Fort St. John based folk duo Twin Peaks aka Naomi Shore and Lindsay Pratt, are in the middle of a busy summer which not only includes playing a lot of festivals, but also allowing themselves to explore their political side.
They return to the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Aug. 15.
“ We‘re playing the Regina Folk festival. We’re playing six times over the weekend,” said vocalist/ keyboardist/ guitarist/ ukulele player Naomi Shore.
“We‘re playing eight festivals this summer and this is the seventh one in. it‘s nice to be able to play for so many people in one shot— or six shots,” she chuckled, adding playing the Winnipeg Folk Festival was the highlight of the summer.
“ It’s humungous. There were 40,000 people there,” she said.
“ But we also played our favourite festival, ArtsWells in Well, B.C.. We were playing a smaller venue and we played the best two set of our lives. There were people lined up out the door. They couldn’t get in to see us.
It was amazing,” she said.
While festivals are a lot of fun, Twin Peaks are more excited to use their platform to support a cause close to their hearts and homes— the My Peace River project.
“ We’ve been around for five years, so we thought it was time to get political,” she said.
So they performed on “My Peace River,” a four song Ep put out by Jody Peck of blues rock trio Miss Quincy and the Showdown, who was also born in Fort St. John.
“ She used to ride the school bus with Lindsay. Jody wrote two songs and we did two covers for the CD,” Shore said.
“It’s a fundraiser for the Treaty 8 First Nations who are in the middle of a court battle with the B.C. government who want to build the B.C Hydro Site C dam , which will flood 57,000 acres of heritage farmland and First Nations burial grounds in the Peace Valley.
“ Jody wrote two songs for it and we’re on it and Noah Walker, a great guitar player, is on it as well.
“All of the proceeds go to Treaty 8. Jody wrote ‘16 Horses,’ a personal account of her life there. She and her family are hunting guides and ‘I Belong Right here, which is a more gospel number. There are also two covers— Fred Eaglemsith’s ‘Time To Get a Gun” which is a big FU to Christy Clark and the B.C government” and A Ben Rogers song ‘the River,” she said.
“The town is pretty divided about it. The more industrial side of the town supports the dam because they think it will bring jobs, and the other half are upset because it will flood farmland which could feed thousands of people,” she said.
“And even though it is still in court, B.C. Hydro have already started clearcutting, so it’s illegal,” she said.
“A lot of people in B.C. don’t think of us because we’re so far north, so we get pushed aside,” she sighed.
In the meantime, they are enjoying a busy summer of festivals and preparing a new full length CD.
“We have all of the songs written and we’re testing them on the road all summer and rehearsing them. So now all we need to do is finance it and raise 10 grand, so we’re playing a lot of gigs,” she said.
While they have been playing with back up musicians at the festivals, they will be playing Lethbridge as a duo.
“ For the festivals we want to hire the best, but it’s more economical to tour as a duo,” she said, adding they are working on forming a band for their next full length CD, which thy plan to release next year in time for the 2017 summer festival season.
The duo will be sharing some of the new songs in Lethbridge.
“ You will definitely hear lots of new songs. At least four or five of them ,” she said, adding they are also playing “I Belong Right Here” from the My Peace EP.
“We had to learn it so we’re playing it. I’m bringing my piano on this tour so there will be a moment of protest gospel music,” she said.
