Dear Rouge is adding their chops to the kick off for the Coldsnap Music Festival tonight at the Ramada Ballroom at 7:30 with the Boom Booms.
Dear Rouge won 2012's PEAK Performance Project, the biggest radio station artist development project in Canada. Their hit, Thinking About You, can be heard all over the local radio stations and their alt-electro-dance-pop sound will rock your socks.
Dear Rouge and the Boom Booms (who were finalists in the 2011 PEAK Performance Project) actually know each other and played a gig just a few months ago in Vancouver to announce the 2014 PEAK Performance Project's top 20.
"It's a really good pairing," said Drew McTaggart, the husband half of the duo that makes up Dear Rouge. "We're a pretty high energy, really exciting band and we're more performance based where the Boom Booms are a party band so that's going to make it a really fun night."
Danielle and Drew came together specifically to enter the PEAK Performance Project.
"When we won it, it was a huge shocker but it was also really exciting because along with the money ($102,700), there's a lot of exposure and buzz, so last year we spent all year touring as much as possible and getting to go all over Canada and we recorded an album."
This year Dear Rouge will release the album they recorded last year.
The creative process is a combined effort for the duo.
"We're definitely 50/50 on a lot of our stuff," said Danielle. "For some of them, one of us will carry it more -- if one or the other has more passion for it. We sit down and hash out songs together. It's a fun process, we usually take a chunk of time and focus entirely on writing songs and we stay in that mind set. "
Tonight's start to the Coldsnap Festival is going to be filled with a lot of heat.
"There's a lot of energy and a lot of fun music, as well as creative music," said Drew.
"We like to say we're creative pop because with some pop music you know exactly what the next chord will be or where the chorus is going to go musically and you like it and it makes you happy but we really like different kinds of music -- so that's what we like to say -- we're creative pop," Danielle added.
Prince George will be treated to new music from Dear Rouge.
"We're really pumped to come up to Prince George," said Drew. "So people who have followed us from the PEAK Performance Project until now and have heard us on the local radio stations will hear some new music and we'd like them to come out and have a great Friday night with them."
Tickets are on sale at Books & Co., 1685 Third Ave., Studio 2880, 2880-15th Ave., or online at
http://www.coldsnapfestival.com/tickets/.
