(Halifax, NS) – With a distinctive larger-than-life pop sound and an energetic and colourful live show, nine-member Ottawa-based group The PepTides will perform seven shows in Atlantic Canada, August 4-11.
Upcoming shows include:
August 4 Anagance Messtival
August 5 Charlottetown Baba’s Lounge
August 6 Halifax The Carleton
August 7 Halifax The Carleton
August 9 Fredericton Capital Complex w/ Math Class
August 10 Saint John New Brunswick Pride, Market Square
August 11 Moncton The Tide and Boar w/ Nebullama
August 12 Montreal Club Balattou
For show and ticket information, visit: ThePepTides.com.
The PepTides, featured on the cover of Ottawa Life Magazine as “Ottawa’s Best Band” in 2017, offers a snapshot of Canadian diversity. The band are an eclectic community of musicians with a rainbow of identities: girls and guys, gay and straight, English and French, black and white and in between, Ukrainian, Mexican, Guyanese, Cree, Acadian, Armenian and Scottish.
- First of all, tell us what’s new and exciting with you?
We do what bands do! Which means writing and performing music. Our major excitement at present is tied to our upcoming release, Galapagos, Vol. I, which comes out this October.
There’s a bit of history to this project. Years ago, we had a hoot recording an album of songs based on the 18 stories from Stuart McLean’s book Revenge of the Vinyl Café (2013). This time round, our main songwriter, Claude, invited us to revisit the idea of pairing music with literature.
We chose Kurt Vonnegut’s weird and wacky novel, Galapagos. This book had us drooling. It has everything: a star-studded nature cruise, economic collapse, ghosts, bombs, an epidemic, Jackie O, and a million years of evolution. It was a fresh springboard for us to write about the themes that interest us most: humanity and its tragicomic foibles.
- Who were some of your music influences?
We have nine musicians in our troupe, so the influences are vast: Bowie, Bach, Bacharach, and Berlin to name a few. But if there is a connecting link (besides the letter B), it is: “Does it move you?” Move you to dance, move you to sing, to think, to smirk, and—if and when you are ready—to tear up.
- Can you tell us about your writing style?
We have a prolific powerhouse songwriter in Claude. His hours are mostly spent perfecting lyrics, which are bedfellows with the many styles of music that both he and the band come up with. For instance, Galapagos includes Latin beats, disco-rock, acoustic folk, gospel, pop, and funk. Each song asks, in its own way, “Is humanity winning or losing?” And, of course “Does it move you?”
- What’s your favorite part of the East Coast?
Definitely the people! Friendliness seems to be in the water here on the East Coast. One wonders: Why is everyone so friendly? What kind of world are they trying to create? Something wonderful?
- Do you have plans for new music in the near future?
These days, we are living and breathing Galapagos. And East Coast audiences will get a special sneak peak of these unreleased songs while we are on the road!
- What are you plans for the rest of the year?
This tour is one of our major highlights this summer. Once we get back, we’ll be putting the final touches on the new record and launch it on October 27 at the National Arts Centre in our home town of Ottawa. Kaboom!
- Is there anything else you would like to add?
Band huddle! [Huddle.] Answer: Spice. We would like to add spice. Spice to food, spice to life, spice to love, spice to what we do on stage.
