Earth Freaks, a local Victoria band, are swinging for the fences and have booked the Capital Ballroom for their sophomore album release on Thursday May 15th.
They are a psychedelic rock band who are known for their fuzzed out riffs that really channel the spirit of the 60s with a modern, west coast twist.
Earth Freaks have a slough of special treats for the crowd at this monumental gig—they have planned a special psychedelic light show, as well as several special performances by special guests.
Given the current lack of music venues in this town, the band decided they wanted this show to be special. They put a lot of work into the record and wanted the show to reflect that work, so the Capital Ballroom made the most sense as the place to celebrate their achievement.
For this performance, they will be joined by fellow locals, Standard Issue Pleasure Model and Poppa Don Gernie.
Who are Earth Freaks?
The four-piece psych-rock outfit is comprised of Riley Stewart and Zyan Fukushima-Rael on guitar and vocals, Evans Daybell-Chambers on bass and vocals as well as Max Spielman on the drums.
Stewart says that all members of the band grew up scattered throughout the Kootenays, but was formed while in Nelson, attending Selkirk College’s music program.
“We played around Nelson for about a year before we made the move to Victoria,” Stewart told Victoria Buzz.
“Nelson’s great, it’s got a really nice, vibrant arts scene and the music school is really good there, but it’s small and it’s isolated by a lot of mountains and a lot of driving. So if you ever want to play in a bigger city, you can only really do that six months of the year.”
The band piled their instruments, and their lives, into a van and moved westward to Victoria, citing the supportive music community and proximity to places like Vancouver, Seattle and Portland as the reason.
Once in town, Earth Freaks found a small, cheap house in Esquimalt and moved in, turning a portion of their home into a studio space to start recording the songs they had written thus far.
“They were about to tear it down, and said ‘oh you can just live here month-to-month, we don’t know when it’s coming down,’” Stewart explained.
“We started recording right away and very rushed—kind of as a challenge to see how fast we can crank this out with minimal equipment and experience.
That first, self-titled record came out on New Year’s Eve going into 2023, and had been a combination of everything they had done up until that point.
For their second record though, they went about it differently.
Earth Freaks had to vacate their Esquimalt home, toured around for a few months, then found a new home base in Saanich—where they still all share a home. They saved up and worked on their music, knowing they wanted to record their follow-up album in a studio.
Their new album will be released on the day of their Capital Ballroom show on Thursday, May 15th, and Stewart says it is an exploration of the other end of their musical spectrum this time around.
“We decided we wanted to do it completely opposite this time,” he said.
“The first album was kind of fast-paced, garagey and kind of punk, whereas this new record is a lot more polished, laid back and psychedelic—it still sounds like us but it’s the other side of us.”
Release show
The band has played Capital Ballroom before and loves the prestigious feel, the raised stage and the quality of sound attainable in the space, but knows it is a big room for a lineup of locals to sell-out.
Though the room has a max capacity of around 700 when the upper balconies are opened, the capacity for this show will be around 575, which Stewart says still feels like a reach.
“I sure hope so,” he said when asked if they thought they would be able to sell out the show.”
“In all honesty, I would be pleasantly surprised if we do; but, Standard Issue Pleasure Model is awesome and they bring a good draw, Poppa Don Gernie is super fun and they got a lot of people who come out to their shows.”
“When we first got into town and started meeting people in the scene, some of the people from Poppa Don Gernie and Stand Issue were in some other bands… Those were some of the first bands and friends that we were playing with,” Stewart explained.
“We wanted the bands we played this show with to reflect our start in this city to show where we are all at now.”
He added that Earth Freaks hasn’t played a show in town for a while, so he hopes that people will want to come out and see what they’ve been working so hard on.
For their set, Earth Freaks will be tailoring the setlist to show their progression as a band and will end with them playing the new record from start to finish.
They will be joined onstage throughout the show by friends and musicians they share a connection with and the whole set will be accompanied by a psychedelic light show produced by Acid Rain.
“It’s this guy Greg, who is a legend,” Steward said.
“He’s in his 70s and he’s been doing liquid light shows for a long time, and that fits with the whole psychedelic thing we’re going for. He’s the real deal.”
Additionally, the new album will be pressed on vinyl, but unfortunately the physical copies won’t be ready by the release show.
Tickets for this release show are online now! Support local music and local venues!
Earth Freaks Album Release Show
- Where: Capital Ballroom, 858 Yates Street
- When: Thursday, May 15th.
- Tickets: $15, plus fees—available online
