Author Archives: Gus Beauchamp

Could You Imagine Dragons at Rogers Arena

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The Imagine Dragons are coming to Vancouver. The band starts off their tour in Miami on February 6th and mosey their way up north to Vancouver on March 4th. This marks the first time that the American pop rock band from Las Vegas has visited Vancouver since their Evolve tour back on October 8th, 2017. 

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Imagine Dragons has a distinct sound mainly rooted in alternative and pop-rock, the group shows flairs of electropop and EDM. Back in 2012 Imagine Dragons dropped their first album Night Visions which contains two of their biggest songs Radioactive which has more than 1 billion streams on Spotify, that’s right a billion with a b, and Demons which has just under a billion streams on Spotify. The Imagine Dragons have become all most used to that type of astronomical streaming numbers as 5 years later the group released their third album Evolve. Evolve contains the band’s 2 biggest songs with Believer reaching 1.8 billion streams and Thunder with over 1.5 billion streams. 

With numbers like these expectations are high on the group’s newest album Mercury – Act 1 which was released just last month on September 3rd. Mercury – Act 1 is the reason behind the band’s newest tour and hence tour name Mercury and the reason for the group’s Vancouver appearance on March 4th.

The Rising Duo Fionn

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Alanna and Brianne Finn-Morris are the twins behind Fionn who work together to bring audiences upbeat, playful and fun tracks. Fionn’s most recent album Candid Constellations came out in May and their most recent single Take Me Back dropped in mid-July. 

The duo writes on their Facebook page that Take Me Back

“is a song about lost love. Not only the love of another but the love of one’s self. We can easily fall in love with the version of ourselves as seen by our lovers, or even how we view ourselves by their side. We think that everyone can relate to this sentiment as we all lost a version of ourselves when the pandemic hit.” 

Aside from dropping an album and a single in 2021, the twin duo has had quite the year for themselves. Fionn started performing in front of live audiences again for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic took its grip on the world and the live music scene. The duo even opened for the Vancouver pop-rock band Marianas Trench on September 18th at the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park.

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Last week the twins announced two upcoming shows at The Heatley’s on October 28th and The Railway featuring special guest Emilynmakesmusic on October 29th. On top of these two shows, Fionn is also releasing a new single I Won’t Lie featuring fellow Vancouver artist Mauvey. You can pre-save the new single on Spotify here.

If you’re interested in following Fionn or want to keep up to date on any future releases or shows they may have, give them a follow on Instagram and Twitter.

The Boom Booms

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Five guys all growing up in the neighbourhood of Vancouver’s East Side came together to make The Boom Booms. Fueled by their passion for travelling and performing live, this group made up of brothers Aaron Ross (lead vocals) and Sean Ross (pianist), Tom Van Deursen (guitar), Geordie (bass) and Theo Vincent on the drums have travelled all over North America and parts of South America. Cruising around the United States twice in a school bus and making the full round trip from Vancouver all the way to Panama. I think it’s pretty safe to say that touring in The Boom Booms DNA. 

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It took me all but thirty seconds to fall in love with The Boom Booms. The first song I queued up so You Know from their 2011 album ¡Hot Rum!. It fuses together an amazing combination of indie rock and soul which made me reminisce about sitting on a beach on a hot summer’s day. Following You Know I queued up Lonely and the fandom just grew stronger. Please don’t read too much into the fact that my favourite song is titled Lonely… It’s been a long year okay. I think it’s pretty safe to say that The Boom Booms are going to be added into the summer playlist rotation. 

The Boom Booms’ latest release came in 2019 with the single Que Te Parece. But the group teased in March on their Instagram that they “may or may not be working on a whole backbag of new songs”. The group’s last live performance was back in October of 2020 but haven’t been able to go live since because of the Covid-19 restrictions in place. I suspect that with The Boom Booms’s love of performing, once restrictions lift that they will be back in concert soon. If you want to follow The Boom Booms so you can listen to their music, or getting tickets for their next show you can follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Apple Music and Spotify.

Small Town Artillery

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Originating out of Kaslo, BC brothers and founders of Small Town Artillery Tom (vocalist/guitarist) and Derek Van Deursen (drummer/vocalist) have been playing together since they were 10 and 12 years old. With Carson Webber slappin’ the bass strings and with Alex Maher, on the sax and Phil Austrom on the trumpet)  STA is set to bring you some great Rock & Roll with a robust horn section. 

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Controversy swirled around Small Town Artillery in March of 2020. While booking a 2.5 month, 42 show tour from Victoria to Halifax, STA caught some flack from the prairie provinces about a message of solidarity the band posted to the land defenders of the Wet’suwet’en people. After receiving a load of negative comments on Facebook (and some positive) about the band’s support of the land defenders of the Wet’suwet’en people, STA ended up losing a total of five gigs across the prairies. Then entered the coronavirus pandemic which led to venues postponing or cancelling shows altogether. However, Small Town Artillery still managed to do the best with what they had and played shows all summer to small outdoor crowds. 

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STA’s single Yellow Light came out in 2020 and the music video for the single came as an improvisation caused by not being about to record a music video for another song due to proximity dangers with Covid-19. Tom shot and edited the whole project within one 15 hour day in isolation.

 

According to the band’s website, they have no shows currently planned but with the way their 2020 tour ended before it even started, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Small Town Artillery touring around once restrictions lift up again. In the meantime, you can keep up to date with the band by following them on Facebook and Instagram, and tuning into their music on Apple Music and Spotify.

Fionn

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For lack of a better pun, you could say Fionn has popped on to the Vancouver pop music scene. The harmonizing duo hailing from the greater Vancouver area has released 3 singles this year and shows no signs of slowing down.

Alanna and Brianne Finn-Morris are twins behind Fionn who work together to bring audiences upbeat, playful and fun tracks that make even me ( a non-dancer) want to dance. However, this wasn’t always the case. Alanna and Brianne have been on the musical journey together for over a decade and have gone through a musical transformation since their first album in 2018. Fionn the duo’s first album leaned itself to more of a Folk/Indie aesthetic.

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Fionn’s most recent single release Let Me Go came out in April and highlights an upbeat disco tune. The lyrics, however, have a deeper meaning despite the high happier vibes that the song gives off.

 

  Let Me Go’ is a song about giving someone the power in a relationship and wanting to be free of the spell they have you under    – Fionn

Fionn is set to have their EP Candid Constellations which is teased in their single Taste For It, set to be “a mix of moody pop songs and feel-good bops” can be pre-saved on Spotify. Is set to be released on May 21st, 2021.  

Until then all we can do is wait and listen to Fionn’s other recently released singles and enjoy the funky disco vides that they are bringing to the Vancouver music scene. Who knows perhaps Candid Constellations will sneak its way onto your summer playlist!

If you’re interested in following Fionn or want to keep up to date on any new releases or any future shows then maybe give them a follow on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Emily Molloy

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Emily’s sound is rooted in rock with flairs of Jazz and Soul. She showcases this in her 2020 single Catastrophes, which opens with a strong rock presence and transitions into more of a jazzy vibe. This interesting combination of styles makes Emily’s music appropriate for a bunch of different occasions. Whether it be rocking out in the gym to Tell me Something or to or taking a dramatic late-night drive in the rain to Wide Awake.

 

Emily says inspiration comes from her personal experiences and the experiences of those closest to her. For example, her most recent single Wide Awake is a song performed from the perspective of a dear friend who is experiencing a terrible divorce. But Emily says as time went on the song began to feel more and more relatable to her own life.

 

When your as busy as an artist as Emily is where you get your inspiration from is important. Emily is working on a ton of different projects, she’s co-written an album that is coming out soon under the name MooseJaw which is a trip-hop-like album. She’s also in a project called Lemming Dynasty which is with members of Ninjaspy and Bruno and I.  On top of those two projects she’s also collaborated with Five Alarm Funk, Fort Knox five, Garfunkel, CRNKSHFT, Reverend and the Rebel, and Chase the bear. Emily says she’s also working on a couple of other collaborations but it’s a little too early to speak about them at this time.

Emily is set to release a music video for her recent single Wide Awake sometime in June and says she has an upcoming EP release show at the Rickshaw that is to be announced shortly. Keep up-to-date on Emily Molloy and her music be sure to follow her on Facebook, Instagram and her website.

 

Finally Some Live Music!!

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Ode to the little things, to the things we never thought we’d miss. Going through the coronavirus pandemic we’ve all been missing out on things we’d never thought we’d miss out on. Live Music is one of those things.

The lack of live music makes sense, no large venus, no groups of 6 or more people, even live music the restaurants has all dried up… or so I thought. But, I’ve heard whispers, rumours, mummers if you will, of a restaurant that still has live music. Even with patio-only dining Gracies Next Door has live music every night of the week.

Gracies has a different performer every night which means you can go every night of the week and experience a new vibe every time. There’s also the option to tip the performer through contactless payment which is crucial in helping our local artists get through such a difficult time.

Music is just one reason to visit Gracie’s, the drinks are great and the food is out of this world. I can’t say it was exactly hard to convince myself to visit the restaurant so I could experience their live music first-hand. aside from the fact that I would already recommend this restaurant to anyone besides a lot of music the live music adds a certain comfortability to dining again. it’s almost as if with someone actually performing in front of your other thoughts and worries from everyone’s chaotic day-to-day life seem to just slip away.

So, if you’re looking for an opportunity to slip away and forget about your daily woes Gracie’s Next Door is that amazing opportunity. If you do decide to visit Gracie’s please make sure you’re following all local Health guidelines.

 

Winter Youth

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Winter Youth is an indie band based in Vancouver with Emily Seal on the mic and Kas Baker on the guitar. Together the duo writes and performs songs that are heavily influenced by bands such as Daughter Florence, The Machine, and The National. Emily and Kas get their inspiration for their music from mental health and heartbreak and try “creating space to find a little bit of comfort in the uncomfortable”. After spending a couple of days listening to Winter Youth I found it quite amazing how much emotion and feeling they put into each and every one of their songs.

Winter Youth has also been part of a documentary called Krow’s Transformation which follows the transition of transmale model Kian Krow. In the documentary, Kas shares his own story about his transition. The Documentary premiered in 2019 at the Raindance Film Festival in London and you can watch it on Amazon Prime and OutTv.

 

Winter Youth came out with their debut album Home and last came out with their single Changes in March of 2020. They are doing a lot of writing for their next upcoming release (no date set yet) and plan to release some music videos throughout the rest of 2021. Winter Youth also doesn’t have any current collaborations planned with other artists but says that something that they would love to do in the future. Winter Youth hasn’t been booking any events for the summer yet because they want to wait until they can perform in front of an audience that in a safe way for everyone. But they, say “if things do progress to being able to play live shows more safely this summer, then we absolutely will be back out there playing as much as possible”. If you want to hear more from Winter Youth go give them a follow on Instagram and you can listen on Apple Music and Spotify.