Music is touchable and viewable. There is texture and light inside the imagination, and there is Texture & Light on a Prince George stage in a matter of only days.
The small town alterna-electro-pop act is breaking out of their Powell River hometown and plugging the rest of B.C. into their voltage. They shot their first flare in 2013, the dynamic debut The Hard Problem of Consciousness. It sent some tunes up the college and electonica charts and established them as one of the premier electro music acts in the province. Now they have a new set of songs lighting up the B.C. music sky.
Another establishing factor for the band was how electronic they were not. As in: they were firmly in that genre of loops and synthesizers and sound processors, but these three were musicians, and play they did.
"I'm coming at it from the opposite direction than most in my field," said Texture & Light founder Trevor Refix (vocals, guitars, synths and drum machines). "I was a deejay. I spent 10 years doing that and got bored of that actually. So I decided to go a different direction and was listening to a lot of indie rock at that time, so I decided to go more musical, more into playing instruments and building songs based on what different instruments could do, but mixed with that electronic feel. So starting Texture & Light was just a smashing together of those things."
Refix didn't assume anyone else would love this idea as much as he did. For almost five years he kept it to himself, but a couple of friends kept building their fascination for what Refix was creating. They wanted in, too. Refix could hardly believe his good fortune that other proficient musicians shared his love for what electronics could do to an organic melody and human-created beats. Bass and synth player Clare Mervyn and drummer/drum programmer Lyell Woloschuk made him a believer.
"Now we are a three-prong attack," said Refix.
They also brought other skills to the project, like graphic design and lighting technicalities. Texture & Light was becoming a full-spectrum entertainment attraction. Taking it to the streets was the next progression, out of the basement development space and recording studio.
That presented a whole set of new challenges for the trio.
"Putting together our live set isn't just a matter of practicing our instruments; it's a whole process unto itself," said Refix. The three of them had to plot each instrument change, song selection and segue out on a white-board to keep it all arranged.
"We bought a whole bunch of new gear for recording and we are now working at incorporating that new gear into our live set. The quote-unquote old songs have all basically been rewritten. And we keep buying more gear, so they get played on that new collection of tools, so that meant they all changed again. I always wondered how bands played the same songs time after time. Isn't that monotonous? And now I know that songs are always changing. They are never stationary. And we now like to play songs live before we record them so we can see how it will translate to an audience of people. You never get that feedback when you're by yourself. It was a challenge for me to step out of my control room, but now I look forward to seeing audience reactions and getting the input of my band-mates."
He called the creation and rehearsal process "at times very fun and rewarding and at times an exercise in tedium and insanity" but the results are so exciting, he and the others are almost frantic with excitement about performing in new cities and towns on this tour.
"Sometimes I envy bands that just have to practice their instruments. We have to put in hours and hours and hours of programming as well," he said, and encouraged Prince George music fans to come on July 23 to Nancy O's to see their first P.G. performance. They are on their way the next day to perform at the Kispiox Music Festival.
