The Sheepdogs know when to trust their instincts. The Saskatoon band met Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney at a show in New York last summer, and knew right away he was the man to produce their new album. “We met Pat backstage and we were just chatting with him,” recalls frontman Ewan Currie. “And he was genuinely interested in what we were going to do for our next album. And because we sort of sensed this interest from him, we just said, ‘Why don’t you produce this?’

“Obviously we love the kind of rock music he makes and the kind of music that he’s into. But he’s also a guy who’s also been at every stage of a successful rock career. They’ve been the struggling indie band, and they’ve been the band that’s had a long steady climb before the crazy ascent into whatever you want to call them now — the kings of the rock ’n’ roll world, I guess. He’s seen a lot from every level of the music industry. He’s an insightful guy.”

The group’s self-titled fourth album follows their winning last year’s Rolling Stone Choose the Cover contest. The band and Carney recorded in Nashville over two weeks in January.