The Elk & Oarsman’s recent spate of great music continues through July, with 10 concerts booked for the month.
Kicking it off is The Matinée, a roots rock powerhouse hailing from Vancouver — though en route from the east — who will play the venue July 6.
Formed six years ago from a group of friends who grew up together, The Matinée consists of Matthew Layzell (vocals), Matthew Rose (guitars, banjo, mandolin, pedal steel, vocals), Geoff Petrie (guitars, percussion, vocals), Mike Young (guitars, keys, percussion, vocals) and Peter Lemon (percussion, vocals).
The Outlook spoke with Layzell Thursday (June 20) while the band was touring in Ontario.
“On the way out east we were playing every single night for two weeks,” he said. “Now on the way back we can take our time and relax.
“This tour we left May 28 and don’t get home until July 8, so it’s a pretty lengthy stint for us. We’re now into the back half of the dates.”
When the band hits Banff, it’ll be at least their fifth time playing the mountain town.
“We’ve played Banff many times,” he said. “We spent years playing at the Rose & Crown — we’d come in and do the Thursday, Friday, Saturday — we did that three or four times.
“And then the last time we played at the Elk, so that’s what we’re going back and playing again. We always enjoy coming to Banff. There’s something very grounding there, being in the mountains, and seeing the nature all around. It really is emotionally grounding for us. And the shows are always a bit rowdy there too, so that makes it exciting for us as well.”
What they play, self-described as roots rock, can range from acoustic and simple to loud and electric.
“We call our genre roots rock, because at the heart of it, we’ve got the acoustic and the upright bass and mandolin and pedal steel in there, but we really are a rock band,” said Layzell. “We love to get sweaty and make people stomp and clamp — as much as we do have dynamic to what we do and have some down moments, the show is largely a very upbeat show.
“If people aren’t dancing at our shows, then we’re not doing our jobs properly, that’s for sure. We usually leave the stage pretty sweaty, it looks like we’ve been swimming after a performance. We really do get into it.”
The band’s first full album, We Swore We’d See the Sunrise, was released four months ago.
“We have one official album, that came out in February, and prior to that we had an EP — but that was a home recording that we self-financed and did in a few days — it really wasn’t indicative of our sound and our stage show,” he explained. “We used our EP as a means to hit the road and tour and sell our CDs.
“And we did get some radio play, but largely it was just playing shows to anyone and everyone. We did half a dozen Canadian tours, and six or seven more western tours, and that’s probably what led to our record deal, because they saw that we were out there hustling on our own. We weren’t new to the game, that’s for sure, we’re seasoned on the road.”
Last year the band signed a record deal with Light Organ Records, a label based in Vancouver.
“We had reached a plateau and had taken it as far as we could on our own, and wanted to get to the next stage of our career,” said Layzell. “It was about a year of them courting us, and I think what sold us was the fact that they believed in what we were doing.
“They didn’t want to tell us what album they wanted to hear, they just said ‘We want to work with you, we’ll fund you to go into the studio, to make the album you want to make,’ and they really did give us control to make those decisions.”
The Matinée formed in 2007, after years of all its members playing in other bands.
“We all grew up a few blocks from each other, and went to school together, a half hour outside of Vancouver in a place called Coquitlam,” said Layzell.
“We’ve all been playing in bands together for years and years, but this band came to fruition about six years ago,” he added. “A few of us started doing some songwriting together and we did our first few tours in 2008 and figured it was something worth pursuing ever since then.”
Visit thematineemusic.com for more information or to hear their music.
