This year was the first time Kieran McCaffrey took the stage not as part of Wild Son at Fireside Festival.
The home-grown festival began at the band’s shared home six years ago and has now grown into a two-day festival. Founded by then bandmate, Aaron Desilva in 2013 the event quickly outgrew their living room and now takes place at BNA Brewing Co. & Eatery.
McCaffery and Mitch Howanyk, who was also a member of Wild Son have created their own band, Impavid.
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“Mitch and I have been playing together for almost a decade now so it’s an easy transition and we know everyone in the music community out here and everyone playing (Fireside),” said McCaffery.
Howanyk plays the keyboard and a fiberglass violin that McCaffery says makes the violin sound like a cello.
“We wanted to do something new… it’s not every day you see a violin in things but Mitch has done his research and I am just trying to write good songs,” said McCaffery. “We do a lot, if it’s just the two of us on stage we are doing a lot, we have pedals and we have tambourines on our feet.”
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The band says they want to stretch the boundaries of music and create sounds and ideas instead of sticking to one sound and idea. To mix things up they have brought up other musicians on stage such as Chloe Davis from Kelowna’s Under the Rocks.
The sense of community, and connecting with other bands is why they began Fireside Festival so many years ago.
“We would see these bands we wanted to see play but everyone is a working musician so we couldn’t see them,” said McCaffery.
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The chance to mingle and get to know each other over a collaborative concert is necessary to be an up-and-coming musician according to McCaffery. He says that the ability to swap gigs, tips and have each other step in and collaborate is irreplaceable.
“We are a community of musicians,” he said.
The folk-soul duo will go back into the studio, and have no plans of performing again until spring after they have more songs recorded.
Impavid performed during the first day of the festival at the Bean Scene Downtown, Saturday afternoon. Howanyk will also perform at Fireside Festival with his other band, Kentucky Eileen Sunday, Jan. 27 at BNA Brewing Co. & Eatery.
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