A new single has been released today from 2023 SCMA nominee Dan Cugnet.

"It's called '8 Seconds', so it's basically a rodeo song," shared Cugnet. "I had a lot of chats with Robert Schmidt, who's doing announcing all over Western Canada for rodeos. He's a local guy too."

"It's trying to capture those moments in the shoot and then what an 8-second ride encapsulates."

He said the plan is to release a full album sometime this summer, for which he's working on recording songs.

"It's been sort of constant, we just kind of keep new songs and slowly working away at them. Some of them take a lot longer than others to get done," he said. 

Cugnet has consistently been working with Saskatoon-based producer Bart McKay, recording some at home and some in the studio.

"Then a lot of it's done remotely to different artists, kind of all over North America, which is very neat," Cugnet said.

"He's an amazing producer and arranger, and I feel very fortunate to get to work with him, and then all of the studio musicians that he taps into because they're all just world-class."

He said he's planning a few more shows this summer, beginning with opening up for Brayden King this Friday night at the Weyburn Legion. Read more HERE.

"I'm super excited to play with my guys this summer too, with Morgan [Turk], Dion [Hryenwich], and Todd [Milleker]," he noted. "We're doing the All Folk'd Up Festival in Montmartre, which is July 5th. So we're just ahead of the Tilted Kilts and then Headpins and Streetheart, so that's pretty cool."

"Then July 22nd we'll be in Saskatoon playing Riversdale Street Fair, which is downtown Saskatoon, and maybe a few other little gigs. I don't want it to make it feel like a job too much, but we're having a lot of fun just starting to get out and play a bit more. "

Cugnet talked about his band.

"Todd has steadily played with a lot of different groups over the years, and Dion is kind of just coming back to it, so he's I think, really been enjoying it and played with Brayden a bit. Morgan teaches music, and he gigs with a lot of other people too, like Teagan Littlechief, and I think he's doing a couple of gigs with Donny Parenteau, and his wife is the fiddle player in Tilted Kilts, so I mean, they're very plugged in, playing a lot of different things. So yeah, very excited to be playing some shows with these guys this summer." 

Find Dan's new single, '8 Seconds' on Apple Music HERE or on Spotify HERE.