Canadian Musician November / December 2019 | Page 45

Japan to the U.K. and Europe to
the U.S., Mexico, and more.
“We did a lot of industry
showcasing in 2019 and got
some great opportunities out of
that,” Chaisson says, pointing to
some high-profile festival slots
throughout the U.S. this summer.
“It was cool to really dig into that
scene; there are so many good
festivals there and a really strong
roots music scene,” he adds, not-
ing the band hopes to continue
pushing further into the American
market going forward.
As for some of the more
distant and less-common des-
tinations they’ve performed,
Chaisson recalls a sold-out date
at a theatre in Japan with 1,500
spectators at the end of 2018.
“We got up there onstage and
it just felt so bizarre – especially
because the people really knew
our music, too,” he recalls. “We
just had so much fun in Japan,
and that last show in particular
just felt so unreal.”
(L-R) Jake Charron, Tim Chaisson & Koady Chaisson of The East Pointers
record than we’ve had in the past,”
Chaisson shares about a contributor
to their sonic shift. “He’s an amazing
keyboard player, though for a while,
we were never dedicated to dragging
a keyboard around on the road. This
time, though, we played around with
that element a lot more.”
What We Left Behind had its
share of electronic flourishes and other
modern influences, and Chaisson
says between its studio sessions and
support dates, they decided to add a
Nord keyboard to Charron’s stage set-
up along with triggers at Koady’s feet
for deep digital bass notes and some
percussion tools in his own share of real
estate. For their upcoming dates, it’s
likely their bodies will be even busier.
“It’s basically utilizing every limb
that we have, but trying not to make it
that we’re always nerding out onstage
[with effects and digital instruments]
and having people distracted, like,
‘What are they doing?’” Chaisson
jokes. “We could have been lazy and
just done acoustic arrangements of
everything, but the three of us really
want [these new songs] to come off as
best as they possibly can.”
That’s been a constant for their live
show since day one, when the trio was
performing without a studio album to
their name. In the time since, they’ve
honed their craft in front of audiences
around the world, from Australia to
They’ll be busy adding even
more pins to their cumulative
travel map once their latest col-
lection sees the light of day, first
with a Canadian trek beginning in
November 2019 and then tours
of Australia and the U.K. in the
first few months of 2020. As such,
they’ll be continuing their unof-
ficial mission of converting both
trad music purists and modern
indie folk lovers into fans of their
own and, subsequently, endear-
ing each to the sounds from the
opposite end of that spectrum.
Indeed, with Yours to Break,
The East Pointers seem to be less
concerned with upholding tradi-
tions, and more with continuing
to carve out some of their own.
Andrew King is the
Editor-in-Chief of
Canadian Musician.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 45