Revelstoke Summer Street Fest kicks off this weekend with performances by the Revelstoke Pipe Band and The Carbons.
Now based in Kelowna, Tomy Thisdale has been lead guitar and vocals for The Carbons since August 2018.
Since then he has recruited both a new drummer, Paul Minor, and a new bass player, Conroy Ross.
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Thisdale and the original band members played their first show in the midst of wildfire season last summer and there was ash falling from the sky during their concert.
When they were in the studio recording their album a few months later they decided to pay homage to that moment and called their album August Ash.
Thisdale moved to Kelowna from Calgary, where he had both played with a band and dabbled as an acoustic solo act.
Though he was warned about the music scene in his new city, it just keeps getting better and better.
“Honestly I found home when I moved to Kelowna,” he said.
Thisdale picked up guitar in high school. He was already playing drums but saw his jazz teacher on drums, guitar and piano.
He thought, I can do it to and learned to play, at first dabbling in death metal.
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That eventually transitioned to more of a Jack Johnson, Michael Bublé feel, Thisdale said with a laugh.
These days the band describes its sound as groove rock, and if they don’t have you dancing they will at least have your foot tapping.
The songs come to the band in different ways.
For example, Black Mirror, its latest release, started as a couple guitar riffs that Thisdale came up with while he was in Nicaragua. The lyrics and melody came afterwards.
Sometimes it is the other way around and the band starts with a lyric or a melody, said Thisdale.
It released an album last fall and have enough songs for another, so expect a lot of original music in Grizzly Plaza June 29.
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jocelyn.doll@revelstokereview.com
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