By the time they arrive back in Powell River from the Fade to Fall tour on Thursday, September 28, local musicians and songwriters Tyler Bartfai and Austin Parise, along with Vancouver's Shaun Rawlins, will have travelled about 3,300 kilometres in a used motorhome.
Parise and Rawlins are Bartfai’s travelling companions aboard what he calls the “moho.”
“It's not bad because I have a pretty big motorhome,” said Bartfai, who has done most of the driving. “It's 24 feet and has three separate beds so we can keep things pretty separate. We're all on relatively the same level of clean, but no one is a complete slob. It's actually been pretty easy.”
The tour has been smooth, according to all three, with the “moho” pulling into towns and cities across BC and Alberta and playing bars and coffee shops along the way.
Parise said the trio has met a lot of cool people, but he would be hard-pressed to pick a favourite stop.
“Every place we've played has had a little nugget of gold you can pull out of every show,” said Parise.
The indie folk singer/songwriters are playing solo sets and doing what travelling minstrels have done since people have had song: going from place to place and sharing stories.
“The most important aspect of music is connecting with people and, ultimately, without that connection, music is nothing,” said Rawlins. “If you can come off stage and have a conversation with people, that's the best way to connect with them and leave a lasting impression.”
Parise and Rawlins said the Calgary stop was particularly memorable. They joined a songwriter's circle around a fire and told the stories behind their songs.
“That's kind of the coolest thing you can do as a songwriter,” said Rawlins.
Bartfai and Parise are two of a handful of local indie musicians, including Lukah Bouchard, Ben Wayne Kyle and Jasper Sassaman, who have gained a lot of attention and grown in popularity around Powell River over the last two years.
Bartfai and Parise are the first to venture so far from home. Bartfai said he highly recommends that his musician friends go out on the road and make connections.
“If nothing else, we're not getting rich off of this,” he said, “but it's a wicked road trip that pays for itself and you make awesome musical connections with other singer/songwriters and people in the local music scenes.”
According to Parise, he was surprised by how often people they met knew where Powell River is on the map. Bartfai added that the sound technician at Blind Beggar Pub in Calgary was stoked on Texada Timewarp.
The guys are missing their girlfriends, but otherwise are a bit ambivalent about coming home.
“Home is where you're happy,” said Bartfai. “I'm pretty stoked to be on the road. I'm not in a rush to get back, but it will be nice to get back into the routine, fishing and home comforts.”
