It started with two, but by the time The Ebbs finished their first interview as a band, they had grown to three. And they haven't even played their first concert.
Together, that is.
William Kuklis is a well known solo performer in Prince George, for his songwriting and his emotive vocal power.
Joe Shea is part of the popular Rocky Mountain act Trundled with nationally known bandmate Ellen Braun (of Ottawa and Canmore).
Over the years they made their way to Prince George after coming from other places in Canada. Kuklis was a Lower Mainland transplant (with some Victoria and some Wells in there, too). He has been noted as much for acting as for his concerts and songs.
Shea is from Hamilton but his wanderings (Calgary, Canmore, Kathmandu) eventually brought him west.
"We were both approached to play at a concert at the Caledonia Nordic Ski Centre, a show in the clubhouse, which is really great for that, by the way, what a place, and that's where I met Willie," said Shea.
"It was a great night, a fun crowd, the setting was crazy cool, everybody was into it, and Joe and I just hit it off," Kuklis said.
When Kuklis performed a solo gig at Nancy O's not too long after that, he invited Shea to come up on stage with him for some guest accompaniment. Again, it worked.
They liked each others' songs. It was as simple as that. It helped that both were multi-instrumentalists as well, so neither of them get bogged down in sound ruts. It was a duo in the making.
But there is only so much two performers can do together, especially when both have the gift for hearing music in their heads more holistically than just the instrument in their hands at the time. To help Kuklis and Shea expand their sound they asked Fin Scott-Neff to join in.
Here in Prince George from California, Scott-Neff was busy with his UNBC studies and was happy enough to perform on a part-time basis with a set of university profs on a band they called - for a quintessentially northern B.C. identity - Beetle Kill. He wasn't keen to lock into an upstart duo that didn't even have a name, even though they extended the invitation to their Cali-friend.
A long email chain but a short time later, Kuklis and Shea did have a name for their project: The Ebbs. It took them some hashing and gnashing to get there, but it has a certain flow, doesn't it?
And as Scott-Neff sat in on their debut interview ahead of their premiere concert coming up on Friday, he didn't even notice himself start using words like "our" and "we" as the conversation unfolded. By the end of the visit, everyone just nodded and agreed there had just been an ebbspansion of the band.
"This gig is actually the first step in the visa process to obtain my full Canadian citizenship," Scott-Neff deadpanned. "People always thought I came here for the school. It was for The Ebbs."
The songwriting so far is handled by Kuklis and Shea bringing their own tunes to the table and the others adding their layers to it.
"We take on each others' songs and do our best to not make them worse," said Shea.
"We take whatever the songwriter brought in and just add in some harmonies and develop some extra instrumentation, and that's about all," said Kuklis.
Shea said "sometimes it's symbiotic, sometimes it's psychotic, but it's working so far."
When asked if that meant his solo cupboard was being depleted, Kuklis just shrugged and said "Take 'em. Take 'em all. This is ebbsolutely working."
The duo that is now a trio will perform their maiden voyage on Friday at 8 p.m. at Trench Brewing & Distillery. No cover charge.
