Edmonton born, Saskatoon based singer/ songwriter Shuyler Jansen is going back to his roots in Lethbridge by playing a solo acoustic show at the Slice, March 17 opening for Leeroy Stagger and Cowpuncher. His band Foam Lake is off to South by Southwest in Austin, leaving the Saskatoon roots rocker on his own.
“I’ve actually played more shows acoustic than with the band, but I like to rock,” he said, returning from a family vacation in the United States.
They released their Pink Floyd influenced psychedelic roots Cd , “ Voice From The Lake,” about this time last year.
“It’s just psychedelic folk rock.There is definitely some Floyd in there and a lot of early ’80s music like the Pretenders, and early Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,” he said adding the return to his roots resulted in reuniting with his long time friend and drummer Mike Silverman who moved to Toronto and recently returned home.
“ We started playing together again and we pushed each other in that direction,” he continued.
He noted his show, which will be his first Lethbridge show in about three or four years, will include much of the CD.
“They will sound a lot like they did the first time I played them for a group of people,” he continued.
He is pleased to see the Saskatchewan music scene starting to take off including well known acts like the Deep Dark Woods, Library Voices, Rah Rah and lately Rolling Stone magazine cover contest winners the Sheepdogs.
“People here quietly start playing and making great music and they tour a lot. There are a lot of really great bands in the Saskatoon/ Regina area,” he observed.
“If this were Seattle or Halifax in the early ’90s, then this scene would be hyped a lot, but that doesn’t happen anymore. There are too many great records coming out and too many bands,” he observed.
“Hopefully the good ones rise to the top,” he said.
Jansen noted he and the band will start writing new music for a new CD which they plan to release near the end of summer. In the meantime, he is working on an electronica project.
“There has always been some low key electronica in my music but it was more off stage. This one is more hard core and includes songs from ‘Voice From The Lake’ but will be more for people who are into techno music,” he said.
He is looking forward to being part of the Prairie Folk Tournament.
“I’m very much so looking forward to it and seeing what it is all about,” he said.
