IN CONCERT
What: Carmanah with Stel and Dougal & Claire
Where: Capital Ballroom, 858 Yates St.
When: Friday, 8 p.m.
Tickets: $15 at Lyle’s Place, 770 Yates St., and Ticketweb.ca
Note: Carmanah also performs Saturday in Tofino at The Maq Hotel
People and places have always been at the heart of music by Victoria quintet Carmanah, but other elements have become prominent topics in recenty years — the biggest one being the environment.
The group, which is led by singer-guitarists Laura Mina Mitic and Pat Ferguson, is a West Coast entity by definition — always will be, according to Mitic. However, the scope of songs on their debut album, Speak in Rhythms, has a worldly feel. Knowing that the state of the environment on one side of the planet has a direct impact on the other, Mitic wanted the themes of Speak in Rhythms to have a wide appeal for listeners: New song Nightmare is about logging old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, while Roots is about being homesick on the road, a fact of life for musicians Canadian or otherwise.
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The popular local group (which also features bassist Marek Olsen, pianist Mikey Baker and drummer Nick Laba) will performs songs from its new recording Friday at the Capital Ballroom, which gives its members the opportunity for an accurate appraisal. “Victoria is our gauge in terms of how we’re doing and what we want to be doing,” Mitic said.
“Are we still making the original fans proud? I look out in the audience and see people who have come out to shows for years now, and the fact they are still coming is indication that we’re still genuine and still doing this right. Creating excitement is a big part of it. You have to keep on pleasing people.”
During their five years as a group, Carmanah has grown from a lower-profile act to one of the bigger draws in the city. And with that change in stature comes their first full-length, following a series of EPs. Speak in Rhythms is Carmanah’s first foray with an outside producer, Juno Award winner Gus Van Go, and first album tracked in a professional studio, so the results are expectedly impressive.
Mitic is particularly proud of the environmental messaging behind the record. “That’s at the core of where we’re coming from,” she said. “And music is the perfect compliment to that kind of lifestyle; travelling and being in front of audiences who are listening, and talking about some of these ideas. You don’t want to be preachy about it, because that isn’t a good way to create change. Having those conversations is. Leading by example is, and showing that it’s not that hard to go against the flow and find alternatives to your lifestyle that are a little bit kinder toward the Earth.”
Carmanah has been involved with the Jellyfish Project, an environmental awareness campaign that uses musicians to educate high school students about ocean sciences, for the duration of its time together. The concern for Mitic is how rapidly the state of the environment and the impact humans have on it has changed during that short stretch, from oil and gas pipelines to fish farms. B.C. — often considered at the cutting-edge — is not exempt from blame, either.
“It goes right down to the venues we play,” she said. “We were at a club in B.C. and they brought us a meal served all on [unrecyclable] plastic. In Alberta, we were served a meal with stainless steel utensils. B.C. is quite forward thinking, but we’re not perfect. There’s exciting things happening all across Canada. We just have to connect all those dots.”
Mitic is doing her best in that battle. She points out that Washington state is phasing out Atlantic salmon farming in state waters, and is hoping politicians in her hometown follow suit with similar restrictions. “That makes me feel super hopeful that if it works there it’s going to work here. We’re smart. We can do it. We need to do it.”
Mitic said Carmanah band has plans to visit fish farms in Alert Bay, to see firsthand how they are run. She’s hoping what she discovers will be relayed back to Carmanah’s followers, or make an appearance in a future song. “I think a big part of it is that people don’t get to see it firsthand. There’s a fish on their dinner table, and they are eating it. To see a [fish farm] will be pretty alarming. If we could all visit a fish farm, that would create the ban in itself.”
Carmanah flies east next week for dates on their upcoming Ontario tour, which means they will have to rent a van and leave their trusty touring truck at home. Mitic isn’t a huge fan of the idea, given that their Dodge Ram runs on filtered vegetable oil donated to them by Victoria restaurant Pink Bicycle.
“We’re a little sad about the gas bills we’re going to have to pay, because we’re pretty spoiled running on the vegetable oil,” she said with a laugh. “For a small band like us, that makes such a huge difference.”
Every little bit of effort counts where Carmanah is concerned.
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