Band Details

From the Promoter

Advance tickets also available at Rotate This & Soundscapes

THE WOODEN SKY

Navigating the strife and uncertainty of evolving friendships, lost loves, death and the ever-shifting challenges of the music industry, Gavin Gardiner (vocals/guitar), Andrew Kekewich (drums) and Simon Walker (multi-instrumentalist) found themselves in a new place: holed up in Toronto’s west-end—in Gardiner’s garage-turned-studio to be exact. With the help of familiar collaborators Edwin Huizinga (violin) and Andrew Wyatt (bass and vocals), the band spent grueling hours together digging deeper into their sound, looking both for answers to their doubts, and a way to quiet them.

The results, you could say, are loud.

The album was conceived amidst many changes for the band—saying goodbye to both a founding member and their longtime record label. In the process of putting the pieces back together, The Wooden Sky looked to the talent and brawn of friend and producer Chris Stringer. Together they worked and reworked the songs, studio-hopping around Toronto in order to give each track a unique shape and space on the record.

With Let’s Be Ready, The Wooden Sky draws on nostalgia to capture the warmth of the tunes that inspired them to make music in the first place. This warmth—coupled with a freshness that looks to the future—serves up a new sound and new hope for the band. Let’s Be Ready acknowledges the pains of the past but with a gentle optimism and acceptance.

Let’s Be Ready also marks the first release from the bands new record label, Chelsea Records. Chelsea grew out of the rubble in which the band found itself in early 2014, but has nonetheless come as a welcome change with exciting new possibilities in tow. In the future, the band hopes Chelsea will be able to provide this for other committed artists as they too grow and develop, providing them with the resources and freedom they need to forge ahead in their careers.

Thanks to a devoted and ever-growing international fan base, (the result of a strong history of touring-success in Canada and abroad), and with a string of awards and nominations under the belt (including a 2012 Juno nod), the band is set to leave any remaining doubts behind. Letting their hair grow long and armed with perhaps their most confident record to date The Wooden Sky is poised to cross the world reaching new heights on the back of it’s latest album, Let’s Be Ready.

TWIST

Toronto's Twist was first conceived in late 2013 as a collaborative project between songwriter Laura Hermiston and Brian Borchedt of Holy Fuck. The pair met as Hermiston's earlier band was dissolving and Borchedt was in a gap between releases with his other projects, and began with Borchedt working as a producer on a handful of Hermiston's songs until, owing to their mutual enthusiasm for the early results, their creative relationship deepened into something more like a partnership. Working primarily out of Borchedt's apartment the pair recorded and released a series of singles in late 2014 that garnered praise from VICE, Nylon, Brooklyn Vegan and Spin among others. Though touring briefly as a two guitar and drum machine driven duo, this early attention prompted a transition from a two-piece set up into a full live band, with Borchedt resuming a more behind-the-scenes role as the band hit the road more frequently, playing dates with TOPS, Crocodiles and Wreckless Eric.

Twist's newest single, "Soaked," is in part a result of the relationships forged during this period, as it features guitar work from Crocodiles member Charles Rowell. According to Hermiston the track came about as a result of her re-approaching some old recordings. "I was in the middle of mixing some tracks I'd worked on with Brian and I was struggling with re-mixing songs that were 2-3 years old to me and matching the vibe to newer songs, " she says. "I felt a bit lost and alone and was worried I was wasting time re-mixing tracks that didn't need to be touched. I wanted to write something about that feeling and I had spoken to Charlie about working on songs together, so I wrote Soaked keeping in mind wanting to collaborate with him. I recorded in my apartment and then sent Charlie the song and he sent back a lead guitar track. A few weeks later I went to NYC and connected with Jennie Vee and Richie Rose in their home-studio and showed them this song. Pretty much right then and there Richie added some more percussion, Jennie added bass and backup vocals, and Richie did a final mix. It all came together effortlessly, stress-free, and was chock full of good vibes collaborating with musicians I respect and admire."