A new band has a new album and they're bringing the good news with a debut concert at Art Space.
The Burden has been together for a little bit of time, they have ventured out into public a few times, but personnel changes in their short existence means they are really just emerging, but they are doing it in style, by releasing a full album entitled Modern Disease. It hits the streets when they hit the stage on Saturday night at Art Space.
The group half-formed when two buddies from high school - guitarist Rob Bacon and vocalist Jake Olexyn - got back in touch and realized neither of them was in a band at the time. They were part of the group Faith In The Fallen a few years before in their teens. They knew of bass player Ross Vanosch and recruited him.
All that remained was securing a drummer. It took some time but they got one. In fact, in Nick Tindale they got the equivalent of a sports team landing the big free agent.
"Our former drummer didn't want to pursue the music dream, he left town, we no longer had a drummer, and it's a super integral part of the band," Bacon said.
"Everyone in the P.G. music scene knows Nick, so we went right to him when we found out he was available. We are super happy to have him. There's an age gap there, but there's no music gap. And Nick knows so many people, he has crazy connections."
Tindale became particularly well known as the beats-man for popular pop group Bright City Heights until a major eye injury took him out of their lineup. It took a long time to heal, and many visits with doctors, but he finally has the green light to perform the high-impact and strenuous job of pounding on the drums.
Bright City Heights is still operational, but on a hiatus, so he jumped back into the performance realm by signing on to the group The Inferior Pluto and some jobber bands as needed, but he had time and space for a main focus band and The Burden is it.
"These guys are really talented, and I'm the grampa in this band," said Tindale. The other three are in their early 20s "so almost anyone would be a grampa to them."
Bacon said it was amazing how only a few years changes you as a musician, so tender though their years may be "we are more mature as musicians and as people," than when they were plying the craft in high school. "We have a better understanding of music, we all get along really well, and we all like the same music."
By that he means they like almost all music. Bacon called The Burden's sound as "post-hardcore" which, for the uninitiated, means they are usually loud, heavy and aggressive but they reserve the right to shift genre gears on the fly.
"We have an acoustic ballad, and we had as much fun writing and recording that song as our heaviest screamer," said Bacon.
"We can explore, we can do whatever fits, and there's a little bit for everybody on the album. We don't want to feel limited and we don't want the audience to feel limited either."
The band is sensing a slight expansion of the Prince George music scene. In recent times it has suffered from a lack of regular venues for some forms of music, and it has much less new blood pushing in with youthful projects. Bacon said that has recently begun to change, and he wants to encourage garage bands to come out into the public, irregular bands to do another show soon, and musicians to come out to each other's shows for mutual support.
"I know we think of other bands as competition, sometimes, but I really don't think that's how bands like to treat each other. I think bands love music, so we can enjoy each other," said Bacon. "I want all other bands in town to succeed. That's not impossible. I want our shows to be crazy, and I want the other shows in town to be crazy too for those bands."
Tindale, who has been in many a band over the years, and three of them simultaneously at present, said it's been done many times before. The Prince George music scene just needs some positive affirmation.
"We want to put on a show that inspires other bands to put on a bigger and better show, too. We want it to grow," Tindale said.
Bacon said one of the values with which to lead this movement is dedication to the craft. If you keep a good sense of humour but pay respect to your music skills, good energy flows. This sunk in for him, he said, during the making of Modern Disease.
"We really have to thank Connor Pritchard, the guy who engineered and produced the album with his," Bacon said. "He had a recording studio, and there aren't many of those around here, and we were kind of his pet project, so we got to record an entire full-length album in P.G. which not everyone gets to do. That really reflects on the album quality, because we could put in the time, two solid months, to make it right. We didn't have to jam every song into five or six 18-hour days in Vancouver."
The Burden also bought a large van that they will now use as a tour vehicle. They have dates already set for out-of-town concert appearances, and more road work is in their plan.
The Burden unveils Modern Disease on Saturday at Art Space.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Joining them will be guest acts Kitsune from Kelowna, Comfort from Vancouver and The Inferior Pluto (also releasing their own music package, an EP, that same night).
Tickets are $10.
