Blog

Apr 30th 2014

Making of Ulysses Documentary

Making of Ulysses Documentary

Our new album 'Ulysses' comes out in N. America on Tuesday May 6th. We made a documentary on the Making of Ulysses which has been split into 4 parts for easy viewing digestion. Part 1: web link Part 2: web link Part 3: web link Part 4: web link

Nov 25th 2013

Current Swell is back in the studio!

Current Swell is back in the studio!

Hey everyone, we are ecstatic to announce that after a period of writing, arranging and pre-production we have taken to the studio and are making a new record!

We've been recording at greenhouse studios in Vancouver, with the absolutely brilliant producer Nathan Sabatino at the helm.

The band is confident that this next batch of songs is going to be our best work yet!

Be sure to check out our "fall sessions" teaser video, which includes footage of us in the studio. web link
If all goes well we hope to release the new album in Spring 2014, and follow it up with a massive touring cycle in support of it.

That means we will be coming to a venue near you soon!
~Ghosty

Oct 17th 2013

BC and Alberta tour

BC and Alberta tour

We just had a great tour through western Canada. Our good friends Jon and Roy opened the tour for us, with Dougal Bain Mclean joining us for a few shows as well. So good to see full rooms, and familiar faces before winter sets in.
2 weeks before the tour, I (Dave) was washing dishes and dropped the glass bodum i was cleaning... I didn't want it to smash, so I lunged for it instinctively, gashing my left middle finger tip open!! I received 5 stitches and boy it was scary. I had to briefly learn my guitar chords differently so I could still play along to the songs. What a mind-fuck! With help of some different tunings, new chord positions, a great and supportive band; I healed up and all is back to normal.
It was a scary month, that taught me to never take for granted that playing guitar for a living is truly a gift, and when that gift was compromised i almost lost my mind. Not having my normal range of access to the guitar taught me to look at the instrument differently. I actually think it was a good thing. (briefly)
Injuries aside, the tour was especially fun because we road tested a batch of new tunes we are hoping to record soon. Playing new songs has been something we have been looking forward to for a while as we have been touring "Long Time Ago" for over 2 years now.
Now that we are home, its time to keep working on some new songs, prepping for jumping in the studio when we are ready. Fall is beautiful out in Victoria, so its hard to spend too much time in the studio!! haha.
Davers

Jul 19th 2013

Bass Clef: Notes from Ghosty

Bass Clef: Notes from Ghosty

Photo credit: Erica Chan web link

Its been an amazingly busy few months for us!

We teamed up with our fantastic new U.K. friends The Skints and Gecko and toured England, Scotland, Wales....the works. Lots of sold out shows and enthusiastic crowds. We can't wait to go back and we hope to have the opportunity to tour with the Skints in Canada and show them some of the love they showed us! Also, some great videos of Davers surfing on roadcases are circulating somewhere on the internets!

Then it was off to Europe for a show in France and 5 magnificent days off. We all went on adventures too numerous to detail but some of the notable spots visited were the Note Dame, The Louvre, The Eiffel tower and Jim Morrison's grave!

The Netherlands was just fantastic! On a day off from tour in Eutrecht we rented a paddle boat and paddled down the canals through the city sipping drinks in the sunlight....sooooo wicked!

Germany was another high point of the tour where we saw audience enthusiasm that rivals some of the best shows we've played. The crowds chanted for encore after encore and in one case even started an impromptu post-show jam with us in the parking lot.

After that it was off to Ontario to play the island stage of a festival in Well and a sold-out Rivoli in T.O. with some of our favorite people in the world Jon and Roy (featuring our original bass player Louie!!!).

Then off to Keloha which was a great welcome home to B.C. for us as we hooked up with our great friends the Boom Booms, the Matinee and quite a few familiar faces from the Peak Performance Project, just to name a few!

Great things around the corner with big dates coming up in some of our favorite spots close to home including to Tofino, Whistler, the Summer Meltdown festival to name a few. Check the calendar at web link and hopefully well see you at a gig soon!

~Ghosty

May 13th 2013

Australia Tour

Australia Tour

We're back from Australia and what a tour it was!

We started on the West Coast in Perth, opening for the Sticky Fingers and also played a show with them in Bunbury. We got to enjoy the coast and the sunshine and of course took in the local cuisine of pies. Delicious!

We then went to the East Coast to play the amazing Byron Bay Bluesfest. We were honoured to play not one, but two shows, with an encore at the end of our first set. With so many great acts playing, we did get some time to enjoy the scene, with excellent shows put on by the great Robert Plant, Paul Simon, The Lumineers and Fat Freddy's Drop to name a few. It was definitely an experience to be there and we enjoyed every minute of it and especially meeting fans and making new ones.

Soja was also playing at the Bluesfest and we continued to tour Australia with them, hitting up Brisbane, Coolangatta, Sydney and Melbourne. The crowds were fantastic and we loved exploring Australia and the uniqueness of each city, from the beaches at Surfers Paradise to the hustle and bustle of Sydney and the fantastic sidewalk restaurants in Melbourne.

Soja put on fantastic shows in each city and we were always in the crowd dancing along after our sets. Definitely check out their music if you're looking to get the party started.

We all got to enjoy some relaxing travel time after the tour, either in Australia or Bali. With so many places to explore in that area of the world we will have to come back!

We're off to Europe for the next few weeks and are looking forward to this next adventure in the UK (opening for the Skints) and then touring France, Germany and the Netherlands. We're looking forward to meeting and making many new fans!

Jan 12th 2013

Cold Snap, Courtenay and Commodore!

Cold Snap, Courtenay and Commodore!

We hope your 2013 is off to a terrific start. We had an amazing time at the Peats Ridge Festival in Australia over New Years and can't wait to come back to Auz again in April. For the meantime we have a couple Winter shows coming up in BC. First we are heading up to Prince George for the Cold Snap Festival, then playing the Sid Williams Theatre in Courtenay, BC and then on Feb 1st we are playing the Fabulous Commodore Ballroom. The Commodore is one of our favorite venues to play and we made a little promo video: web link

Dec 10th 2012

Current Swell On Tour

Current Swell On Tour

We are happy to be back on tour down the west coast of the USA. The first two shows in Oregon were great!

In Portland we spent some time in the Hawthorne district. After checking out shops, food carts and taking some pictures in the photobooth we decided to check out some vintage instruments.

First was the guitar shop where Scott and Dave fell in love with a 60's acoustic Gibson. After that it was off to Revival Drum Shop.

Crispy was there just there to find a drum seat, but when we got there they had about a dozen vintage kits that were setup ready to play. Needless to say, curiousity got the best of us and soon enough Crispy was jumping from kit to kit until we got to a WFL set from the 1940s. Everyone was fired up on the sound, look and feel of the kit, including the other customers in the store.

Were all back in the van now (including a sweet new vintage drum kit!) and we're on our way to Santa Cruz for a day off. After that we play the hotel cafe in Los Angeles and then on to San Fransisco plus more pacific northwest dates!

Hope to see you all soon!

Oct 23rd 2012

Dispatch Tour

Dispatch Tour

We have finally recovered from a great tour with Dispatch in September. We started out in Vancouver with a sold out show at the Commodore and kept the momentum going in Seattle and Portland. The energy was fierce and it was a great to rock out with our great friends in Dispatch.

We continued on down the west coast to Santa Cruz, where Scotty & Davers hit the waves with their boards as the weather was perfect. The following day we had a chill jam session with Balcony TV, which should be available on their website, web link, soon. We also had the opportunity to play that evening for SOFAR (Sounds From A Room) which is a unique way for music listeners to enjoy new up and coming bands, with constantly changing locations in houses around Los Angeles.

We were also stoked to play The House of Blues in LA the next day as our last show for this tour with Dispatch. It was a great way to finish as it was packed with everybody ready to rock!

It was also great to get back down the coast and see some familiar faces and make some new friends along the way as well. We love playing for our fans and especially love touring with a band we think rocks!

We'll be back shortly in Bellingham, WA, Friday, November 2nd, opening for Willie Nelson's son's band, Lukas Nelson and The Promise Of The Real.

Aug 29th 2012

Long Time Ago US Release

Long Time Ago US Release

We are getting really excited to release our album in the United States with our new friends at Nettwerk records. Scotty made a video blog about the release which you can check out here web link

Aug 1st 2012

Brazil was a whirlwind tour! It was short but sweet and for most of us it was our first time in South America.
We arrived in Sao Paulo to perfect weather so we decided to rent some bikes to see more of the town and after some mild co-ersion, we convinced our driver to join in on the fun.Our first show to our Brazilian fans was amazing, we played to almost 2500 people (pictured above) and the energy was intense. It was a great welcoming to South America!
To top off an excellent night in Sao Paulo, the night we played also coincided with the win of local soccer team, the Corinthians. So the streets came alive that night and we couldn't help but get swept up in the giant street party. We got a true taste of the Brazilian patriotism and it was wild!
After one more show in Sao Paulo we traveled to Rio de Janiero on the same flight as the rest of the Almasurf festival crew. We got to see a small glimpse of the favelas on our way into town as we made our way to our hotel that night. We had some free time the next morning and were able to check out the beaches and go see Cristo Redentor. Then it was off to play our show that evening to an electric crowd.
We were truly impressed with the passion everyone there had for art & music. All in all it was a great trip and we were so happy to have finally made down south to play for all of our amazing fans. We cannot wait to go back!

Obrigado!

Apr 2nd 2012

West Coast USA, SXSW & CMW

West Coast USA, SXSW & CMW

Spring in Victoria is just around the corner. We've been patiently waiting for mr. golden sun to come out and play. On our west coast tour the sun was shinning bright. We were lucky to be rolling alongside our buddies The True Spokes. They took us some cool places like Cozmic Pizza and the Applegate lodge. Further south I could finally put on some shorts while Scotty and Davers were able to get in a surf in San Fran. Talking about San Fran we were very stoked to see how many fans from different cities came out to enjoy the show. A couple days later we were able to rent bikes for a couple hours and cruise down Venice Beach. That day I checked out the skate park. There were some kids that were ripping it, there was even a 6 year old that was doing 5 foot ollie's out the bowl, very cool!

A few days later we headed down south to SXSW. This was one of the greatest music festivals to date. We got to check out some cool acts like Bahama's, The Sheep Dog's, Youth Lagoon, M Ward, and Tom Morrelo. The streets are littered with music goers, it was pretty insane. I really hope we get to go next year.

A week ago we were in Ontario for second time at CMW. We got to share the stage with some of our friends, The Matinee, The Belle Game, Maurice and Acres of Lions. It's always great to go out and see your friends out in Ontario. Our trip to Ontario ended in a small but very cool Burnstown. We played at the Neat Coffee Shop. It was a very intimate experience, we got to play an acoustic version of Brad's Song and got everyone yelling "Don't get on his BAAAAAD side!". We can't wait to come back.

On the horizon we have a bit of time off but the summer is going to be jam packed with international tours and festivals. Last but not least we finally have our newest album Long Time Ago in Vinyl! So keep your eyes peeled and ears to the ground, we hope to see you soon.

Mar 9th 2012

Help us find SXSW / Sea Now

Help us find SXSW / Sea Now

We got a little lost on our West Coast US tour and are currently trying to find our way to the Sea Now SXSW show case. Check us out lost in San Fran looking for "Awesome, Texas". web link Our first SXSW showcase is part of the Sea Now showcase at the Brew Exchange (706 West 6TH St) on Thursday March 15th @ 3PM. We are also playing Friday March 16th @ 9PM at the Canada House - Trinity Hall (401 E 6th St). Hope to see you guys at SXSW!!!!

Jan 28th 2012

Winston Tour is Amazing!

Winston Tour is Amazing!

We are half way through our tour with Charlie Winston, right now, sitting in a Montreal hotel. After a great couple shows in Sherbrooke in a theatre from the 1920's, and a fun show in Seguenay we made it for a couple days off Quebec city. It was our first visit to the city, and we fell in love with the fortified older part of town, and some of the cafe's, pubs, and most of all the Palais Montcalm. We played 2 nights there supporting the CW band, and after the 2nd night we knew we had made a bunch of new fans and that we would be back for sure as soon as possible. We then made our way through a massive snow storm to Montreal where we are now, doing 2 nights at the Theatre Corona. I decided to try out a my french mid set last night, to let people know we were very happy to be there and I somehow managed to say a very perverted couple lines. Apparently there is a big difference between Juir and Juex or something. Anyways, the show went great and we are looking forward to our 2nd night at the Corona, before we head out to LA on our way to finish up the tour with CW in Edmonton and Vancouver. (unfortunately we can't be there to support Charlie's show in Calgary, but we would love to invite all our fans to check out his show at the Gateway! ) web link

Nov 24th 2011

Winning the Peak, Cold "green tea" in Western Canada and the Far East... (Canada)

Winning the Peak, Cold \

I can remember being stuck on a stretch of Highway called the Coquihalla which takes you through a high mountain pass, snow falling harder by the minute. We were on our last day of our tour of western Canada, and were slated to arrive in the late afternoon at Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom for the finale show of the Peak Performance Project. The only problem was that traffic was at a standstill up in the mountains, and the clock was ticking. With semi trucks and cars lining the ditches, we started to think that there might be a chance that we wouldn't make it to the show on time, or at all, and therefor not be able to see if we had won the competition, or claim our prize... and we wanted to be there to claim it, as top prize gets 100,500 bucks. Did we know anyone with a helicopter? No. So we waited it out and as the snow fell harder and harder, we inched our way through the pass and to Vancouver, and made it just in time to play a sold out show in front of 1000 people. With our good friends, families and loved ones present, Current Swell was awarded Top Prize, 100 grand to help develop our careers. Amazing. We are so thankful to have been involved in the whole project and feel very grateful to have won, especially with so many talented bands involved.

Western Canada is one of our favourite places to tour. We are so used to the loop, we know just where to find all the little perks in all the corners of this part of Canada. Like that pita place in Lloydminister, we know where the best bowling is in Winnipeg, we know who sells cold beer late night in Swift Current (Alberta's version of "cold green tea".) Yes I know, these are not really things to boast about but it has made life a lot more fun on the road to get to know the towns and country and really enjoy some of the drives. Take going through southern Alberta towards the mountains at sunset, big sky, big mountains, pretty amazing stuff. The shows were really fun too and people really rallied for us in support of "long time ago".

Right now we have just started our tour out in eastern Canada, starting in Ottawa and ending up in Moncton, and a lot of places in between. Schwartz's deli in Montreal and trying out our french was fun. Toronto at the Horseshoe Tavern should be a fun show, and we will shoot our first music video supporting our new album for the song "Too Cold" while there. Sarnia will be epic as usual, with fans that rival Edmonton. It was sad to not see Kingston as a tour stop, as the last time we played there was one of our most memorable shows ever; where the power went out on the entire town and we did a candle lit acoustic set with our friend Kim Churchill. So neat .…..Anyways,Back to it, thanks for reading, hello from everyone here in the tour van!

Nov 22nd 2011

Zipplining In Hawaii

Zipplining In Hawaii

We had an amazing time during out tour of Hawaii last Feb and were finally able to put together a little video. Check us out as we fearlessly zipline across Maui synced to our new track "I Want A Bird." Touring is fun, especially when we get to do crazy activities like this! As Crispy says "Don't Be in a Touring band, never, it's not worth it."web link

Nov 15th 2011

Western Canada Tour Vid

Western Canada Tour Vid

We've been having a blast on first leg of tour visiting some our favorite cities with sold out crowds! Check out our vid from some of our past couple shows, shoot from behind the drum set by our time keeper Crispy! Not only can he lay down a fat beat, he can also shoot some videos while playing live. Can't wait to rock out Eastern Canada - check the tour section for more details. web link

Nov 1st 2011

Long Time Ago in Canada, Good Times in Washington, No Trouble at the Border

Long Time Ago in Canada, Good Times in Washington, No Trouble at the Border

Finally, after all our hard work and preparation, we were able to launch “Long Time Ago” in Canada. It was released online where we ran at #1 on iTunes Canada singer-songwriter charts. Our release show at Victoria's MacPhearson Playhouse was filmed and streamed live to the world online. With help from the openers, Jon Middleton and Aidan Knight, the show was packed out. With fans, friends and family there, it felt just the way a hometown show should. Thanks to YouTube, people already knew a few of our new songs and were singing along. What a night! We ended it by heading down to Swans for a couple beers with the crew and then off to bed.... because the next night we did Vancouver! The show that night at The Biltmore was much more of a party vibe, as it was a club and not a theater. The Boom Booms from east Van came to open the show and did an amazing job. During our last song of the night we had a bunch of the guys from that band up for a big jam, was our last song like 20 min long?... maybe. Thanks to everyone who bought our new album and came out to the shows.

Fast forward to the following weekend, Seattle at the Tractor Tavern. This was Friday of the Halloween weekend, so some people dressed up. We opened for Flow Motion, an awesome band from Washington who totally surprised us and everyone in the crowd by covering the entire Beatles album “Rubber Soul” as a Phish style Halloween treat. Those guys are awesome and I think we will be doing more bills with them in the future. We also had some good solid supporters come out to that show and make it feel like a bit of a second home. Singing along and bugging us about “when is Long Time Ago coming out in the US?”. Soon guys, we hope before the spring! Then after hitting Pike Place Markets, and the occupy Seattle demo, we were off to Tacoma for Halloween Saturday where we dressed up like “cool hand luke” prison convicts, and played a great costume party at our favourite spot out there, Jazzbones. Tons of great support acts there as well, including Mighty High, an awesome instrumental reggae band. Good times, no trouble at the border and some new friends. Can't ask for much more.

On the topic of not asking for much, we were given the nomination of Top 3 in Vancouver's Peak Performance Project, which came with a $50,000 prize. Thank you to the 100.5 The Peak, and everyone who supported us, voted for us, high fived us. Thanks a lot. The winner, runner up and 3rd place will be decided at a sold out show at The Commodore Ballroom on Nov 17th. Top prize, $100,000 so we are crossing our fingers.

Dave

Oct 11th 2011

FLog #2 - Golfing in Fall

FLog #2 - Golfing in Fall

For Scotty's second "FLog" he takes you golfing in Victoria with a couple of his buddies. Beauty thing about Victoria is you can golf all year around. Scott decided to use a song from one of his favorite bands the tUnE-YarDs and their song "Bizness". Check it out: web link

Oct 7th 2011

FLog #1 - Fall in Victoria

FLog #1 - Fall in Victoria

Scotty has started a series of Video Blogs he calls "FLogs" for Fall Video Blogs. His first one is all about Fall in Victoria and what he does to pass the time. Check it out: web link

Oct 6th 2011

It's been a while!

It\'s been a while!

Hello ladie's and gents.

It's been a while since we last checked in with you guys. The band has been very busy with The Peak Performance Project. The boot camp held in Princeton was a blast. We got to learn a ton on the music industry, everything from licensing, legal terms, twittering and performance psychology. Another great part of the boot camp was meeting a ton of bands and then seeing them play a set. One of those killer bands was the same band we shared a living space with, The Boom Booms! These guys are killer, not just on the stage but off the stage, huge hearts of gold these boys have.

The next part of this news we are very VERY excited to talk about. Our Cd release of Long Time Ago. We've been working on our CD for a year now and we're ready to share it with all of you. We will be playing our CD release show in Victoria at the McPherson Theatre on Oct. 21st with guest musicians Jon Middleton and Aidan Knight. This show will be all-ages. Remember The Boom Booms we were talking about? We will be sharing the stage with them the next night Oct. 22 at the Biltmore. Both will be "early" shows starting at 8PM so make sure you get your tickets and get in the door quick!



Keeping on the subject of our CD release, we are very proud to do a cross country tour. And when we say cross country we are including the maritimes. That's right, Current Swell will be dippin in their bag to make it coast to coast. Check out our tour schedule to see what's up.



For anyone who didn't check out Rifflandia this year you missed out. A few of us got to check it out and it was rad. Big up's to to all of the Riff crew. I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Daniel Wesley, that was too much fun. We've got to play a couple of the Rifflandia's were hoping to play next year (fingers crossed).



One of the song's featured on the album is Brad's Song. It is dedicated to our friend Brad Shuttleworth. We made an acoustic live version of it and put on youtube, you can check it out here. Props to Ben, his team, and The Peak for making this possible.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p19AITTO1bs' target='_blank'>web link



Last and definitely not least. As you know we have been heavily involved in The Peak Performance Project. Online voting starts on Oct. 7 and ends Oct 14th. We need your help to win this contest and spread our wings to tour more of the US, Brazil, UK, and Japan. You can help us by voting here: http://www.currentswell.com/vote/' target='_blank'>web link




Well that's all folks. Hope you like the new site. Catch ya soon.




Chris



PS Long Time Ago will be available online and in stores on Oct 24th, 2011

Jun 3rd 2011

California coming!

California coming!

So here we are in the beautiful interior of BC. The sun is shining and we're just about ready to head home to our island. I was DD last night, I did most of my job, except for taking the keys out of the van, doh! So here we are waiting for our mechanic with the slim jim. While were waiting lets go over whats been kickin with the swell. About a month ago we played our home town at sugar. The show was sold out and it was bangin!. It was great to see a lot of friends and familiar faces. We got to showcase some of our new tunes for our upcoming album, more on that later. Recently, Scotty and Davers had the honour of supporting Xavier Rudd with his only canadian date on a north american tour. I wasn't able to attend but I'm told it was a full house. The boys got to dip into their roots with some older material. Later on, the boys got to chill with the aussie and talk about life and our past tour with mutual friend Ash Grunwald in Australia.



Talking about tours, we're about to be heading out on our west coast tour. We're all excited to dip in to the states again. Scotty is really stoked on touring and surfing in cali. Im hoping to rent a bike in san fran and give'r. Since were on the topic of the states, Jon Middleton from Jon n Roy is in Maui with our good friend and awesome tour manager Jason Cross, make sure to check em out at Casanova's.



If we take a step back we did a tour into Ontario in March based around the Canadian Music Week. Our First night was in Montreal, and it was packed for a monday night. It was also the first night that we had support from Kim Churchill, and all I can say about that guy is WOW!! Tuesday night was Algonquin College, we had a great time, it was nice to chat up some of the fans. Wednesday night in Kingston was one of the most interesting nights we've had. Before we went on the power went out on the block. We had to rearrange our setlist and our instrumentation but it was great, a candle lit acoustic jam with yours truly playing on a suitcase for a bass drum. The packed audience was very respectful. You could have heard a pin drop. It was a cool and magical night. The next two nights we rocked out in toronto for the CMW, both nights were rad. The final stop of the tour was Paddy Flaherty's down in Sarnia. It's always a treat to play there, and people came out to party hard.>br>


Alright let's talk about the album. Everything is on track for our release date which is the fall. On our drive up we've been listening to mixes that have been fine tuned, it sounds killer! We are really excited to almost have everything completed. Hopefully we can share some tunes online before our cd release.



Well our tech has arrived with an assortment of cool gizmo's to get the job done and get us out of here. It's nice to be in the interior. We recently found out that we are going to be playing the world famous Salmon Arm Blues and Roots Festival.

Some great names that will be playing will be Taj Mahal, John Butler Trio and Broken Social Scene. That's all for now folks, stay tuned!


CP

Feb 20th 2011

Hawaii!

Hawaii!

Well ladies and gents, another killer tour is under our belts. We can all say without a doubt that this was one of the best. This was our first tour on American soil, and boy was it pretty. Getting there was definitely a challenge, but in the end it was worth it. We were welcomed by great crowds that would yell "Hana Hou" at the end of our shows for more. We even got to do a couple radio shows, one of which was a live set with the whole band.



Besides the show biz side of things, all of us got to have our fix of travels and adventures. Scotty and Davers got multiple days of good surf. Ghosty and I went snorkelling, and later we went on a massive hike. I even took a stab at biking up the crater. And the last day of tour we all got together to go on a zipline adventure. All of this was possible with the help of our amazing tour manager and now good friend Jason Cross. We hope all of our new fans keep in the loop as we do want to return to Maui within a year.



Mahalo

Chris Petersen.