Four students at Vancouver Island University have come together from four different disciplines to start an alternative rock band called Snow Sailing that will soon begin playing live in downtown Nanaimo.
Third-year Creative Writing student Barrett Springer moved to Nanaimo from Ottawa, Ontario in the summer of 2021. His experience as lead guitarist and vocalist on three albums for alternative rock band Walden Frost prompted him to begin a new project.
“Barrett had the idea to start a band when we met,” says Nicolas LeBlanc, second-year Forestry student at VIU who has played guitar in many jazz arrangements on Gabriola Island prior to joining Snow Sailing. Springer and LeBlanc met two years ago through a mutual friend and share an interest in writing music.
Springer also met Ethan Hummel through a mutual friend, and invited him to become their drummer. Hummel has studied drumming for 12 years and has played in other bands prior to Snow Sailing, including grunge band Mantra, who has played at the Powtown Shakedown Festival in Powell River.
“We only really started playing together a couple months ago,” says Hummel. “I’d been looking for a band to play with for a while, but it’s hard to find people who are available in Nanaimo, much less people who share the same music style as me.”
Dyea Johnson was then recruited by Hummel to play bass, and is the youngest of the group. Nineteen-year-old Johnson studies Psychology at VIU and began his musical career as a drummer for metal band Mourning Train in Port McNeil. While his talents are versatile, his strength as bassist for Snow Sailing is, as Springer puts it, “unmatched.”
Although the band has only been playing for a short time, they are nearly show-ready: “I was surprised at how good the chemistry was right off the bat….It didn’t take us long to realize we’re pretty much ready to start booking gigs,” says Johnson.
“Generally, we describe our sound as alternative rock, but we cover songs from lots of other genres, like grunge and some pop punk,” says Springer. The band takes inspiration from popular artists such as Radiohead, The Smiths, and The Smashing Pumpkins as well as some less mainstream artists like Joyce Manor and Sunny Day Real Estate.
Snow Sailing is booked to play at Vault Skateboards in Nanaimo in January of 2024. Details will be posted on their Instagram page @SnowSailingBand.
