Rolling Stone Cover Winners: The Sheepdogs

In the past two years, the Canadian-bred band The Sheepdogs has gone from jamming in a basement in Saskatoon, to the cover of Rolling Stone. Now, armed with a record deal and world tours, these musical mavericks are on a mission to put the "feel good" back into Rock and Roll.

Originally two different bands, Sheeps and Dogs, Ewan Currie, Ryan Gullen, Sam Corbett and Leot Hanson combined forces to become Sheepdogs, with their hybrid music blending the best of both bands.

"Somewhere along the line, Rock and Roll lost sort of the sweet side; it became a little too angry and sad. I wish I could just say that we were Rock and Roll, but unfortunately it's too many factions [so] we just say it's sort of like 'feel good' Rock and Roll," says Currie.

Which explains why one of their biggest influences is The Beatles, although anything with solid vocal harmonies and "fun-to-party to" sounds is inspiring to the group, who just likes to have a good time.

The party really got started for the bearded bunch after they won Rolling Stone's "Choose The Cover" competition in 2011.

"They chose sixteen unsigned bands they thought...[were] some of the best, and of course, we ended up being the first unsigned band to be on the cover," says Gullen.

The cover boys are not unsigned anymore. Winning the competition scored the band a contract with Atlantic Records, and they started in the studio that summer.

"We recorded our self-titled album 'Sheepdogs' down in Nashville, so it's a Rock and Roll album. It's got a lot of different textures and colors and sort of different feels," says Currie.

The rockers have been on tour performing their new music alongside artists such as Kings of Leon and John Fogerty. But even as their popularity increases, along with the stamps on their passports, the band seems to remain big-haired, not big-headed.

"We're keeping open-minded, and we feel pretty tickled that we get to travel the world and see a lot of cool places," says Currie.