What: Towers and Trees with J.P. Maurice and Acres of Lions
When: Friday, 8 p.m.
Where: Sugar, 858 Yates St.
Tickets: Sold out
Note: Towers and Trees also perform Saturday in Nanaimo at the Queens and Jan. 23 in Courtenay at the Sid Williams Theatre
Towers and Trees enjoyed a breakout year in 2015, one that saw the Victoria group play to the biggest crowds of its career, release its first full-length album, The West Coast, and headline a tour of Western Canada for the first time.
Progress notwithstanding, singer-songwriter Adrian Chalifour can’t help but feel a little worn out by the experience. The folk-rock collective gave everything it had to give and hit the road and the studio with purpose. Perhaps a partial letdown was inevitable, Chalifour said.
“At times, fatigue can come with trying to find the pieces that can make this machine go, and the process of coming to terms when some of those pieces fall off,” he said. “But there is a comfort and inspiration that comes from knowing that, over the three years, more doors have opened than have closed.”
The group has three dates remaining on its tour to support The West Coast, beginning with a stop Friday at Sugar. The group had December off, so Chalifour is looking forward to a Vancouver Island run that also includes appearances at the Queens in Nanaimo on Saturday and a Jan. 23 stop in Courtenay at the Sid Williams Theatre.
Their homecoming show at Sugar is sold out in advance, which isn’t surprising given the raucous reception the group received in September at the annual Rifflandia festival. The band performed twice during the festival, once at the 800-seat Alix Goolden Performance Hall and a second time before thousands at the Royal Athletic Park side stage. In both cases, they stepped up admirably.
“That was a coming of age thing for sure,” Chalifour said of the performances. “That whole weekend was. It was definitely a milestone. We came out on the other side of that weekend thinking: ‘Something happened there.’ ”
The dates came nearly two weeks prior to the Oct. 2 release of The West Coast, but fans sang along heartily with the material, an indication that Towers and Trees had made inroads in the local music community.
The band spun that success into a string of November dates through B.C. and Alberta, a run that included some sold-out stops. The Chilliwack date drew a huge turnout.
“I don’t know how people found our music in Chilliwack,” Chalifour said, “but they found it.”
Given that it was the first headlining tour, Chalifour couldn’t help but marvel at the turn of events.
“There is only so much you can take credit for. We work pretty hard and try and do our best, but on some level, momentum — I don’t know where it comes from. I don’t think I need to understand where it comes from. But we can sense it.”
The response to The West Coast couldn’t have been better, Chalifour said.
He took an emotional plunge in writing the record. The band’s first full-length album was destined to include details of a 12-year relationship that included a seven-year marriage, which ended in divorce as Towers and Trees was beginning “to find its feet,” Chalifour said.
At first, 31-year-old Chalifour wasn’t sure if writing about his personal life in such raw detail was a good idea. But as the songs poured out, an arc he couldn’t deny presented itself.
“I had a story to tell, and writing it was my way of going through it, of making sense of it. I was single for what felt like the first time as an adult, and was coping with how I thought life would look like from the trajectory I was on, and the process of getting derailed from that.”
A range of emotions — anger, hurt, hope — are evident on the recording. Both sides of Chalifour’s journey — the search and the discovery — found a home on The West Coast.
“It’s an album that believes in love, even in the midst of leaving it. I wanted it to be about looking forward at the line on the horizon while letting things go.”
The lineup for Friday’s show at Sugar will feature Chalifour and his longtime collaborators in the group, guitarist Dave Zellinsky and drummer Jesse Boland. The current membership, which also includes new bassist Dave Arter and keyboardist James Liira, will expand further for Friday, with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Ben Lubberts and singer Andrea Lubberts.
The couple are stepping away from band duties following the show to prepare for the birth of their second child.
The couple’s final bow will be bittersweet for Chalifour, who recorded the first Towers and Trees material at Lubberts’ apartment.
“It’s not easy having to say goodbye to people,” he said.
Chalifour knows that all too well at this point. But he’s hopeful for what lies ahead.
