Mike Edel and Towers & Trees at the Duncan Showroom

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Wednesday, April 8th, 2015
8:00 PM

Mike Edel, touring his new CD "The Last Of Our Mountains", performs at the Duncan Showroom on April 8 with special guests Towers and Trees.

Tickets are available in advance for $15 at www.showroomproductions.ca/buy-tickets and for $20 at the door.

MIKE EDEL

With his debut The Last Of Our Mountains, Edel has learned that home, love and youthfulness are neither innocent nor simple. Born in rural Alberta, his youth was spent between rocky mountains and vast wheat fields. These landscapes shaped the album; a sharp and urgent collection of 8 songs that give way to the adventurous, compassionate and delicate.

Produced by Vancouver’s Winston Hauschild (Hannah Georgas, Hey Ocean), the making of The Last Of Our Mountains saw, a new human being birthed, the last use of Mushroom Studio’s vintage gear, an emergency trip to the hospital and many passages across the Strait of Georgia. The collection is bookended by Bottom Floor Apartment, in which smiles reassure and The Country Where I Came From where the longing for the idea of home and infinite possibilities of youth and love grow narrow. Mike Edel has since relocated from his family’s wheat farm to the seaside city of Victoria BC, where he has quickly formed a personal and musical home.

Mike Edel is no stranger to touring, he has toured across Western Canada 5 times and the Pacific Coastal States on 3 occasions. Since relocating to Victoria, Edel has grown to be one of the city’s best singer/songwriters. He’s performed at The Rifflandia Festival, The Tongue on the Post Folk Festival, selected as the Peak Performance Projects Top 20 artists in BC 2012, and won Rawlco Radio’s 10K20 grant while playing alongside Vince Vaccaro, Aidan Knight, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald and Chad Van Gaalen.

TOWERS AND TREES

Towers and Trees are an indie rock collective from Victoria, BC with a rich, anthemic sound and thoughtful songwriting that harkens to groups like Hey Rosetta, The Arcade Fire and Coldplay. With its roots as a home recording project by singer/songwriter Adrian Chalifour, the original vision of Towers and Trees was simply to rediscover the joy of creating and sharing music, free of any pressure, measure or expectation.

It was an intrinsically collaborative endeavour, and as a growing parade of musicians joined in to contribute their creativity to Chalifour’s collection of heartfelt songs, what emerged was a rich and authentic album (the Broken Record EP) which blossomed into an explosive live experience that has caught the attention of audiences and industry alike.

Towers and Trees’ debut single “Montreal” broke into commercial, college and CBC radio in early 2013. The band was named the Zone @ 91.3’s Band of the Month and a finalist in Music BC’s PEAK Performance Project, and made appearances at several of BC’s premier festivals (Rifflandia, Tall Tree, Khatsahlano, V.I.C. Fest). Broken Record also earned multiple award nominations (VIMA and “M Awards”). During this time, the collective continued to hone its sound and stage craft, establishing itself as one of BC’s most notable emerging indie acts.

Armed with a burgeoning catalogue of new material and an energized fanbase (who helped fund a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign), Towers and Trees returned to the creative process in late 2014. This time, they entered the studio with acclaimed Vancouver producer/engineer Alex Aligizakis (We Hunt Buffalo, Bend Sinister) to record a full-length follow up to their debut effort.

Towers and Trees released West Coast, the first song (and title track) from the forthcoming album in January, 2015. West Coast showcases T&T’s melodic sensibilities, with effortless hooks and a bigger, bolder studio sound absent from their home-recorded debut. It also again casts a spotlight on Chalifour’s ability to write songs that are strikingly vulnerable and yet instantly accessible.

A poignant reflection on making peace in the cold-water waves of BC’s rugged coastline, the song is as Chalifour describes, “about that line in the sand called forgiveness; that moment that separates what was from what may be.”

“the imagery of making a fire, sharing a warm drink, washing in cold waves. It’s a little tragic but it’s cathartic, and it’s the moment I needed to capture before I could create an album that believes in love even in the midst of losing it,” he says.

The West Coast LP is expected out later in 2015.