Hey Prince George, get ready for Hey Ocean.
Just because we're a landlocked city doesn't mean the beloved coastal band doesn't have a sheltered port here. This area was always a beacon to the up-and-coming group, whether that be a feature spot on the Robson Valley Music Festival stage in 2008, a headline spot in the 2012 Coldsnap Music Festival, or the show coming up tonight at Artspace.
It's not surprising that Hey Ocean booked a P.G. concert date. What is surprising is that they booked any appearances anywhere. For the past three years the band has been more than quiet, they were essentially broken up in an unspoken way. Lead vocalist (and sometimes flutist) Ashleigh Ball, guitarist David Beckingham and bassist David Vertesi (both co-vocalists as well) were riding high on hit records like Big Blue Wave and Make a New Dance Up, Juno Award and Western Canadian Music Award nominations, tours of the U.S., and collaborations with the My Little Pony television franchise and One Tree Hill show, but by 2014 they publicly halted operations.
"I think there was definitely a time when we were, like, done," said Beckingham in a phone call to The Citizen this week, but then he said, somewhat surprisingly, "which is good."
He clarified, "I think that was very necessary to have that space, to feel the loss of that paradigm, if you will. We were doing things before that weren't really healthy - we were just go, go, go and working at all costs and never saying no to anything."
They certainly didn't quit music. All three of them put out solo music in the aftermath of the band. Beckingham said he had been squirrelling songs of his own away for years, during the first Hey Ocean chapter. If the song didn't fit the atmosphere of the group, he just kept it for himself. All those songs had a sudden place and reason when Hey Ocean halted.
What Beckingham admitted was not that he secretly harboured resentments towards his bandmates, the way some fractured acts do once the split occurs. No, on the contrary, he said he worried that he had relied on Ball's and Vertesi's songwriting abilities as a crutch.
He wondered if he had the chops, on his own, to sustain a music career by himself.
As it turned out, he did, and he ended up touring England, Germany and other concert locations as a soloist. It was a time of personal growth and an exercise in building confidence.
The three needed the break, it seemed, but all three came to the conclusion that they didn't want to spend their days constantly apart. The friend factor was still compelling.
Beckingham said he couldn't figure out who might have made the first phone call, if a conversation like that even happened, but the three eventually ended up in the same songwriting room again which is where their new album The Hurt of Happiness began to form.
"It was all under the premise that if it didn't feel good, we wouldn't do it. No pressure," he said. "And because of that, we had a great time writing and put together some cool songs. It all happened really naturally. I don't want to say there was trepidation, we were just careful to be enjoying every moment and not doing it for anyone else, just ourselves."
It's a renewed and refreshed Hey Ocean that'll be here in Prince George this weekend. Their show tonight gets underway at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance at Books & Company or at the door if supplies last.
