By Dessa Bayrock (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 28, 2012
Fields of Green is Kyle Tubbs, Kevin Dreger, Connor Tkach, and Johnny Jansen. They hail from Kelowna, BC, and describe themselves as “eccentric yet aggressive” indie-folk-alternative. They are currently working on their second full-length album. The four of them sat down after band practice to answer a couple questions for The Cascade.
In your website blog you briefly touch on how helpful the Peak Performance Project boot camp was for you last year. What kind of doors did that open for you?
The Peak Performance Project was awesome. We became friends with a lot of really great Vancouver bands, which has made it easier to set up good shows both in Vancouver and back home in Kelowna. We also met and learned from several industry professionals, such as tour managers, major labels, publicists, live performance instructors, psychologists, media (TV, magazine, radio), producers, and more. By far the biggest door opened for us was meeting Garth Richardson. Garth, known as GGGarth, is a big name producer all over the world. Garth is mostly known for producing Rage Against The Machine’s first album. He’s also worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nickelback, Hedley, The Melvins, Biffy Clyro and countless others. We had the chance to work one on one with Garth at the PPP boot camp, recording a song with him. It was incredible. We are now about 75 per cent done recording our new album with Garth, alongside Vancouver engineer/producer Paul Boechler.
What’s your involvement with the Peak Performance Project this year, if any?
We will be applying for the PPP again this year, in hopes of making the top 20 again. The program is really extraordinary and we would love the opportunity to be a part of it again.
How did you start doing video logs, as a band, and how do you think that’s affected you as a band – promotionally and relationship-wise?
We started doing video logs at the PPP boot camp. Part of the boot camp is to have some sort of log at the end of each day, whether it be a written blog or a video log. We decided to do video logs because of our drummer’s (Johnny) years of experience with creating videos. The vlogs have definitely helped us in reaching people in a new way, other than just through our music. It gives us a chance to show our goofy side.
What’s the best experience you’ve had as a band?
Going back to the PPP boot camp, our best experience as a band has to be recording “I Left My Heart In Pigeon Park” with Garth and Paul. We started recording at around 7 p.m. and continued til about 6 a.m. It just felt… perfect. That experience has also carried on to the album we’re recording with Garth and Paul, spending weeks with them at Garth’s home studio and also in Vancouver at the new Fader Mountain Sound (formerly Little Mountain Studios).
Any crazy tour stories?
Well, it’s not exactly PG… but you know what is PG? Prince George. Prince George is surprisingly a pretty good place to play. We drove nine hours to PG, expecting a no-show, but the small venue “THIRD” ended up being packed out. Well worth the drive. Vancouver is obviously one of our favourite towns to play and just to be in general. The Red Room in Downtown Van is awesome. We played there last fall as part of the Peak Performance Project Showcase shows. It’s so [much] fun to play for a packed building. Kelowna’s music scene isn’t quite the same as it used to be, but there’s still a fantastic venue called The Habitat. It’s pretty much the staple venue in Kelowna for up-and-coming indie artists.
If you could play with any artist or celebrity, who would it be?
Harry Nilsson… but he’s dead. So perhaps in the afterlife. As far as living and still active artists, I think the most amazing band to play with would be Radiohead, no matter how unlikely. They’re one of our biggest influences, and a favourite band for all four of us.
What are five words you would say describe your musical style?
Transensational, retro-tri-mythical, psycho-rhythmic, Qui-Gon-sci-masculine, and loud.
