Victoria and Vancouver Island have a lot of musical talent, and Victoria Buzz wants to highlight some of the best and brightest local artists and bands.
Every Monday, there will be a fresh ‘New Music Monday’ article to help people find and support local artists and bands that are up-and-coming, well established or hidden gems!
For this endeavour, Victoria Buzz has partnered with our good friends at CFUV 101.9 FM, UVic’s campus radio station, to find and select the musicians and bands for this regular column.
This week, Conjure Hand is the New Music Monday highlight!
Conjure Hand has been making waves in Victoria for over a year now and are now getting ready to release their first full-length album.
The five-piece rock-n-roll outfit is comprised of AJ Kovar on vocals and guitar, Victor Horne on bass, Duncan Chisholm on drums, Arin Argus on guitar and Vincent Dupuis on keyboards is their latest addition to the band.
“Almost all my favourite bands have a keyboard player and Vince can emulate any of the classic styles but also adds his own flair to everything,” Kovar told Victoria Buzz.
Together, they make music that is inspired by blues and soul of the 1970s which lyrically shares the stories of Black history and lower class struggles throughout the Americas.
It’s been a busy year for the band as they have played shows throughout the city and have gained a solid following. One highlight of the year was playing a CFUV fundraiser event in the summer to a sold-out Lucky Bar.
“The bar was so packed and it was the first time I could say I felt the whole room resonate with the crowd dancing to our music,” said Kovar.
“It was so rad. We also met Vince at this show and from there it was history.”
When making music, Conjure Hand is very intentional about how they approach songwriting. One example of this is the first single they’ve released off their upcoming album called “Underdog (The Story Of John Ware).”
“I learned about John Ware when I was a young man in Alberta,” Kovar explained.
“He was a black cowboy who after Emancipation was hired to bring a head of thousands of cattle up to Alberta from Texas and ended up settling land around the Calgary, Red Deer area.”
Even though John Ware is a national icon to many, Kovar finds that more often than not, Canadians never heard of him.
Kovar encourages anyone who has the time to watch John Ware Reclaimed, a documentary about Ware’s life made in 2020.
Musically, Kovar says that the reason why he loves rock-and-roll so much is because it began as Black music; however, while growing up, he found that most people thought of it as music by and for white people.
“Without blues and roots we wouldn’t have rock, funk, country, metal, punk or hip hop,” stated Kovar.
“In every one of those genres, you can find a Black person who was at the pioneering stages of them.”
He added that certain negative outcomes of the civil rights movement, which include racism, the crack epidemic of the 80s and three-strike rules of the 90s, decimated the Black family unit and also the Black musical family.
He continued that slowly, these reasons impacted the music scene throughout North America, making playing in a band comprised of Black people more inaccessible, and giving rise to more accessible genres such as rap and hip hop.
“So now fast forward to today’s age and people forget that Black folks played actual instruments and we aren’t just all rappers or singers,” he explained. “Nothing wrong with that either but it’s not the full picture.”
“How this ties into John ware is that, myself being from Alberta and being a more blue collar person, I found myself underrepresented and misunderstood as a black person who likes engaging with nature, shooting guns and getting his hands dirty.”
Preview “Underdog (The Story Of John Ware)” below:
To listen to the song in its entirety, as well as Conjure Hand’s other recordings, check them out on Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music.
This is the first single off their upcoming album which is slated for release on January 18th at Wheelies in Victoria.
Other songs on the album will deal with themes of historic topics such as runaways slaves, the 1960s race riots, the scramble for Africa, while some deal with deeper topics like the breakup of the black family, religion and stereotypes.
Follow Conjure Hand on Instagram for updates on their album release and other upcoming shows.
Related:
- New Music Monday: Juniper Smile rises from the ashes of another prominent Victoria band
- New Music Monday: Oily James embraces the weird on ‘Head Phone Music’ EP
- New Music Monday: Best Man explores grief through ‘gut-wrenching harmonies’ on debut EP
CFUV is a non-profit campus and community radio station that plays a ton of local music of all kinds across Vancouver Island. If you like to support local music they are an amazing resource with a plethora of new local tunes in their arsenal.
“CFUV breaks up the monotony of what people take in as music,” Kovar said. “Their ability to take from the underground of local musicians is invaluable and helps transform Victoria into a unique music community.”
“There’s bands here that really feed off each other and the ability to check out your buddies band on the radio and get stoked on it and want to work together or even be influenced by it is really neat.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of Conjure Hand in the comments below.
