{"id":7543,"date":"2013-08-16T13:28:48","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T13:28:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=7543"},"modified":"2013-08-16T13:28:48","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T13:28:48","slug":"powder-blue-turn-up-the-heavy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2013\/08\/16\/powder-blue-turn-up-the-heavy\/","title":{"rendered":"Powder Blue turn up the heavy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"powderblue2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Sheldon Birnie<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saskatoon’s Powder Blue are creating quite the buzz around themselves; a heavy, fuzzed out, droning buzz. The psychedelic quartet released their debut disc<\/em> Dream in Black earlier this year, and have played stellar gigs across the West since. With a new member and some new tunes in tow, they return to Winnipeg this weekend to rock the Windsor with fellow ‘Toon towners Shooting Guns<\/a>.<\/em> Stylus caught up with Shelby Gaudet as they prepared for this mini prairie tour.<\/em><\/p>\n

Stylus: I really dug your record,\u00a0Dream in Black.<\/em>\u00a0I guess it’s not very new at this point, but could you tell me a little about what went into the making of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SG:<\/strong> I kind of came to the band with the songs in tact… My phone is doing a weird beeping thing, hold on… Yeah, I mean we all came to the songs and then kind of arranged them together. It kind of came quickly, we recorded right away.<\/p>\n

Stylus: What has been the reception to the record, and playing those songs live across western Canada?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SG:<\/strong> People are liking it. It’s different from what a lot of people expect from us. Which is cool, I guess I don’t really know what people are expecting. But it’s nice when you can surpass people’s expectations.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Are you working on new material? Any plans for a new record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SG:<\/strong> Yeah, we have a few new songs. For this next album, we’re working on writing the songs together. Which is always, it always takes a bit longer. You try everybody’s… You end up trying the songs more ways. It takes longer, but it’ll be worth it in the end. It’ll be better. It’ll probably be a stronger album, with more to it.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Any indication at this point how those songs are going? Is it a kind of departure from this one, or more of a natural evolution?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SG:<\/strong> It’s pretty similar, but it’s going to be heavier. I bought a new pedal when I was out in Austin. It’s pretty heavy. I’ll make a lot more use of that. It’s hard, as a guitar player, you’re always trying to find the sound that you want. That’s kind of always evolving. But the songs are pretty similar.<\/p>\n

Stylus: You were one of the many, many bands that were impacted by the floods in Calgary during Sled Island. How did that end up working out for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SG:<\/strong> We didn’t get to play. The festival was cancelled the morning of our show. Elsa [Gebremichael, keys, drums, vocals] wasn’t able to make Sled Island. So it was just going to be me, Amber [Kraft, drums, keys, vocals] and Sonia [Dickin, bass, vocal]. So we decided to just go to Edmonton and try to play some shows there. We contacted the Wunderbar, and they put on a show all day for the bands [who were impacted by Sled]. We ran into some bands there who invited us to play a house party. So we got two shows out of it. It turned out to be pretty good, people were really understanding.<\/p>\n

Stylus: This is your third time in Winnipeg. What have your previous shows been like? What’s Winnipeg’s reception to your band been?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SG:<\/strong> I think we have the best crowd in Winnipeg, actually. The first time our show fell through, I can’t remember where we were supposed to play but it was with Shooting Guns too. And friends just put together a show last minute at NGTV SPC. I don’t know, it just felt like as soon as we got there we just had all these friends and people liked us and bought our albums.We had such a good welcoming back when we came back to play Cluster Fest. I think that’s why, too. There are more artist spaces, rather than playing to a party crowd at a bar. This time we’re playing a bar, so we’ll see.<\/p>\n

Stylus: You’re playing again with Shooting Guns. What’s the scene in Saskatoon for the more artsy, heavy music you folks are playing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SG:<\/strong> It’s good. It’s different. It’s weird. You see a lot of young people and also a lot of old people. A lot of hipsters which is surprising. It’s pretty diverse. It’s not really a certain scene, it’s always different people.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Keeps it exciting I guess.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SG:<\/strong> Yeah. It’s cool, at a lot of shows you see the same people in Saskatoon. But those types of shows there are always people who you’re like, “Oh where did\u00a0that<\/em> person come from?”<\/p>\n

Stylus: What can we expect from Saturday’s show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SG:<\/strong> We haven’t played a live show in a while, so it’s going to have a lot of energy because we’re so excited. We’re going to have a heavier set because we’re playing with Shooting Guns and we have some new songs that are a little heavier. And the Blisters are also playing, from Winnipeg. I’ve never heard them, so I’m really excited!<\/p>\n

Don’t miss Saskatoon’s Powder Blue and Shooting Guns, with hometown heroes the Blisters, at the Windsor Hotel on Saturday, August 17. $10 at the door will get you in, and the party starts at 10pm. It’s going to be fucking heavy!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sheldon Birnie Saskatoon’s Powder Blue are creating quite the buzz around themselves; a heavy, fuzzed out, droning buzz. The psychedelic quartet released their debut disc Dream in Black earlier this year, and have played stellar gigs across the West since. With a new member and some new tunes in tow, they return to Winnipeg […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[756,832,853,1103],"class_list":["post-7543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-powder-blue","tag-saskatoon","tag-shooting-guns","tag-windsor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7543","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}