tour, combing the archives for The Truth About Us allowed the group, whose lineup includes fellow founding members Josh Finlayson (guitar) and Ron Macey (bass), a chance to consider their journey to date.

We went through a lot of old material choosing the songs for that retrospective and that just got us thinking about some of the things that we had done in the past and got us thinking about some of the older songs as well. So I think that part of the new recording was informed by the retrospective, he said.

The collection came about after several years of prodding by music industry executive Kim Cooke, who signed the group to Warner Music Canada in 1994 where they released their third record, Road Radio. Though Skydiggers fans may have initially feared the anthology was intended as a swan song, Maize said the groups future was never in doubt.

We thought that 20 years was worth celebrating and Kim had a big role in putting together the retrospective, but it was never meant to be a farewell or a parting shot. For us, it was rewarding because we got to reflect over what wed done and that definitely helped us to move forward, he said.

For Northern Shore, the band enlisted producer Saam Hashemi, who guided them through an unorthodox recording process that Maize said had the band putting songs to tape in whatever way made sense. That included working up tracks from simple guitar and vocal takes in Finlaysons basement to separate sessions at Blue Rodeos Woodshed recording space and live-off-the-floor recordings made at the Tragically Hips Bathouse studio near Kingston, Ont.

Saams abilities gave us the flexibility to record in different ways, Maize said.

The album is also available in a four-disc deluxe edition that will delight longtime fans, with highlights including the bands original 1988 demo (recorded at Grant Avenue studio in Hamilton) and mid-90s sessions recorded at Chemical Sound in Toronto that were the last to feature founding member Peter Cash until now.

Weve been doing more work with Peter recently, said Maize. We recorded some of his material for Northern Shore, he sings on some of the songs on Northern Shore, so it just seemed like a good way of reconnecting with some of that older material, which we still play live.

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Skydiggers celebrate their longevity