4TheRcrd Mag.

So I’m totally stoked, I got tickets to the nearly sold out Hey Ocean! show at Richards On Richards (1036 Richards St.) tomorrow night. Fresh off the release of their full-length album, Stop Looking Like Music (2006), Hey Ocean! is kicking off a six month tour to spread their unique and infectious sound across the country. Intrigued? If you want to find out a bit more about this young Vancouver band, read on for an interview with bassist David Vertesi, who, controversially i should say, speaks for the whole band, as it were.

As answered by David Vertesi (bassist):

1. How did you guys meet and, more importantly, how did the idea of forming a band come about?

Our band assembled gradually. It began with Ashleigh and Dave B who played music together at open mics for a while and then one day added me (Dave V.) as their bassist. We played together for almost a year before assuming the name Hey Ocean!. The group was completed a few months later with the addition of our drummer, Benny. I think our first show together was a pirate party, haha.

As far as when the idea came together? It’s never been as much about forming a band as much as just making music that we like. We love that it is always progressing and that we’re always growing as individual musicians and as a group; it keeps it interesting.

2. Why do you think Hey Ocean! appeals both to young and old(er) audiences.

This comes up a lot with us for some reason. I guess it’s kind of an anomaly in the music industry these days to have a band that young people are stoked on and that their parents or little siblings dig too. Everyone has their own reasons for liking any band, but I think everyone appreciates our music as fun and honest. I mean I’d like to think they appreciate the musicianship, the effort that goes into each song, or the thought that goes into each performance, but maybe i’m just getting ahead of myself.

Actually come to think of it they probably all really like how good we all smell. Especially Benny… he smells just great!

3. You have recently released your latest album. Tell us about it.

Well, Stop Looking Like Music, which we released at the begining of last summer was our first full length release and as such it was definitely a learning experience. Tom Dobrzanski (Lotus Child, Said The Whale) produced it at his home studio and really worked hard with us to make and album we were all proud of.

I should note that we just finished pre-production on our next album, which we will hopefully begin recording in the fall.

4. Your live shows are very creative and seemingly-spontaneous, how does that music-form relate to your recording process in the studio.

We are all really critical of our music and as such it can be hard to get a sense of a song when we are practicing because we are stopping constantly to make changes and rewrite things. It’s kind of funny actually because it means that we don’t necessarily know how a song is going to play out before we perform it. Our shows are really where we get to see how songs run from start to finish. The studio is very similar in that regard: It helps give us perspective on our music.

We’ve definitely written some of our favourite parts to songs while recording them.

5. What do you expect from your upcoming tour.

Even though it isn’t completely ironed out yet I know this whole summer tour will be amazing. We have some unbelievable opportunities to play with artists that we all respect like The Meligrove Band, Brazilian Girls and Sarah Harmer, not to mention the festivals that we’re getting to play across the country.

Touring can definitely be stressful, but it’s time spent with three of your closest friends which we’re always thankful for. We try not to take it for granted that we get to do what we love all the time. We know we’re really lucky.

Touring is also where we write most of our material, so I suppose it will be interesting to see what we come up with this time.

6. What is your impression of Vancouver’s Independent Music scene?

Vancouver has such an interesting music scene. There are a wide range of styles and bands, but no real live music district or epicentre of any kind. It means bands end up sticking to networks as defined by their genre or potentially what area of the city they are from. I think, however that this is changing as the scene grows and though it might not be quite as cohesive as scenes in some eastern canadian cities, I’m confident Vancouver music is going to start to make a substantial mark on (at the very least) the Canadian music scene.

Looking at bands from Five Alarm Funk and Lotus Child to Mother Mother and Bend Sinister, I get really excited about making music in this city. I think the rest of Canada had better watch out cause here comes the west coast.. haha.

7. Which bands/groups/acts do you all frequently support when you’re in town.

I’m not sure if this means what shows we go to or what bands we open for? Cause we don’t really open for any bands in Vancouver, but some of the great bands that we’ve played with in the last while are Current Swell, The ShowGears, Five Alarm Funk, Carey Wass and the Tom Cruisaders, Karmetik Underground, Maurice, and Lotus Child. We’ll also be playing a show on May 31st at RICHARDS ON RICHARDS with The Wassabi Collective.