Belcarra has layers of meaning.
When writing songs, Jaron Chidiac tries to live up to that philosophy so when it came time to go by a name for his and his band's creative endeavours, there was no better word in their minds than Belcarra. It seemed to speak to the music better than their working moniker of the Jaron Chidiac Band.
"Belcarra means a town of confluence or a meeting of two minds or ideas," said Chidiac, who is doing all this in the Lower Mainland but comes from Prince George, a city famous for nothing more prominent than the intersection of waterways and land paths. "We also recorded near Belcarra National Park."
The recording is the band's debut EP. The four-song package is called Hollow Tree, named for one of the songs. The others are entitled Jonna, Days A Daze and another regional inference in Caribou Kid.
This all springboards from the Jaron Chidiac Band's introductory EP that came out in 2016. The only encore track is Hollow Tree itself. It's proof positive that a body of quality work is growing, to go along with the constant learning of the business side of the music industry.
Chidiac said the past three or four months have been about getting the new recordings ready for the public and "I have been researching everything from how to receive streaming royalties to which printing company prints the cheapest stickers. Being that this is our debut EP and I have never released anything of this quality I wanted to make sure were getting it right."
If you are a fan of the softer side of Sam Roberts or Jason Mraz, if you remember the Australian '80s band The Church or heard Our Lady Peace in their acoustic/stripped down moments then you've got a sense of what Belcarra is achieving.
"On a band level it has never been better," he said. "We started writing even before the (initial 2016) EP was released. After our tour up to P.G. (they played an Artspace concert in July) we became extremely tight, almost like what was already there before really clicked. As such, when it comes to the live shows we have been feeling more comfortable lately. We are all starting to not have to think about things as much.
"We also had our first big victory as a band," he added. "We tied for first place in The Sham Rocks Music Festival. It felt really good."
This goes alongside the finals of the Best In Vancouver showcase contest of which they made the finals in 2016. It had a gatecrasher effect for Chidiac and crew, exposing them to a large audience and many industry friends picked up via that experience.
They are at it again this month. As Belcarra they are entering the same contest again, performing a Best In Vancouver preliminary show on Nov. 25 at The Railway with participating bands Caustic Soda Pop, Bobby's Cane and Bicyclists.
Other appearances in recent times include a five-act acoustic night in Vancouver that had Chidiac playing solo, he and the band opened for Buffalo Jones at The Media Club, and they were featured on the One Sexy Chokehold concert night hosted by famed Vancouver nightspot The Roxy.
They also opened for the Devin Cuddy Band and Robots & Gods this past year, to go along with past opening slots for such headliners as Speed Control, The Racket and West My Friend.
When Belcarra launched the Hollow Tree project at Gastown hotspot The Hindenburg last week, their opening acts were Elliott Slinn, Julien Amar and Chill Pilgrim, all rising notables in their own right.
"As for what's ahead, with the new name, we are writing but we are still figuring it out," Chidiac said. "I think there will be a lot more elements and sounds that we play with next. We all want to take the music to a different place and try things we have never tried before."
Joining Chidiac (lead vocals and guitar) in the Belcarra lineup are Ricardo Germain (percussion and backing vocals), Adrian Fitzpatrick (bass), and Roan Wallace (backing vocals, percussion, keys).
There is no word yet on a Prince George concert, but as this is Chidiac's hometown, he said it was only a matter of time once the Best In Vancouver event was concluded. In the meantime, fans of the past or those with future potential are encouraged to download the new material. It's available now on iTunes and Spotify.
