Boasting a sound that is as rich with vocal harmonies as it is with different musical textures, Sackville folk-roots band Bolivia are a newfound breath of fresh air in southeastern New Brunswick. The quintet has a self-titled debut EP now available and will be performing at Parkindale Hall tomorrow evening. The show starts at 8 p.m.
From his home in Sackville, Bolivia’s Jake Bastedo says that despite the band only having started performing together in the last year, the chemistry they discovered when they played together was undeniable.
“I had been playing music for a little while and knew everyone who is a part of the band through various interactions we had on (Mount Allison University) campus,” Bastedo says. “Initially, I didn’t really know them all that well but knew that each of them played the instruments that I wanted to include on a track I was recording.
“We had our first practice session and at the end of the night, we were all pretty excited about it and were all thinking that we should start a band together. The first time we had played together, it was for the purpose of practising before recording a song. After that though, when we got to jamming for fun, that was when we really discovered the wide variety of interests that each of us had in music. I try to avoid saying it was magical the first time we played together but in actuality, it was pretty cool.”
Bastedo and his band mates Zoe Cadell, Graham Ereaux, Liz Kent and Luke Trainor are all currently students at Mount Allison University. And while balancing school work with the demands of a band is no easy task, Bastedo says that having little in the way of expectations is the safest route for the group to travel at this point.
“We can’t really pretend that school doesn’t get in the way. It is definitely keeping us busy. Trying to organize practices around the schedules of five people is tough too,” he says. “But we entered into this band expecting little; it is not as though I got everyone together for the express purpose of starting a group. I think that each of us takes the band seriously but on the other hand, we are all committed to school at the present time. The band has ended up serving as a pleasant distraction though. Who knows where it might lead in the future?”
Article published in February 10, 2012 edition of the Times & Transcript