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When talking about the best and brightest of Canadian indie music, Saskatoon rock outfit the Sheepdogs may not be at the top of your list. The band, who has been touring and recording for over five years, has quietly risen in popularity and recently caught the attention of Rolling Stone magazine’s “Do You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star?” contest, in which 16 artists were chosen from a pool of over 1,500 contestants for a March Madness-style competition.  

“They literally phoned me one day and said we’ve chosen you for this contest,” says bassist Ryan Gullen. “A lot of people don’t realize that we didn’t apply for this.”  

The Rolling Stone contest winner will be the first unsigned band to appear on the cover of the magazine, as well as the first cover artist chosen by the public. Following four rounds of Internet voting, the winners will be signed to Atlantic Records, and make their television debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Online voting for the first round of nominations ends March 2.  

“If we do move on [in this competition], the opportunity for us is great,” Gullen says. “It will definitely raise our profile in the U.S., and it’s daunting to try and break into the U.S. market.”  

In the wake of the huge success of Canadian bands in the U.S., particularly the recent awarding of the Album of the Year Grammy to Montreal’s Arcade Fire, the Sheepdogs are optimistic about their chances of winning over more fans to Canadian music. “There are so many successful bands [in Canada] that have no opportunity to go the States,” Gullen says. “It can be hard for Canadian music to break out of Canada.”  

Despite hopes of bringing their explosive live shows and 70s-style rock south of the border, the Sheepdogs have also faced their share of negative press. “Online, someone from Pittsburgh said, ‘How can a band from Saskatoon be any good?'” Gullen says. “And people commented back defending us and defending Canadian music, even people who weren’t Canadian themselves.”  

Despite commentary from some skeptics, the band has received positive publicity and approval from the public. “There’s a great music scene in Saskatoon,” Gullen says. “The scene there has helped us develop our live shows, and we’ve gotten a lot of support from people,” at festivals like South by Southwest, Canadian Music Week, and POP Montreal. The band has also received positive attention for their third independent release, 2010’s Learn and Burn, which reached number 21 on the national Earshot Top 200 list.

Touring with Canadian heavyweights the Sadies has also inspired the Sheepdogs to keep things interesting on the road. “[The Sadies] are definitely a band we model ourselves after,” Gullen says. “They’re a hardworking Canadian band that plays good live shows and doesn’t really play mainstream music.” The Sadies were forced to leave the road after guitarist Dallas Good broke his leg, but Gullen is confident that the tour will be successful when it resumes in June.

While the band waits for voters to decide whether they will move on to the next round of competition, they are continuing to tour, bringing their energetic live show on the road. “We want to be a really engaging band,” Gullen says. “We don’t want to put out good records but play mediocre shows.”  

The band is hoping to gain support from Canadians as they move up in the competition, and bring Canadian music to a new market. “We’re always fleshing things out, making it more interesting for us and the audience,” Gullen says. “We’re hoping that [for this contest], Canada will get behind us and support Canadian music.”

The Sheepdogs play   L’Escogriffe on March 6 at 9 p.m.