Sepulchre: The East Pointers, What We Leave Behind

Wed 6 Dec – Sepulchre, Hobart TAS

The East Pointers
What We Leave Behind
New album out Friday 29 September

JUNO-Award winning Canadian trio The East Pointers release their second album, What We Leave Behind on Friday 29 September, and announce a battery of Australian dates that have them in every capital city and territory across the country.

Dazzling musicianship and wild live shows have connected The East Pointers with audiences across the globe, making original roots music the hippest thing going. Fiddler/singer Tim Chaisson, banjoist Koady Chaisson and guitarist Jake Charron write about real life, sketching out its joys and sorrows in vivid strokes. That palpable authenticity makes their instrumental tunes practically cartwheel and infuses their lyric-driven songs with poignancy. Listening to The East Pointers’ brilliant second album What We Leave Behind – produced by superstar East Coast-bred songwriter/producer Gordie Sampson – is akin to meeting up with an old friend – and then going out for twenty drinks.

As a follow-up to 2015’s internationally acclaimed, JUNO Award-winning debut Secret Victory, What We Leave Behind reflects on the traditions of East Coast Canadian Celtic music, but also takes giant strides in new directions. With a captivating balance between their traditional-sounding instrumental tunes, and radio-ready songs, The East Pointers reach out with open arms to a wide range of listeners, inviting them to discover a love for a new style of music.

‘We’ve met such a variety of people through our shows,’ says Koady Chaisson, ‘from the women who knitted us hats during our shows in the far North of Scotland through to groups of young surfy guys singing along to the instrumental parts in ‘Cold’, in Australia. I think it’s because it’s music with a really wide entry point – there’s a lot going on but it invites you right in.’

The East Pointers deftly leverage the whole spectrum of human emotion, drawing inspiration from the world they come from and the world they move through now – fishing boats and small communities are offset by stories and inspirations from further afield. This maturity is evident in a pair of striking new songs featuring Tim Chaisson’s lead vocals: the first single ‘82 Fires’, co-written with Australian Liz Stringer, and the melancholy ‘Two Weeks,’ co-written with Sampson amid recording sessions at Nashville’s famed Sound Emporium in February.

‘Two Weeks’ documents a passage depressingly common in the band’s home province of Prince Edward Island and played out the world over in economically challenged communities: the need to leave home and travel far away from friends and family to find work, and the havoc it can wreak on your personal relationships and health.

“When I played that song for my mom, she said ‘That’s going to hit home for a lot of people,” Koady Chaisson says. “On the Island many families are forced to split their time, with at least one member having to go out west – usually to Alberta – to make ends meet. It’s so hard. I did it, though luckily not for long, but there are people in my community going through it month after month, year after year.”

The flip side of What We Leave Behind – and of The East Pointers’ electrifying concerts – are scorching instrumental tunes that yank the freewheeling, Celtic past into the present.

“Traditional music has always been at the core of what we do as a band,” explains Jake Charron. “There’s something powerful about a style of music that has been passed on for generations around the world.” This new take on tradition is evident in ‘Party Wave,’ inspired by the band’s maiden surfing voyage in New Zealand, one of many countries The East Pointers visited during 10 months of touring in 2016. The tunes, written over a year on the road, take you on a journey, building the excitement before transforming into a full-on dance party.

Other album strong points include the melancholic ‘John Wallace’ – about a 19th century shipwreck off the coast of Prince Edward Island – and the mournful ‘Hid in Your Heart’ which upholds the band’s devotion to documenting real life.

What We Leave Behind carves a new path for The East Pointers, as they continue to blur the lines between traditional and popular music and develop a devoted fan base around the globe.

Australian fans of the trio can see them live when they touch down later this year, taking in venues and festivals in their first full national tour from November into the New Year.

“The band serve up a spectacular mix of traditional and contemporary music, instrumental prowess and lyrical thoughtfulness…[a] beautifully crafted piece of work, filled with instrumental intrigue and narrative complexity” – The Music

Australian 2017 Tour Dates:
16-19 Nov – Mullum Music Festival, Mullumbimby NSW
24-26 Nov – Queenscliff Music Festival, Queenscliff VIC
Thu 30 Nov – Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh VIC
Sun 3 Dec – Toff in Town, Melbourne VIC
Wed 6 Dec – Sepulchre, Hobart TAS
Thu 7 Dec – Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centre, Canberra ACT
Fri 8 Dec – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine VIC
Sat 9 Dec – Metropole, Katoomba NSW
Thu 14 Dec – Jive, Adelaide SA
Fri 15 Dec – Darwin Railway Club, Darwin NT
Sat 16 Dec – Albany Entertainment Centre, Albany WA
Sun 17 Dec – Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle WA
27 Dec – 1 Jan – Woodford Folk Festival, Woodford QLD
Thu 4 Jan – Sol Bar, Sunshine Coast, QLD
Fri 5 Jan – Old Museum, Bowen Hills, Brisbane, QLD
Sat 6 Jan – The Factory Theatre, Marrickville, Sydney NSW
Sun 7 Jan – Lizotte’s, Newcastle NSW
Tickets and further information at eastpointers.ca
Tilly Morris