When friends meet and bond over their love for jazz music and pop music, Lovecoast is what happens.
The Nanaimo based quartet will show their new pop direction when they stop by the Slice, May 21 with Calgary indie pop band Windigo and local indie rock act the Utilities plus Sam MacKey and Kieran Strange.
They recently welcomed aboard new guitarist, old friend and fellow Vancouver Island University graduate Mike Clement to the fold and are excited to begin the tour with him, not to mention new music.
“ Our other guitarist Scott Verbeek left to play in a funk band called Zuko Picnic with Tayo Branston from Five Alarm Funk and the perfect guys for a project like that,” said lead singer Danielle Sweeney, packing the van with her bandmates at their rehearsal space outside of Nanaimo.
“Mikey is an old friend but a new player. He plays with the other guys (drummer Jesse McNeill and bassist Andrew Fraser) in a ska/ reggae band called Dope Soda. So they were even more excited to spend even more time together,” she said.
The are excited about the new tour which will take them to a few places for the first time including Grindwod , B.C, Lethbridge and Saskatoon.
“ That’s the farthest east we’ve ever been and Grindrod is this tiny town outside of Kelowna. And we’ve heard great things about Lethbridge and the Slice . I hear there’s a bed on the roof,” she laughed.
“We’re playing with Windigo who are really familiar with Lethbridge and of course the Utilities. So you know what to expect there,” she said, adding the audience should get ready to dance when they take the stage.
“ We’re a more upbeat dancey band. I’m right in front dancing my face off and the guys all have degrees so they really know their instruments. So I’ll step back and let them show off,” she described.
“ You could describe us as west coast indie soul,” she said, adding while the whole band is from all over B.C, she is pleased they have chosen Nanaimo as their home.
“ Jesse is from Nanaimo, Andrew is from Chilliwack and Mikey is from Prince George.
Me and Scott were from Vancouver, but all of our friends are from Nanaimo,” she said, adding they were happy to relocate the band there.
“ Nanaimo is a university town. Every bar has live music at least at jazz trio playing she said,
“ And Victoria is phenomenal. It’s even better than Vancouver for a scene. It’s a weird little cultural hub,” she said.
“There’s more people there for the music. People are there to support the bands. Even people who aren’t musicians. In Vancouver it’s more of a social thing. It’s a lot more schmoozy,” she observed adding the biggest cost for the band is the ferry ride to the mainland.
“ It’s only an hour and 45 minutes, so it is more a matter of cost than time. It costs $500 to take the ferry over and back. But luckily they take Save On points so we have a lot of aunts and moms who do a lot of grocery shopping and want to help us succeed,” she said.
Lovecoast has made the Top 10 in the past two CBC Searchlight competitions, but she said the most important thing about it is meeting the other bands involved.
“ That’s how we met Windigo. We met them and they ended up setting up a show for us in Calgary. So it’s been really cool getting to know all of these other musicians,” she said.
Lovecoast are working on a new full length album which they plan to have completed by winter of this year or more likely early 2016.
“We’re just starting to talk about how to fund it,” she said.
“We’re taking our time with this one,” she said.
“ For the Chasing Ideas EP, we sat on the songs for a long time so when we went into the studio, we were ready,” she said.
“We had a four month turnaround time from the time we stepped into the studio from the time we ended the tour,” she said. They recorded the EP with the Zolas’ Tom Dobrzanki and will also record the full length with him.
“For this one, Jesse wants to go back to school, so the tour won’t be as long. This will be the longest tour we’re doing. We’ve got some new songs we’ll be playing on this tour so they’ll be properly shedded. Others we’re keeping to ourselves,” she said adding the new music will push the band in a more pop direction.
“ The EP was very jazzy. We’re stepping away from that. We’re adding synth which I’ll be playing. And the sound will be more radio quality because we want people to buy it,” she continued.
“We’re stoked about it,” she said.
Lovecoast, Windigo and the Utilities rock the Slice with Sam MacKey and Kieran Strange, May 21 beginning at 7 p.m. there is a $6 cover for the show.
