The Burnaby NOW arts reporter, Marelle Reid, recently chatted with Roy Vizer of the band Jon and Roy about his career and upcoming performance at this summer's Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival.
Q: How did Jon and Roy come to be?
A: I am from Vancouver, and a friend of mine came to UVic a year before I decided to come to UVic - he kind of talked me into it and he had a buddy named Jon who played music, and since I play percussion, we should get together. So I came over to Victoria just to check it out for a weekend and we had a great time, played some music and I decided to come here for my university degree, so that's where it started. And then we started playing open mikes, then eventually parlayed that into a real gig. The rest is kind of a long and meandering history.
Q: But Jon and Roy is actually a three-person band?
A: Yeah. We started out as the two of us for quite a while. At the beginning we'd go with the multi-instrumentalists, but then on our second album Jon played a bunch of bass parts just to kind of thicken up the sound and then it became kind of indispensable to have a bass player. We've been lucky enough to have two of our very good friends join us to play some bass. We often have a fiddle player and trombone player, depending on where we are and who's around.
Q: How would you describe your sound?
A: I would describe it as acoustic, folk-reggae with an island tinge. I don't actually know; I let other people describe it more than me. We've tried a bunch of times. It's got World influences. It's basically acoustic music with a lot of outside influences, I would say.
Q: Where are you based?
A: Aside from about an eight-month period where Jon actually moved to Vancouver where he lived in this big old about-to-be-destroyed mansion in Kits, we've always been in Victoria.
Q: Would you consider yourselves having "made it" as a band?
A: We don't have very super-defined goals of success or anything. I think me and Jon have always come to it from the perspective that we'd like to be able to continue doing it because we enjoy it. So, for us to be able to go and play in different cities across Canada and actually have an audience there, is amazing. We're really happy to be able to do that and for that to continue.
Q: Can you tell me about your latest album?
A: We started working on the songs together all throughout the fall. We'd meet up once or twice a week and me and Jon would just work on the songs and work on the arrangements until we felt comfortable (with them) and then over the winter - almost entirely in December - I just kind of went in there and laid down the tracks and on a few we put some trombones and trumpets, so, some horns. Louis (Sadava) came in and played bass on some of the songs and I played on some other ones. We got some fiddle on there. It was a really nice process because we worked in the same studio for all of our albums and I feel like we've found our comfort zone.
Q: What festivals have you played in Canada?
A: We've done Ottawa Blues and Roots Festival, Ottawa Folk Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Calgary Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, Open Sky Festival in Alberta, the Keloha Festival in Kelowna and we're doing the Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival this summer. Those are some of the major ones that we've done.
Q: Have you played the blues and roots fest here before?
A: No. Our good friends Current Swell did, I think last year or the year before, and they really liked it.
Q: What can Burnaby fans expect from your set?
A: We are going to bring some great energy. We're going to surprise them with some great tunes; probably some they may not have heard before. We've been pleasantly surprised that people of all ages seem to like our music. We've been working on some new stuff, so maybe we'll (play) some new stuff. What else can I tell you about what to expect? Energy. Smiles. Hopefully sunshine.
Good music. I'm excited to see some of the other acts, and I'm excited to get out there on my own. I think my parents might even come.
