Vancouver’s No Island will bring their unique and original blend of West Coast indie and classic rock to Creston’s Snoring Sasquatch on Aug. 18 for the third stop on a three-week tour of Western Canada.
The group, formed in 2009 by five students in Capilano University’s jazz studies program, has played frequently in the Lower Mainland to a loyal fan base, thrilling packed crowds with their energetic live show and tight musicianship. And while studying music full-time certainly hasn’t hurt either of those things, it has made any extensive touring pretty tough for the band, at least until the present.
“I feel a great sense of freedom and excitement,” said lead guitarist and vocalist Keith Sinclair of No Island’s newfound liberation from the post-secondary world. “It’s nice to not have to worry about the constraints of everybody’s school schedules.”
The band’s keyboardist and other vocalist, Andy Rice, assured that concert-goers will be in for an energetic and highly entertaining mix of old and new this Saturday.
“We kind of bend the rules of the present while tipping our hat to the past,” he said.
And with five members including a saxophonist, No Island is clearly bending a few rules of instrumentation as well.
“All of us raided our parents’ record collections when we were growing up and that certainly shows through in a lot of what we write and play,” he explained, “But we also really appreciate the music of today and our own music has quite a bit of that in it as well.”
While Rice said that having an element of classic rock “sometimes means No Island gets left off the iPod of an indie purist at a first glance,” it does give the music a timeless quality and fans “tend to love the band for that ingredient exactly.
“At the end of the day, we play what makes us happy,” he said. “You have to remain true to yourself as a musician. Not everyone in the club is necessarily going to like your music but every one of them will be able to see right away whether or not you’re playing it honestly.”
No Island released their debut album last year, a six-track record called Sign of the Times. A full-length album is in the writing stages and the band hopes to head into the studio after the current tour wraps up in September.
For now, however, No Island’s focus is on the road and doing their best to put on a show that is quite literally the talk of the town, wherever they happen to be that particular night.
“I really want every show on this tour to really impact whoever hears it,” said Sinclair. “We like to focus on our original material, but we have no problem throwing a really cool cover in here and there. We’ve really tried to make sure there’s a little something for everyone.”
For more information, visit www.no-island.com/shows. Tickets are $10 in advance at Kingfisher Used Books and Black Bear Books and $12 at the doors, which opens at 7 p.m.; the concert begins at 8.
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