SuppliedShred Kelly
Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 9 p.m.
The Buckingham (10439 82 Avenue)
Free
Shred Kelly proves it takes a village to raise a band. After getting their start in Fernie, a ski town nestled in the south eastern mountains of British Columbia, the band is an undeniable product of their small-town environment.
Their ski-hill identity is ex-emplified by their name, directly drawn from their close-knit community. They christened themselves Shred Kelly after seeing their friend dressed up as a snowboarding version of Australian historical figure Ned Kelly, a rebellious Robin Hood-like figure, at a Halloween show.
Having originally moved to the region from Ontario for the purpose of skiing and snowboarding, they found common ground in a love for music.
“We discovered at a town night that we all had music in common and that we were all playing with different groups,” Sage McBride, Shred Kelly’s vocalist says. “We just started playing music together and then formed into a band. We never knew we were actually going to be a touring band or that this would eventually turn into a career.”
The support of their community has been crucial and is most evident in the creation of their new music video for title track “Sing to the Night.” It was made with the aid of a local filmmaker, a circus performance group, the town’s ski resort and helpful Fernie citizens. The local ski hill Fernie Alpine Resort even lent a hand, closing off a section of the mountain for the band to use as a set for the video.
Having a home town crowd that believes in this band’s potential is an invaluable resource that allowed this band to transition away from being a jam band and to take their career on the road.
“(Local support is) definitely the reason why we were given the wings to get so far,” says McBride. “So we were like ‘Fernie likes us, maybe we can take this music elsewhere and other people might enjoy it too.’”
With the Jan. 27th release of their new album Sing to the Night and the beginning of their two-month, cross-Canada tour, Shred Kelly has come a long way. This record is their third full-length album and is a milestone in the creative growth of the band, marking their jump into new forms of musical experimentation.
“A lot of inspiration was (from) our past. We were more personal on this album. We lyrically tapped into places that we didn’t really go before,” Mcbride says. “There’s definitely more influences from the ‘70s and ‘80s. We experiment more with retro synthesizers, so there’s more of a vintage sound.”
Their genre, “stoke-folk,” was coined by a friend of the band and is a perfect descriptor for their brand of high-energy folk rock.
“It’s folk music that gets you really stoked,” says vocalist and keyboardist Sage Mcbride. “It will be a sweaty dance party that’s just really uplifting. Wherever anyone is in a cold Canadian winter, it’ll be something that’ll warm the dance floors and your spirit.”
While embarking on their national tour, Shred Kelly has strong ties to their mountain home of Fernie, and will continue to tap into the stories the small town to influence their music.
“There’s a lot of large-spirted people move who to the mountains,” Mcbride says. “They are all really vibrant and full of a lot of life and that is the inspiration behind a lot of our music.”
