This Sunday night, Moncton’s Plan B Lounge is set to welcome royalty. While members of the Royal Family may or may not be stopping by the club, the popular Moncton venue will be welcoming Kitchener-Waterloo folk-rock band The Royal Streets.
Considering that they have been a band for under a year, they have already had the opportunity of supporting acclaimed indie rock bands Said The Whale and Mike Evin in addition to having released their debut EP this past May.
Despite having known one another since their high school days, the genesis of The Royal Streets actually only came together in October 2012 when vocalist-guitarist Algernon Friolet began writing songs with guitarist Mike Demsey. Before long, vocalist Jillian Dowing joined the duo and they were then rounded out by guitarist Eric Stirtzinger.
“After high school, Jillian, Eric and I all moved away for our post-secondary education while Algernon remained in Kitchener,” Demsey says.
“After I moved back to Kitchener from Halifax, Eric and Al approached me to help them record these tracks that they had been working on. Eric returned to Ottawa for school that fall and so Algernon continued writing and recording together. Al and I agreed that adding another voice to the band would help bring so much more to the sound, which is where Jillian came in. She and Al had played some coffee houses together in high school so there was already a familiarity of how well their voices could work together. We ended up playing our first open mic night in late November of last year,” Demsey continues.
While some of the material on the group’s EP released this past May features a number of tracks written by Friolet alone many moons ago, three of the EPs songs were written as a band. To bring the EP to life, Demsey put to use some recording skills that he had acquired while attending school in Halifax.
“I began learning to record while I was living in residence in Nova Scotia and begun amassing more and more in the way of equipment. Some of the recording process was done by trial and error but we are happy with the finished product,” Demsey says.
If it hasn’t already been made evident, The Royal Streets aren’t ones to waste time. Although their debut release is less than six months old, the band is already planning on hitting the studio this coming winter to prepare another EP. Rather than opting to oversee the effort themselves, as they did with their debut release, the band is planning on working with Dan Hosh at Catherine North Studios in Hamilton. Demsey says that he expects their current abundant selection of song possibilities for their next release to eventually be narrowed down to eight tracks with the release date slated for the new year.
What: The Royal Streets with Ryan Hillier, the Musettes and Lora Bidner
When: Sunday, Aug. 25, 9 p.m.
Where: Plan b lounge, 212 St. George St., Moncton
Article published in the August 23, 2013 edition of the Times & Transcript
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