iN VIDEO: Community support means growing success for young Kamloops rockers
In a world of streaming and digitization, a Kamloops rock band is getting growing support from the established music community after two years of performing at venues and events.
CREATURE is made up of three musicians who are juggling high school and jobs to follow their passion.
“We’re usually able to make enough performing to pay for gas to get to our next shows,” said the band’s lead guitarist, vocalist and lyricist Matt Cochrane. “It’s a bit of a passion project.”
Alongside Cochrane is drummer and fellow lyricist Kenny Carroll and bassist and backup vocalist Zoey Wilds.
The trio has attracted loyal fans and support from experienced local artists in the industry.
They recently received a hand up from Nevin Webster who donated a month of free advertising for them on a billboard located in the city’s industrial park.
“I just know they’re good kids and deserve some community support,” Webster said in a message to iNFOnews.ca. “I noticed they were getting after it and wanted to help keep the momentum going.”
Last month, the band released their debut single Disarray that was mixed and mastered by award-winning Kamloops musician Jeremy Kneeshaw at his Cutting Room Studio with funds donated by Cochrane’s grandmother.
“They came to the session ready and pumped it out, it’s amazing to see them play,” Kneeshaw said. “They’re good at communicating with each other which is really important and a bit rare at their age.”
Kneeshaw said being an emerging band takes consistent hard work and is challenging in a world of streaming and digitization. It can be intimidating for musicians to find ways to share art that is relevant and authentic.
“It has to be from your heart, it’s the only reason to put in all the work, but when you play from the heart it happens on its own and they have that with Disarray,” he said.
“They have a loyal, hardcore following of people that show up wherever they’re playing to support them. The way CREATURE is doing it, they’re building a team and getting the right people involved and putting their hearts into it.”
The band’s music is a mix of punk and alternative with heavy influences from the 1990s grunge movement and bands like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Weezer and Alice in Chains.
The debut single was written by Cochrane.
“I wrote the guitar parts, the structure and then the vocals,” he said. “Lyrically, it was just where I was, in a place of denial at the time. I was going through different parts of the grieving process that were all jumbled together. The name Disarray suits the motions and emotions of that time.”
CREATURE is currently working on finishing their first album titled Face Placement. Once that’s finished, the trio isn’t sure what the next steps will be.
“We’re probably going to stay local but you never known, maybe someone from Vancouver will reach out,” Cochrane said. “We’re not really sure where we’re going, we’re just doing what we love.”
Kneeshaw said he will be ready to support the young band and help them keep going in whatever way he can.
“These kids are making punk and grunge their own, taking their own life story and putting their art into it and their peers love it,” he said. “They’re making a mark on the scene of the people who have doing it for decades who also have the opportunities to give them a leg up here and there.
“It takes a lot to believe in your art enough to get it to this point, and it takes other people believing in it to get it further.”
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Crappy band