The Trews’ Colin MacDonald speaks to Rock 107

The Trews will hit 30 years as a band in the next few months.

They have toured around the world and have criss-crossed Canada more times than you can count.

Lead singer Colin MacDonald had a chance to talk with Rock 107, ahead of a sold-out show in Kingston on Thursday March 5, 2026.

We asked him about the big hits and whether or not he gets tired of songs.

MacDonald says the crowd plays a big part of the night.

“There’s some, I just call them workhorses, they just sound good no matter what.  Tired of Waiting, Not Ready To Go, Poor Ol’ Broken Hearted Me.  Those three just work no matter what.  You know as much as I can get tired of the old material, seeing the reaction it gets from the crowd always makes it new to me again.  It makes me feel really happy to know and see that people are connecting with it still and they’re having a great time singing along to it, that mean’s a lot. It really makes the song better for me.” 

There is a new single set to be released, entitled “Carolina.” HEAR THE SONG BELOW

We asked MacDonald about the song’s backstory.

“It’s written about a girl I know, who I happen to share a life with.  I love it.  It’s one of those songs you play and people feel they’ve been listenning to it for ten years already and that’s been really a great feeling.  It was a bit of a piecemeal song, I had about three or four different ideas, that I didn’t quite put together.  One of the great talents of Brett Emmons (The Glorious Sons) amongst many other talents that that young man possesses, he’s really able to consolidate ideas.  So I had these bits and pieces, like the verse and then the outro verse.  Then we had this chorus idea that we wanted to make really big, we couldn’t quite get it.  I think it started off with a line like “I’m okay, I’m okay,” which was like, I don’t know what we are going to do with that. So I was able to go into the studio with just Brett and Jay (Emmons) and I remember that night, it was just the three of us sitting around an empty studio (The Bathhouse) and we got the chorus for Carolina and the chorus for The Breakdown finished.  Brett looked at me and I said don’t want to write songs about pining or any of that stuff anymore, I just want to write about real, real love.  He said “what’s your girlfriend’s name?”  and I said Carolina.  He said, “Well that’s the name of the song then.”  And that was it.”   

Their Bloody Light Tour wraps up Thursday in Kingston.

Quinte News/Rock 107’s chat with MacDonald can be heard below

The Trews by the #’s

1. Single, ‘The Breakdown,’ went to #1 on Canadian Rock Radio.
2. New album, The Bloody Light, released on October 24, 2025.
3. 22 Top 10 singles on rock radio.
4. Two platinum/five gold certified albums.
5. More than 1,000 shows worldwide, both on their own and supporting legendary acts including The Rolling Stones, Guns n’ Roses, Robert Plant, KISS, Bruce Springsteen, Weezer and more.
6. Numerous JUNO Award nominations, including Rock Album of the Year for their 2018 album, Civilianaires.
7. 100 million global song streams and climbing