Pamela Pachal is about to embark on a national tour.

Saskatchewan native Pamela Pachal has been living in Fredericton, N.B. for about two years, trying to build her music career.

She had quite the journey along the way, however. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Music Technology at Northeastern University in Boston, Pachal moved to Toronto to train and try out for the Canadian National Women’s hockey team. After being cut in 2007 she decided to switch her focus back to music.

From Toronto, she moved to Grande Prairie, Alta. where she recorded her debut album Chapter 1. The album was released in 2008 and it was during her tour for that release that she stumbled upon Fredericton. She has scored music for film and theatre and been invited to New York City where she was nominated for a songwriting award.

Pachal is about to hit the road on her second cross-Canada tour, this time with drummer Sean Keenan. She fills us in …

1. I understand you moved to Fredericton from western Canada almost two years ago, and before that you graduated from Northeastern University in Boston with a Bachelor of Science in Music Technology. Where are you from originally, and how did you wind up on Canada’s east coast?

I am originally a prairie girl from Saltcoats, Saskatchewan … the home of…. beer, curling, hockey and cows..   But I haven’t lived back home since high school.

It’s kinda random how I ended up in Fredericton. I just finished up my solo cross-Canada tour in 2008 and came to Oromocto where I planned on staying with my mom for a couple weeks. Long story short, I fell in love with Fredericton and decided to stay… Fredericton has such a great arts community and it really is an amazing city with amazing people… who wouldn’t fall in love with it?!?!

2.  How would compare the music scene in Fredericton or on the east coast with what you’ve seen elsewhere?

Fredericton is incredibly saturated with not only musicians and artists but with fans of music and art. That’s a rarity… usually (from my own experience) when a city is filled with musicians, it’s lacking with music fans, and if there’s no fans there’s really no chance for a musician to grow.

3. Coming in from outside the region, did you find it difficult to entrench yourself in what was going on in these parts?

It’s always hard to be accepted into a new scene. It really does just take time … and you got to give the community that time. *The quickest way to be rejected is to push being accepted.*

That and you have to be alright with starting at the bottom. That can be hard for some people. To go from playing regular paid gigs to doing open mics again. Me, I’m OK with it, I love open mics. I still go to open mics to try new stuff out or to just relax and jam with other musicians.

4. When did you first get into the music “business” and what was the first major lesson you learned?

I first really got into the business when I moved to Grande Prairie in 2007. Up until then I was just writing and playing in my room.

I’ve learned A LOT since then… here’s just a few key things I’ve discovered:

First, getting your van broken into and laptop stolen while playing in Montreal is actually not that uncommon.

Second, don’t assume anything when playing at a new venue…  ask every detail you can think of … how many mic stands do you have? Is there a place to park? Do you have someone working the door? Am I playing at the sketchiest bar in downtown Vancouver, and should I bring mace?

And thirdly (more serious), be persistent….. you’ll never book a first-time show just by sending one e-mail. Keep phoning and e-mailing until you get a response, and if they tell you “No,” try again in a month or so… you wouldn’t believe how many venues have turned me down the first time and then booked me a month later.

5. Do you have any specific goals for your music?

Yes, I want to be very rich…. but I’ll settle for not being homeless.

Honestly, I would love to be a full time songwriter/composer. I really do enjoy performing but my utopia is when I’m writing. Whether it be my own (traditional) music or scoring for film…  I just love creating. That’s my long-term goal.

Short term, I want to kill it on this upcoming tour and after that hopefully find a producer, studio and financial backing to record my next album.

6. You have a brief cross-country tour planned over the next month or so … is this the band’s first? How do you feel as you get ready to embark?

This will be the band’s first, not mine though. I did a solo cross-Canada in 2008.

I’m so stressed. Putting together a tour is the hardest thing. Once the shows are all booked I’ll be really excited… but not until then. That said, anyone want to be a manager/booking agent??!?! haha

7. What song, album or artist have you been listening to most lately?

That is a very hard question… I like and listen to everything… and I mean everything. For instance, just the other day I was listening to an old recording of Phillip Glass’ Candyman Theme, followed by Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA …  yes,  I have a Miley Cyrus song on my iPod, I’m not ashamed. haha

But I just recently was introduced to Jonny Lang… love his voice!

8. What does the immediate future hold for you and your music?

I really don’t know…..

Look at that, you asked a question I can’t even think of a smart-ass answer for.

Check out Pamela at the following dates:

Sept. 3 – The Red Herring, St. Andrews, N.B.
Sept. 4 – The Red Herring Pub, St. Andrews, N.B.
Sept. 25 – The Cellar Pub, Fredericton, N.B.
Oct. 9 – TBA, Montreal, Que.
Oct. 13 – The Apollo, Thunder Bay, Ont.
Oct. 15 – The Standard, Winnipeg, MB
Oct. 21 – Dicken’s Pub, Calgary, Alta.
Oct. 23 – Golden Taps Pub, Golden, B.C.

Check back to EastCoastNoise.com next Friday for a chat with: Christina Martin

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Great Balancing Act, from left, Sara Parks, 'Jeep' Morin and Nina Khosla

Formed in Montreal in 1994 by JP ‘Jeep’ Morin and Nina Khosla, The Great Balancing Act has made Moncton its home base for most of the group’s existence. GBA is currently comprised of Morin (guitar, vocals), Khosla (bass, vocals) and Sara Parks (drums, vocals).

I say “currently” because GBA has existed in a variety of states over the years, touring with as many as seven members at one point.

The band recently released its eighth record, Cherry Bomb, which was written around a single drum loop. All the tunes clock in at approximately the same length, in the quest for an album full of “perfectly catchy songs.”

We caught up with Jeep this week via e-mail …

1. For years, The Great Balancing Act has been a name that seems to pop up again and again and then disappear for a time around Moncton and the Maritimes … I understand you guys have been together in one form or another since 1994? Brief us on how you guys formed and the history of the band.

We formed in Montreal in 1994. Nina was a server at the legendary Phoenix Cafe in Montreal and I used to eat there. She seemed very interesting and beautiful and I knew I wanted to meet her. I eventually got up the nerve to introduce myself. We wrote songs together before we really had a conversation. It seemed to be how we related best. It was very natural. Our first song was called Spring, which became the title of our first CD. We played together as an acoustic duo that year, touring the States bohemian style. Nina played a clay Udu drum and I played acoustic guitar. We moved to Moncton in 1995 and formed an electric band with DanO LeBlanc on drums. Since then, Nina and I have been expanding upon our sound and vision with all sorts of different musicians.

2. Nina and yourself have been the nucleus of the band since its inception. What has kept the two of you working together so long while others have come and gone? What’s the working relationship like?

Well, Nina and I are a little like a solo act even though we are two people. We seem to be two sides of the same mind when we are writing together. I sing a song and Nina just knows exactly what to do. It was like that since the first song we wrote. I moved to Calgary for a couple of years, and we wrote songs separately in that time. Nina came to visit at one point and we shared songs. We found that we had both written a song called Beautiful Moon, and it was in the same key! We work with others like a solo artist would work with various musicians. It’s very open ended. We are always sad to see someone go, but it’s also a breath of fresh air to collaborate with other musicians. As Jim Blewett puts it, it keeps our hands growing.

3. How have the changing members over the years affected GBA’s music?

In minor and major ways. Sometimes we’ll work with a musician who is all about being in the background and that will just lending something subtle to the sound. Fred Hetu was like that. So was Rob Robichaud. Fred Weltall and DanO brought out the psychedellic, trip-hop element in our sound. We were listening to a lot of Motown at the time and these musicians were perfect for that as well. Kim Wilmot brought out the folk and bluegrass. Gilles Gaudet and Alex Madsen had a huge impact on our sound. Alex saw us as a funk band and brought that out even more. He brought in his own songs, which really forced us to relinquish control over the musical direction.  We pushed this idea to the extreme by working with Lullaby Baxter, a powerful singer who was a force unto herself. We let go of the reigns so much that we completely lost ourselves for a moment.

I think it’s important for  musicians to stretch themselves as far as they can, to test their limits and eventually find that perfect balance; the sweet spot. Now we have consciously taken back the reigns with a much better grasp of who we are and what we want to say. Our new drummer Sara Parks has brought back a refreshing simplicity to our sound. I think all these changes are what have kept us fresh and alive for 15 years. After all, the life expectancy of the average band is three years.

4. You have a brand new album in Cherry Bomb, and each song is written around the same drum loop. Was that a challenge for you when it came to writing the songs?

I would have thought so, but not really. It often meant slowing a song down or altering its basic rhythmic fingerprint, but I found that once I had done that the song often sounded better. A few of them sounded like crap, but they didn’t make it past the demo stage. It was actually very exciting to see how a different riff could make the same beat sound like a something completely different.

5. What songs or albums are you listening to lately?

I pretty much don’t listen to music. Not on purpose anyway. Does a pastry chef really want to eat pastries, unless he’s trying out his own work?

I’ve narrowed it right down. All I really listen to is DEVO. Particularly the new album Something For Everybody. Aside from that, it’s local music that I like to listen to; stuff friends give me. I love Owen Steele’s new CD, and Petunia’s I Live in the Past is a gorgeous record with great musicianship. John Jerome put out a great EP this year. Nina is big on Jane Siberry these days.

6. GBA is performing throughout the summer, even heading to Devotional in Cleveland. How did that come up and what does that particular festival mean for the group?

DEVOtional is the largest gathering of DEVO fans on planet Earth, so we are pretty excited. Except for Nina, who is not a DEVO fan and is wondering why we are doing this!

Founding member and singer Jerry Casale will be there and frontman Mark Mothersbaugh will be appearing via video chat. We are the first band in 10 years to play there that is not a DEVO cover band, so this an honour for us. We were asked to play due to our unabashed propagation of DEVO iconography and fashion. Some of our videos leaked into the DEVO fanworld through YouTube and the spuds (DEVO fans) really dug it. Also I did a little DEVO animation which was seen by the band and it ended up on their website to promote their Olympic performance this year. So that helped.

It should be surreal. I’m hoping to make a documentary on the event. Any film makers out there want to come along?

7. What does the rest of summer and the immediate future hold for the band?

Well, no one knows what the future holds but our intent is to be at a “whole other level” by the end of the summer and to have made one million dollars. We have some amazing new outfits and a really fun, exciting show, so look for us in your town.

GBA’s video for Pretty Good:

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The Divorcees are Denis 'Turtle' Arsenault, Danny Roy, Alex Madsen, Brock Gallant, Jason 'J-Byrd' Nicholson. (Photo by Chris Smith)

Moncton’s own country outlaw band The Divorcees started making a name for itself a few years back with its old school honky tonk country sound.

Fast forward a few years and a line-up change later, the five-piece has two albums, several tours and a few East Coast Music Awards under its belt (including the 2010 award for Country Album of the Year for Last of the Free Men).

The band is made up of Alex Madsen, Denis “Turtle” Arsenault, Brock Gallant, Jason “J-Byrd” Nicholson and Danny Roy. They perform this weekend at the Dieppe Kite International event and they have a gig slated for Aug. 21 at the Larlee Creek Hullabalo in Perth-Andover, N.B. as well.

Brock Gallant, drummer for the band, fill us in on what’s happening with the boys …

1. What are The Divorcees up to these days?

Alex and I are currently in a writing phase. This is the first time I have put any material forward and Alex and I have started co-writing a little as well. In the past we have put out two solid records, now we’re doing some soul searching to see how we can continue to be successful without copying what we’ve done before.

I think we’ll see some darker material, some material that draws more from our rock influences and experience, and some altogether new sounds that may not be as easily recognizable as “country” based on the rigid guidelines we imposed on ourselves when we first started. With the realization that we will not break down the Nashville establishment and restore order to the country music universe, comes the freedom to express ourselves in a genuine way without fear of being too uncountry.

2. After the release of the last album and the tour, apart from a few gigs here and there, you guys seemed to settle down a bit … kids, weddings, day jobs … how tough is it to juggle everything and still push your music career forward?

I think what you’re seeing is part of the balance that is required to sustain a long music career without any major hits or commercial success. Most of our accomplishments have been critical acclaim or peer recognition, which is vital to the growth of a group like ours, but it does not always translate into financial windfalls. I would say it would be MORE difficult to move our music careers forward if we did not have wives, kids, and places to earn an honest living. If the music becomes the way you earn your money then it is exposed to the potential for exploitation and greed. As I mentioned before, we are striving to remain as genuine as possible in our writing and in our music as a hole.

3. You’ve taken on bartending and booking bands at Plan B in Moncton, a bar that seems to have really taken off as a music venue in the last year. As a guy who has been on both sides of the fence, playing in bands and now booking bands, how do you like the role? How does your experience playing impact how you deal with bands?

I was on the road with the band when my wife called to tell me I was going to be a daddy. As soon as we got home, I walked into then “Five Points Lounge” and asked Tracy (Petukhov, owner) for a job. I had never bartended a day in my life. I simply needed work since it was clear the band was going to have to take a short period of time off if I was going to be around for my son.

Within a few months of working there, I asked if I could book some bands and I can tell you that I am the most shocked of anyone at how it all turned out. The bar has no ads, no website and yet we’ve been able to book the bar with live music five-seven nights a week solid for the last nine months, all based on incoming requests.

We booked one band, a group called $100 from Toronto. Ever since, we’ve been getting calls from bands, agents and managers all across Canada asking if they could play our little bar. By treating people with kindness, and respect we’ve developed a good reputation amongst artists and with that comes access to some of Canada’s best up and coming talent.

We’ve got our first Juno nominee coming in Broctober!! I have donated a lot of tips to bands (not advice, the money I make bartending) and we’ve even started putting them up for the night in the apartment upstairs. We do everything we can to help them reach their full potential. I do this because of great people like Sheila and Tina in Thunder Bay, Steve in Sault St. Marie, John Scoles in Winnipeg, Melvina in Merritt… and the list goes on and on. A lot of people came together to help my music career so I felt it my obligation to find a way to give back to the careers of others.

4. I think the Divorcees are in about year six or seven. The lineup changed a bit in that time, you’ve toured the country and performed on stages big and small. and the band has built a solid name for itself across the country. What are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned in that time?

We are not as old as we look… the band formed in 2005. I have learned many lessons but none more important than this; take care of your family. That means your loved ones, your band mates, the people who support you… take care of your family. Sometimes that means saying goodbye to band members because their needs have changed or their wishes and desires have changed… love them anyway. Let them go, and realize that the music can go on as long as your own fire does not go out.

And if there were to come a day that I decided to hang it all up, I know that my brothers would love me anyway and care about me enough to let me do what I need to do. We’ve done the hard part. Unless there is a dramatic change to country radio, we know where and when we can play our music in Canada. We don’t need to be on the road across Canada three-four times a year because what we do has a specialize and very niche audience. We’ll continue to make music for our fans all over the world and we hope to get to some new places like Texas and Europe, but it will all happen in a more controlled and calculated fashion from now on. We’re not old, but we are getting a little cautious about the perils of indie-life on the road.

5. What’s been the most gratifying part of the journey so far?

Achieving my own personal goals, no I’m not telling you what they are… but let’s just say there are only a couple left on my list.

6. Are there any goals the band has yet to reach that you guys are actively working on achieving?

Roots Traditional – Juno. I suppose it may be wrong of me to put it out there so plainly, but I’d like to write that kind of album. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that a Polaris Prize nomination isn’t on my wish list. It’s not that I want to feel like I’m better than someone else, rather I’d love to know that the fruits of my labour could be considered in a peer group like that. It would mean more than a #1 hit, or winning a song competition.

I respect the Polaris Prize as an institution so much, that it seems almost ironic to lust after an award that is normally bestowed upon art that is created blissfully absent of the desire for fame and recognition. At least I think that’s irony… or is it a spoon… when all you need is a knife?

7. Easy question – what albums or songs have you been listening to lately?

Artists…. Sean Booth, Haunted Hearts (can’t wait for the new record in Sept.) Oh Savanah, Marco Rocca, Hey Rosetta, Romi Mayes, Tim Hus, Ascot Royals, Jadea Kelly, Jerry Leger and the Situation… and more.

Bartending gives me time for new music.

8. If you weren’t in the music industry in some capacity today, what would you be doing?

Trying to figure out a way to get into the music industry… or reading the news.

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