What: Jon and Roy with Old Soul Rebel and DJ Murge
Where: Capital Ballroom, 858 Yates St.
When: April 5, 9 p.m. (doors at 8:30)
Tickets: $26.50 from ticketrocket.co and Lyle’s Place
Jon Middleton and Roy Vizer returned to Victoria Saturday from their latest European triumph, a tour that saw the duo and their bandmates play stages from England to Austria for the fifth time in three years.
It sounds like a dream scenario, until you consider their itinerary involved 14 shows in 15 days through five countries, during what was supposed to be a two-week break from work for Vizer, who teaches English at Reynolds Secondary School.
While other instructors use their spring breaks to recharge, Vizer flew to Europe and back in his role as the drummer for one of Victoria’s best bands.
“I know my schedule way in advance, but we put out an album, so we gotta go play the album for the people,” Vizer said.
The folk-rock band, which also features bassist Esme John and horn player Dave St. Jean, is touring to support Here, its eighth album. Jon and Roy close out their current run of dates with shows at the Capital Ballroom in Victoria on Friday and the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on Saturday.
Jon and Roy are nearly 15 years into a career that continues to produce impressive results, in spite of the scheduling conflicts. In addition to Vizer’s responsibilities as a teacher, Middleton, the group’s singer-guitarist and primary lyricist, has a successful and surging group of his own — Ocie Elliott, with girlfriend Sierra Lundy.
Neither project exists at the expense of the other, Vizer said. “Jon writes a crazy amount of songs,” he said with a laugh. “He’s crazy prolific. He pretty much lives and breathes music. There is very little time where he’s not thinking about or playing music.”
The constant unpredictability likely has something to do with their longevity, if not their continued success. Over-thinking never enters the equation.
“I’ve definitely seen people come and go and get burnt out,” Vizer said. “Sometimes, if you go too gung-ho and things don’t come together as you think they should, you get frustrated. You lose your mojo. We’ve always done things driven by the music and the audience’s response to it, not the other way around.” Here doesn’t veer from what Jon and Roy has done in the past, but chances were taken during the recording.
Vizer, an expert percussionist, infused the song My Baby’s Gone with drumming that wouldn’t be out of place on Paul Simon’s Graceland, a decision that was at their disposal in the studio.
The band produces its own recordings, which makes for quick decisions. “That’s where all the other opinions come in,” Vizer said. “I wouldn’t want to let our songs be created by someone else who doesn’t really know or understand where we are coming from. We avoid that entirely.”
Here was recorded in just over a week, but that shouldn’t suggest corner-cutting. Songs by Jon and Roy have been streamed 30 million times across various platforms, 10 million of which came from Every Night, their 2014 single. Combined with other benchmarks for the group — including advertising placements with Volkswagen, Ralph Lauren and Bloomingdales, among dozens of others — the band is in no danger of slowing down, or becoming less adventurous as they mature.
And they are growing more reflective in terms of their musicality. “This one felt like it had elements of all the stylistic things we tried in the past,” Vizer said. “It has a little bit of all of our records in it.”
