Calgary’s Brocade have been all over the country in various other projects but clicked when they met each other in Calgary, built their own studio and recorded their debut CD “Like You Were Here.” They will be playing their first gig as Brocade in Lethbridge, Feb. 9 at the Slice.
And while their CD is getting a lot of interest, they are known for their live show.
“ Our live shows are getting awesome response. We hope the CD will get the same,” said guitarist / vocalist Todd Stewart.
They combine a variety of different influences into their original music. They include elements of alt country, pop, more modern roots rockers like Elliott Brood and even early ’70s rock like David Bowie and Mott the Hoople.
“I’m glad you picked up on that. Because I listen to everything,” Stewart said.
He noted Brocade’s music is more mature than previous projects as the band members have matured and grown up.
“ A lot of Calgary musicians write songs, then hire people to record them with in the studio. We wanted to create a real band dynamic,” he continued. He has played with bassist longtime friend Weeze Brown for many years, and while various musical projects were ending, they learned drummer Nate Giebelhaus was also ending a project in Vancouver then decided to add him to round out the trio when he moved back to Calgary.
“We wanted to show off a little bit of everything we listen to. I listen to a lot of ’70s music like David Bowie,” he continued adding the band doesn’t like to pigeonhole themselves.
“ The scope of the music industry is everyone wants to pigeonhole you,” he said adding they like to incorporate a variety of influences.
“ We want to spread it around and not just be limited to one style of music,” he said.
They will be spending much of March touring out to Toronto, where they will be playing Canadian Music Week.
“We’ve toured across Canada before, though not as Brocade. We toured out west around Alberta and B.C.,” he said.
“We toured in November. I’d like to drive the Coquihalla, when it isn’t so dangerous. We just kept missing all the road closures,” he said adding he hopes the trip east will be a lot smoother weather-wise.
“In other bands we’ve been to Canadian Music week and some industry people clued us in. A lot of bands go there hoping to be discovered, and spend a lot of money to go there, but we decided to play our way there,” he said.
For now they are looking forward to discovering Lethbridge.
“I’ve never played there before, but it seems like a lot of musicians come through Lethbridge. And we‘re the only band playing that night, so I’ m looking forward to getting up on stage and showing people what we can do,” he said.
Tickets for the Feb. 9 show, which is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m., cost five dollars
