A new album, with a new single and video, created in a new studio deserves to be shared with as many audiences as possible, which is exactly why Nanaimo, B.C. art-rockers Gold & Shadow are hitting the tour road with a stop at Banff’s Elk & Oarsman on Sunday (Sept. 20).
Gold & Shadow’s Dane Letourneau (vocals/guitars/keys), Jesse Janzen (bass), Wes Holmes (drums) and Jordan Lineker (guitar) have toured with different musical outfits in past, but this is the first Western Canadian tour for the band who just released their debut full-length album Torch at the beginning of September.
“It feels great, we spent a lot of time working on this so and it’s been in the womb if you like for a long time,” Letourneau said. “We actually recorded in a brand new studio (Risque Disque Records) that was actually being built from the ground up while we were making the record, so it was this intense experience but it was an organic experience of being part of a brand new studio that was being built.”
The new studio in the middle of the B.C. woods ended up suiting Gold & Shadow’s progressive style. The band has garnered a bit of a label as making ‘art-rock’ but Letourneau says he and the band have no problem with being tagged as arty.
“We like to call it art-rock, or creative rock ‘n’ roll that’s got some atmospheric elements – it’s very influenced by the west coast where we live,” Letourneau said.
The band actually started back in 2008, but were made up of different members, taking the band awhile to find the right players for the project. “We really had to find our voice and our sound, something that we really liked consistently because we tried a bunch of different styles and once we found this current line up of guys it was just really good musical chemistry,” Letourneau said. “We’d go into the jam room and there was less arguing over what we were playing and more just everyone playing and just really liking what was happening – once we got to that point there was no more question of what is this band we like it.”
The band’s Vancouver Island home and their influences play detrimental roles in creating their music, with the band stating they are a, “testament to the hope, beauty, and inspiration found therein. With a penchant for creative, soaring melodies, they are intent on creating a dynamic, tuneful response to the natural wonders of the island area.” With influences ranging from Jeff Buckley and Radiohead to Bon Iver. Gold & Shadow also throws shout-outs to Vancouver’s We Are The City, Saskatoon’s Close Talker, and Victoria’s ZERBIN.
“Honestly I feel lucky because there’s a lot of hard work that goes into making a band happen, so I feel really privileged that at least coming up with the material isn’t the difficult part, everyone is in agreement on things most of the time,” Letourneau said. “The recording process was a process of putting down onto record something we had already rehearsed and performed a bunch of times because we didn’t have a bunch of money to burn in the studio we just went in knowing what we wanted to do.”
Gold & Shadow’s music has previously been included on compilations such as “All Together Now”, a 2012 Seva Canada charity album featuring Canadian artists such as the Great Lake Swimmers, and they have also shared the stage with PEAK Performance Project finalists We Are The City, Jordan Klassen, Vince Vaccaro, and Towers and Trees, and ZERBIN and Paper Lions.
“We’ve always wanted to take the music outside of the bounds of the Vancouver Island area and I’ve really enjoyed in other groups playing to audiences across Canada and in the States and there’s some great musical communities,” Letourneau said. “There’s some absolutely fantastic venues and there’s some places that we think audiences would really love what we do so we’re hoping to find those audiences.
