Hey Ocean!

Hey Ocean fans, mark your calendars. The Vancouver pop phenom is finally heading back to Cumberland after more than a yearlong absence. The band will be playing a very special show with their new extended line-up at the Waverley in Cumberland on Friday June 10th. This will be your one and only chance to preview songs off of their long-awaited third release, slated for the fall.

Their new record, entirely produced by Hey Ocean’s bassist David Vertesi, was a long time coming. The DIY band’s initial plan, to work with an outsider for the first time, didn’t end as anticipated. After having spent two months in the studio in Vancouver and Toronto with a famed Canadian producer, the band realized they weren’t ready to make the record they wanted. Nor were they able to clearly communicate their ideas with him. The group decided to abandon the project and head home with just a few drum and bass tracks.

As Vertesi explains, “the band broke down. We weren’t sure if we were going to stay together”. But after taking a bit of time to reflect and regroup, the band took what they had learned from their recording experience and decided, as they had always done in the past, to take matters into their own hands. So the band started from scratch, keeping only a few bass and drums tracks and taking inspiration from the trying recording process to write new songs. Hey Ocean spent most of the fall and the beginning of 2011 recording their new record and couldn’t be happier with the end result.

Their experience definitely shaped the themes of the record, Vertesi says “Is is about finding out who we are. Identity and overcoming yourself is a common theme throughout the record and reflects what the band’s been going through in the last couple of months.” On this new record Hey Ocean – who has been compared to a modern Fleetwood Mac – features vocal appearances not only by Ashley Ball, but also guitarist David Beckingham and bassist David Vertesi. Sonically, Is explores a gamut of styles. It’s the band’s most polished and ambitious record to date.

“We want to be ourselves and use our music to reach as many people as we can and be a part of the world music community,” says Vertesi.

Joining Hey Ocean! will be Vancouver Island’s very own Des Larson.