Farmer the Band, Habitat for the Arts
May 1 8 p.m.
$15
Glen Koide is one half of Farmer the Band, a B.C-based married-couple touring two-piece with a name that lends itself to fun sentences. He and Lourine will be at Habitat for the Arts on May 1 with their first album on their third tour. Forthwith, Craig Gilbert gave him the fifth degree.
Fitzhugh: Is Where the Rails Bend your first album?
Glen Koide: It’s our first real album. Our first one was done really quick and was more of a demo.
Fitz: How long have you been together?
Glen: We’ve been performing together for close to six years, four as Farmer the Band.
Fitz: How long have you been married?
Glen: It’ll be four years in August.
Fitz: I read the blurb about you resisting the two-man one-man band cliche. Then I watched one of your live videos and saw that you two are actually on stage playing all these instruments at the same time. How did it get to that, because not everyone goes that route.
Glen: (Laughs) We were writing songs together and there was something missing. So ‘this probably needs something lower, like a bassline.’ So we’re write a set but we’d only use the bass for a couple of the songs. Then it became like ‘well, it works well in those songs, maybe it will in a couple of others, too.’ Then we said, ‘we could probably use some percussion,’ so we started with just a little cahone we were kicking with our foot to give it a thump. That was only for a few songs, so we didn’t want to have to go out and get a whole band and deal with schedules and coordinating practices and tours. Eventually it became every song was using all these instruments.
Fitz: How long is the tour?
Glen: Our kickoff show is on April 28 and we won’t be back into B.C. until July 10.
Fitz: You don’t have any kids?
Glen: Just us. And the instruments.
Fitz: How do you feel about where the music is at right now?
Glen: Oh, man. I think any artist would agree we’re all our own harshest critic. I’m happy with it, but then a month goes on and I know I could do this better, and we keep improving as the days go on. So it seems like tomorrow is going to be great, today was good, yesterday we could have done that better.
Fitz: What do you think it’s going to be like touring behind an album?
Glen: I think it’s going to be great. On our first tour, we were so excited to get out on the road and we were really green. We were puppies trying to figure everything out as we went. Our second tour, we had an album but we weren’t able to get it mixed or printed yet so we actually went out on our without an album, just promising everyone it’s going to be good.
This time we have some professionally recorded stuff online, we have videos to go along with a few of the songs and we were able to get our songs onto a few radio stations across the country. I feel like that’s going to help, I feel like there’s a nice, positive light at the end of this tunnel.
Fitz: So where, all over?
Glen: I had been sending out emails and today I got an email back from a station that said ‘we’re already playing your songs, we’ll keep doing that and we’ll promote your show.’ We’d never contacted this radio station before, so somehow through the interwebs…
Fitz: What can folks expect when they come down to Habitat for the Arts?
Glen: There’s gonna be tears and laughter and t-shirts.
Fitz: And albums this time.
Glen: And albums. We’re coming there to entertain and make people enjoy a good night of live music.
Fitz: Well that’s always appreciated in town.
Glen: There’s been numerous people through the Canadian circuit that list Jasper as one of their favourite places to play. I remember Del Barber saying that. There’s something in the water.
