"We're not going to be kicking back, drinking margaritas on the beach, seeing all the money roll in any time soon," said Matt Cully, guitarist and vocalist of acclaimed Canadian folk group, Bruce Peninsula. Named after the Western Ontario land mass (but residing in Toronto, Ontario), the anomalous group of no less than five members rolled in to London on Friday, September 24 to perform at the Alex P. Keaton.

It was one of the band's first return visits since the success of their 2009 debut album, A Mountain Is A Mouth. It was longlisted for the Polaris Prize that same year and won the praise of dozens of critics. But as Cully will tell you, commendation doesn't guarantee a living.

"Even bands that … are much bigger than us that I know, they're still struggling to figure out how to structure their life around being a musician and a person who has relationships," he said over the phone from his Toronto home. "[But] it's one of those things you accept because you are obviously doing it for other reasons as well. It's something that is always a concern, and it's a concern for most people, not even just musicians."

And while Bruce Peninsula have found an audience amongst more devoted indie-folk fans and critics, their unique style of gospel-infused progressive rock has left some scratching their heads.

The influences came during the writing process of A Mountain Is A Mouth, when the band "digested a lot of earlier recordings," said Cully. "Folk and blues and … church music, both from African- American tradition and the white sort of hymnal tradition. So, the singing style … came out of those initial recordings where we would have quite a few people singing together attempting to blend all our disparate styles of voices together ... this sort of loud, full-throated, exuberant style of singing."

The end result is like no other kind of music, a quasi-anthropological collection of songs, with melodies that could have been lifted from old African spirituals, and a healthy dose of call-andresponse, especially on the song Crabapples, which showcases the group's diversity, utilizing only percussion and vocals. Written by Bruce Peninsula's five core members, A Mouth Is A Mountain was also recorded (and is performed) with the help from a six-piece choir section made up of friends and musical collaborators. The members come and go with a revolving door policy, one that became part of a Toronto tradition made famous by indie-rock supergroup Broken Social Scene.

"In Toronto ... bands don't just come out and then shoot to number one on the charts [so] everyone who is a musician, although they are probably working on their own project, they have time and want to participate in other forms of music making. When an opportunity comes up for collaboration, most people are excited at the idea, rather than protective of their ideas or the image of their band or what's mine and what's yours."

Casey Mecija of Ohbijou and Katie Stelmanis (who also appeared on Fucked Up's 2009 Polaris Prize winner, The Chemistry Of Common Life) are frequent contributors to Bruce Peninsula, and will likely be featured on their forthcoming album, currently slated for a spring 2011 release. Anticipation is already building.

"It's almost done. It's in the mixing stage right now. We've written about 15 songs, so there's going to be some stuff left over which is exciting for us because for A Mountain Is A Mouth we sort of recorded in a space where we had this set of songs and then we recorded them. [But] we've been playing new songs live."

Who knows, next year their unique brand of gospelized-folk might just bring home the Polaris Prize.