Sometimes a spark lights a fire.
Such is the case with City of Sparks, a four- piece band that will heat up the Hideaway Pub Saturday, March 3.
“The band combines the grittiness of old-time rock and roll, with the smooth sounds of today’s rock, folk, and pop artists,” says Earthtone Studios owner and show promoter Jesse Clarke. “They completely blew everyone away when they opened for The Boom Booms in December and also won 2011 Revelstoke Music Festival’s Battle of the Bands.”
The band was formed in 2011 when 17-year-old Benjamin Bermiller (lead vocals, rhythm, guitar) won a contest that Dan Redekop (backup vocals-lead guitar/bartender/waiter) ran at Quaaout Lodge hoping to spice up winter business.
“We had local talent come to perform at Sunday brunch,” he says, noting there were three performers every Sunday, with audience voting until the finale, which then combined voting by the audience and judges. “Ben came out and cleaned house, and ended up winning it.”
Playing guitar since he was 13, 20-year-old Redekop had been actively involved in the Salmon Arm and Chase music scene, mostly filling in when a band needed a guitar player.
Admitting he is unable to write lyrics, Redekop, who had not met Bermiller prior to the contest, had his eyes peeled for opportunities – opportunities he immediately recognized when Bermiller performed.
“I needed someone who has the chops and vocals,” he says. “The reason we got together is we were gonna enter the Peak Performance Contest. We worked together two weeks then discovered he couldn’t enter – he was too young.
But Redekop and Bermiller continued playing together, getting their bearings, learning each other’s styles and learning to collaborate.
“I have jammed with a lot of people before, but it never went as smoothly as this did, we just clicked,” he says, enthusiastically noting the Revelstoke win came with free studio time in Kelowna.
“That was the moment we decided we should make more of this,” he says. “We thought, people are digging this so we should probably be looking at it more seriously and getting a CD together.”
Since then, City of Sparks has grown to include Jesse Bernardin, bass player and the band’s mixer and sound engineer, and Shawn Edwards, drummer and band comedian.
“We all jive extremely well,” says Redekop. “Jesse and Shawn have played in a few bands before so it was easy to get our groove together well.”
City of Sparks will be joined by Tiff Hall, who lives in Edmonton with a bird that can’t talk, and a piano bigger than her kitchen.
Armed with classical piano lessons combined with a penchant for pop music, Hall studied composition and jazz piano at Grant MacEwan College. Subsequently, she honed her vocal chops during two years at a duelling piano bar house gig.
Hall will kick the evening off with her soulful singing.
Catch City of Sparks and Hall live at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 3 at the Hideaway Pub. Tickets are $10 and are available at the Hideaway Liquor store, Acorn Music or Synergy Studio.