{"id":183,"date":"2009-12-03T09:03:59","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T15:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=183"},"modified":"2009-12-03T09:03:59","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T15:03:59","slug":"the-f-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2009\/12\/03\/the-f-holes\/","title":{"rendered":"The F-Holes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pluckin\u2019 Away
\n<\/em>
\nBy Sarah Petz
\n<\/strong>
\n\"fholes\"There aren\u2019t a lot of bands who can hop from playing a gig in the dingy nonchalance of the Times Change(d) to a children\u2019s festival, or from a wedding reception to a university restaurant. But local band the F-Holes, who have a versatile sound that could be called jazz or blues as much as it could be country or swing, are doing just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s something that appeals to a lot of different people. We\u2019ve played some shows for the Children\u2019s [Fringe Festival], and some shows where it\u2019s just like an older crowd,\u201d said Eric Lemoine, who plays banjo among other instruments in the band. \u201cIt seems everybody kind of enjoys parts of it.\u201d
\nAlong with Lemoine, the F-Holes consist of Patrick Alexandre (vocals, upright bass), Blake Thompson (guitar), Evan Friesen (drums), and the newest edition, James McKee on trumpet.<\/p>\n

Their dynamic live set, that sounds like it could belong in a speakeasy circa 1930, has surprised some of their out of town audiences, expecting a sound that\u2019s a bit more subtle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe out of town stuff\u2019s always pretty interesting,\u201d said Lemoine. \u201cSmall town bars are usually looking for AC\/DC or something like that, and then we start playing this other stuff that they might not have heard, it usually goes over fairly well but it\u2019s not necessarily what they\u2019re used to listening to. It\u2019s always pretty interesting; you meet some local flavour.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the band\u2019s set may sound deliberately vintage and rambunctious, Lemoine says it was less of a conscious effort than it was the result of a combination of years of playing together with each member having their own distinct style.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it just kinda came about. We didn\u2019t always have this lineup. James is the newest one to the band. When James joined, Patrick started picking up the upright bass and I started introducing other instruments and banjo. I think everybody kind of has there own different styles, Blake our guitar player used to play in a surf band, and Evan our drummer has a bit more a jazz-style.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s lineup has built over a long period of time, with Lemoine, Friesen and Alexandre having played together since they were teenagers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Blake, it\u2019s kind of a funny story. I think we were about 17 and we went to the old Blue Note Caf\u00e9 that was on Portage. There were lots of young bands that liked to play there and Blake\u2019s surf band was playing. We actually approached Blake\u2019s brother to try to get him to join us as our bass player,\u201d said Lemoine. \u201cSo he came and played with us a couple times. And that\u2019s how we met Blake our guitar player, and he just kind of joined the band after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKee joined the band after meeting Lemoine through a mutual friend. \u201cThe guys started inviting me more after work to jam sessions, we used to do it every Tuesday and Thursday night for like a year,\u201d said McKee. \u201cAnd I would go with my silencer at the end of my trumpet so I wouldn\u2019t blow the roof off the house and we could jam all night long. That\u2019s how I got introduced to everybody.\u201d Having such a diverse sound lends flexibility to the band\u2019s options for venues.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially with the different styles that we do obviously, if there\u2019s a certain place that\u2019s bit more suited to country, we\u2019ll load the sets with more of the country stuff,\u201d said Lemoine. \u201cWe have that luxury where we can kind of tailor it more to the audience, if we know what they\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can even do jazz at a wedding reception,\u201d added McKee.<\/p>\n

The F-Holes recorded their self-titled debut album this past March, and it was critically well-received. With the recent purchase of a touring van, the band plans on taking on the festival circuit this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 30 to 40 music festivals that we\u2019re applying to, we\u2019ll see what we get out of that, and supplement that with bars and whatever else we can get,\u201d said McKee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts kind of tough because we\u2019re looking to get into the Calgary Folk Fest, they receive about 20,000 submissions and they have 200 slots for independent artists. All the other ones are booked through either labels or agencies,\u201d said Lemoine. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna start with smaller festivals first and it gets easier once you build up a bit of a name for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can find the F-Holes blowing the roof off the Toad in the Hole this New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pluckin\u2019 Away By Sarah Petz There aren\u2019t a lot of bands who can hop from playing a gig in the dingy nonchalance of the Times Change(d) to a children\u2019s festival, or from a wedding reception to a university restaurant. But local band the F-Holes, who have a versatile sound that could be called jazz or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[563,818],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-local","tag-roots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}