Not every musician has a handy venue just down the road from home where they can play a show for hundreds of people, but veteran singer and guitarist Daniel Wesley does.
White Rock native Wesley, who plays what he describes as “beach music” or rock-reggae, moved his young family from the Lower Mainland to Roberts Creek 18 months ago and he has since played a few acoustic gigs on the Sunshine Coast. But he’s bringing his Vancouver-based bandmates in for the first time for a full-on show at Roberts Creek Hall Dec. 29.
“Some people have seen me here playing on my own,” Wesley, 36, told Coast Reporter. “That’s cool, but it’s not a full representation of what we do, which is getting people off their butts and having a good time.”
He lists his main influences as Mason Jennings, Bob Marley, The Beatles and Pearl Jam, and the band will have a lot of Wesley’s original material to choose from. He’s put out seven albums since 2006 and will soon finish an eighth, which he’s been recording at Afterlife Studios in False Creek. That’s a rock shrine formerly known as Mushroom Studios where since 1965, the likes of The Supremes, Led Zeppelin and Heart have laid down tracks.
Wesley has been working with musician and producer John Raham, who has helped put together albums for the Be Good Tanyas and Barney Bentall, among many others. Wesley said Raham’s method uses vintage gear to record.
“Everything’s going on a two-inch reel. The microphone I’ve been singing in is from, like, 1953. And it’s going really well. We’re about 85 per cent done,” Wesley said. “The tracks should be finished by the end of the year. We’re going to mix it and then have it out for spring.”
The musicians Wesley will have on hand at the Creek Hall have been playing with him for years and all are busy Vancouver-area players, including Mike Kenney on guitar and keyboards (whose regular engagements include playing the house organ at Vancouver Canucks home games), Darren Parris on bass and Flavio Cirillo on drums.
Wesley, who over the years has also managed to become a qualified electrician, now is working full-time at his craft.
“Music provides a viable income for our family and I just feel very lucky that it does,” he said. That’s especially so for any artist living on the Sunshine Coast, where he and wife Melissa and their two young sons also lucked into a home that was “beyond their dreams,” Wesley said.
“Everywhere else we were looking just didn’t make sense,” he added. “And it was the best decision we’ve ever made.”
There’s also a venerable old music hall just down the road.
Tickets for the Saturday Dec. 29 show are $25 and are available at eventbrite.com or at the door.
