Calgary indie pop/ dance band Windigo have close ties with with Lethbridge.
Since forming in 2011, they have played Lethbridge five times and recorded two of their albums at the Farm, outside of town with producer Jesse Northey.
They return to the Slice, Dec. 6 with Savk and old friends the Ashley Hundred.
“ When you’re a young band, you don’t have any money. So recording in Lethbridge was really the most cost- effective thing to do,” said Anthony Kameka who, along with Jen Severtson, Mitchell Cooper and brand new guitarist Barry Mason formerly of Zackariah and the Prophets.
“We played with a band called the Utilities and got their album. It sounded so good that we looked up the producer and it was Jesse, he continued.
The band completed their first big tour together back in September.
“We went all the way out to Montreal for the Pop Montreal festival. It really was a great time. We played Montreal and a couple of shows in Toronto and Winnipeg and Regina and Saskatoon. It really was a lot of fun to go to a cities we had never been before,” he said.
They are excited to ply Lethbridge again, this time with Savk and old friends the Ashley Hundred.
He described Windigo’s sound as dance rock.
“ It’s definitely on the dancey side of indie rock,” he described adding the band has more of a rock edge now that Barry Mason has joined.
“ Our former guitarist did not want to continue with music. Barry was a member of Zackariah and the Prophets and we were really close friends with them. So when two of their members passed away in April, he was a natural fit,” he said.
“ So now there’s a lot more guitar,” he said adding they are beginning pre-production on their new album. They plan to record in in January and have it released by summer.
“We love bands like Vampire Weekend. So we want our next album to be able to stand beside albums from bands like that,” he said adding they are looking into studios in Calgary and Vancouver for it.
They were proud to be part of the the Sept. 4 High Hopes Concert at the Jubilee auditorium— a memorial tribute to the victims of Calgary’s worst mass murder which included Prophets members Joshua Hunter, Zackariah Rathwell who were stabbed to death at an April 15 house party in Brentwood with Kaiti Perras, Lawrence Hong and Jordan Segura.
“We had 2,000 people there at the Jubilee and everybody who was involved say it was the best night of their lives. It was a very magical time,” he said.
In the meantime they are excited to return to Lethbridge.
“We love Lethbridge. We love playing there,” he said.
