| All Things Music: EOTW 2022 Performers |
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| Written by Jamie McDonald |
| 01 August 2022 |
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To introduce the featured bands that are coming up to perform at this year’s Edge of the World Festival, I asked each band to tell me their two favorite songs to perform live and to share a story about life on the road or about playing live music. Here is what they had to say:
1. “The Wave” - youtube.com/watch?v=DNSRmXcUuCE&t=3s I chatted with their bassist Tejas Collison, from Old Masset: “The atmosphere we put for-ward, our style and the size of the band (11 people at the max) is made for live shows. We try to involve the crowds in the performance as much as possible and it is a great feeling of reciprocal energy. We did a tour on the mainland and played Golden, BC and they had a bombastic costume party, the entire town came out! During that show, our drummer crowd surfed for the first time, he took a chance and made it work!” Born Ruffians 1. “Don’t Fight the Feeling” - just released in early June. Mitch shared this story about being “On the Road”: “I think coming to Haida Gwaii is going to be a mind-blowing experience. When I think back to our tours, I remember playing in Dawson City, Yukon, also a very remote community. What stuck out was it was in the sum-mer and there was almost eternal light (at least until 1 a.m.). It was a very surreal experience, you always felt like you were ready to go out...Luckily, we had a dark basement to sleep in!” Paris Pick 1. “Presence in This World” - celebrating doing what I want, being a woman, without any excuses. Paris had a very funny story to share: “During our first tour across Canada, we brought a can of Heinz baked beans. My drummer wanted to make the tour about the can of beans, as a joke. It was all very silly. The can was put on stage at every show and followed us ev-erywhere. When I got home from that tour, I got a tattoo of the can of beans on my thigh!”
1. “One Day” Lola shared, “When Chelsey and I started working together, Chelsey was a seasoned mu-sician and I had experience in show biz but in other realms. I was just so nervous that for some shows, I was just playing air banjo, pretending to play, or pretending there was something wrong with the sound equipment!” Danny Bell and His Disappointments 1. “Killing Birds” - youtube.com/watch?v=1Fn9NWz9z8s Danny’s funny “On the Road” story relates to the song Shitty Town, which is about Prince George – about what other people think about his community and its’ reputation. “It’s a fun story to tell, a fun song to sing along to, and it’s a dancy/rowdy song. I was playing in Ed-monton, and we showed up at the venue around 4 p.m., which generally is pretty early. The first thing the sound person/owner said to us is: “you are late!” Then he said: “You are from PG?” And I said “Yes,” and he said, “That’s worse than a death sentence.” Funny start to the show!!! “I like that people are able to say that about my town right to my face, it’s refreshing!” Beau Wheeler 1. “Flying Colours” - youtube.com/watch?v=quEHGDAbnHY&list=PLLdiC8TbQGhiVk0pI-n3oXl8_4PcnrUFNF&index=54 (starts at 11:40 in the video) “One of the times that stands out to me playing music was one of the first times I played a festival right after treatment. I brought some beats and a bunch of electronics and my electric guitar to really step it up. I was super excited to play. Then once I got there, I realized that the venue I was playing in used to be a small wooden church and it had no power, I was playing early in the morning, one of the first performers, so the likelihood of people getting up to see someone they didn’t know was not so great. I had to ask around and see if I could borrow somebody’s acoustic guitar, I didn’t know very many people at the festival and was there alone. Somebody lent me their guitar eventually and I drove to the tiny little church. A thunderstorm started. I thought I would just enjoy playing in the little venue pretty much by myself, just being there meant so much to me. It was pouring rain outside and everyone was camping. Everyone came inside and to my surprise, the tiny room was packed. I was so emotional to be playing that the audience was right there with me. No bells and whistles. Just one guitar, no microphone and all those lovely warm people crying and laughing in that little room together. It was a bit of magic.”
Coffeehouses in Daajing Giids Starting in September until March, (except for November and December TBA), the Coffeehouse will be the last Friday of the month, at the QC Community Hall. Starting at 6 p.m., bring a bowl and something to drink and share a meal (provided) with fellow community members and sign up for the Open Mic. Open Mic starts at 7 p.m., followed by features starting around 8:30 after an intermission. By Donation. September feature: The Pseudos; October feature: Alanah Mountfield. Visit the Coffeehouse website for more details haidagwaiicoffeehouse.com |
