Scavenger hunt gives sneak peek of upcoming Royal Canoe album

Royal Canoe is hopeful fans will dig their new album, literally.

The Winnipeg-based electro-pop sextet has buried a copy of their latest, yet-to-be released recording somewhere in the city and are inviting fans on a scavenger hunt to find the, ahem, underground album.

"We want people to be excited about the upcoming record because we're so pumped about it," Royal Canoe singer, guitarist and keyboardist Matt Peters said of the idea.

"This is just another way that we can do something special for the people here who appreciate us so much in Winnipeg."

Fans who want to to take part in the scavenger hunt, which kicks off Saturday morning, will need to download a special app and sign up in teams at the band's website.

Hunters will receive eight clues to help them find the album, which is on a cassette tape that's been buried in a boom box, through the app once it goes live.

"The first bit of the clue pretty much tells you where to go and the second bit of the clue, there's going to be something there that you have to solve that will give you a code," said keyboardist Matt Schellenberg.

"That code, when you enter it, if it's correct, will get you through to the next clue and so on and so on until you eventually get a shovel with GPS co-ordinates written on it."

The album isn't scheduled to be released officially until next year.

The first 200 fans who sign up for the hunt will also get the chance to buy tickets to an exclusive listening party for the new record being held on the Winnipeg Art Gallery rooftop later this month.

It's not the first time Royal Canoe has taken a unique approach to releasing an album.

The band launched their 2016 album, Something got Lost Between Here and the Orbit, by hand-delivering it by bicycle to fans who held listening parties at their homes throughout Winnipeg.

"On this album we wanted to do something else to show everyone here that we appreciate them and Winnipeg is our home," said Peters.

"I hope that people just get out there and they see the city in a new way."

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