Greg Sczebel is on the move again.
After performing with Paul Brandt in London, Ont. Saturday, the Juno Award-winner joined the Maple Noise Tour.
The brainchild of Tour Toronto promoter Every Eye Media, a cross-Canada tour featuring some of the country’s hottest Christian artists – News Boys, Thousand Yard Krutch, Manafest and many more.
“There are 10 performances each night,” Sczebel says. “I am really excited. I haven’t toured across Canada to perform my own music since Here to Stay in 2005 and I haven’t been able to do it with the current band ever.”
The band includes bass player Hank Insell, Dan Oldfield on drums, guitarist Steve Davis and Darius Wilson on backing keyboards.
“The venues are big and I think they’re expecting huge crowds,” says Sczebel. “I like doing smaller acoustic shows, but there’s something about the energy a large crowd brings.”
Each artist gets a 30-minute set so Sczebel will focus on performing songs from his Juno Award-winning album Love and The Lack Thereof.
Sczebel has been busy this summer, playing several festivals and events in the Interior and Lower Mainland, including Peachland’s Dancing Barefoot Festival, the Rare Earth Festival in Vernon, the Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver and Kamloops Western Canadian Summer Games
The 27-year-old talent has been working on material for a new album, which he is hoping to release early in the early new year.
“I think it will be a bit different, my music seems to have a different mood and sound,” he says. “No matter what I do, it will always have an element of soul, but this stuff is more straight-up, piano pop rock.”
Sczebel says aside from the goal of making a living with his music, lyrics can present a different point of view.
“The goal is to say what your listener wants to say but doesn’t know how to put it into words,” he says. “But sometimes I want to communicate what’s in my heart.”
Nominated for another Canadian Gospel Music Association award for R&B/Urban song of the year, Sczebel will head back to Nashville next month to rehearse with Paul Brandt before hitting the road again.
He will join Brandt for another cross-Canada tour to promote country super star’s new album Give it Away.
Back on the Maple Noise Tour, Sczebel says the show is going to be incredible.
“I have never seen a tour this big come to the Okanagan,” he says with enthusiasm. “News Boys has stages with hydraulic lifts that extend over audience. Technically it’s top-drawer too.”
Tickets for the Sept. 24 at the Westbild Centre show are available at www.ticketseller.ca or by calling 250-549-7469.
Sczebel’s album Love and The Lack Thereof is available at www.Gregsczebel.com, on iTunes, and Drivers Car and Truck Sales on Highway 97B.