A Kelowna-rock band is leaving the Okanagan scene, but they’ll remember their roots.
The Fallaways have been together for more than a year, and they’re moving to Vancouver to make more connections, said singer/guitarist Jason Koster.
“I think the goal with the whole move to Vancouver is to still keep Kelowna on our local radar as our hometown,” he said.
Recently, The Fallaways received a sponsorship from Cariboo Brewing and will be holding a concert in support of Cariboo’s new beer and their newest song, Cariboo, which will be released on their first EP.
The performance is tentatively set for Feb. 24 at The Habitat.
“We’ve had a song called Cariboo for a long time,” said Koster.
Now, the band is producing Cariboo with Hedley’s Tommy Mac.
The plan is to complete three songs for the EP and to be broadcast on a larger scale.
“The goal is with these other songs is to get into the larger rock stations and across Canada. The move to Vancouver will make things interesting,” said Koster.
Their latest song I Got You, released in September, premiered on the Okanagan’s Power 104 as the featured song of the week.
The alternative-rock band formed in early 2016, members: Koster, 21, bassist Trevor Walker, 27, guitarist Devon Lencucha, 22, and drummer Joshua Ertman, 23, rebranded themselves from their old name Talk Sick.
The Fallaways take a leaf from Nirvana’s book on the song Basement Notes, with Koster adopting a grungy voice with a steady low-note guitar rhythm. He reps a Nirvana hoodie in the music video.
I Got You is more upbeat, with a pop-rock feel.
According to the band’s website, they pull influences from Canadian groups like Alexisonfire and fellow Kelowna rock band The Wild! as well as Weezer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Koster is one of the main lyric writers for the group. At first, the songs came from personal experience, but Koster found over time, the lyrics became more general.
“When we first started out I definitely tried to do everything from personal experience. But as I continued to write I mean, the most dramatic times are the best times to write, but my life is not always dramatic. After a while, you have to take an idea of something. Once in a while you have to exaggerate to make a song work in the way you imagine it,” he said.
Koster grew up in Burns Lake, and in high school entered art contests and wrote lyrics, but said the band intertwined in a “weird way.”
“We all listen to a lot of the same music but when we write music there’s always somebody who completes a different piece of the puzzle in a sense. For the most part, it’s just me and Trevor that do the writing, it’s kind of like he’ll start a riff and I’ll write lyrics to it.”
In Kelowna, Koster attended the Centre for Arts and Technology which helped him meet his bandmates.
He met Lencucha at a boot camp put on by the college and Walker while attending the college.
In November they finished their first tour, which sold out two of three shows in Quesnel, Prince George and Burns Lake.
The Fallaways frequent the Kelowna music scene. Last weekend, they performed at The Habitat with metal band Living Machines.
“It’s really nerve-wracking. We played a show at The Habitat to about 250 people. The energy of 250 people… once you’re on stage with your three best friends it’s the best feeling in the world,” said Koster.
The Fallaways will be performing in Kelowna and will make their move to Vancouver in June.
To learn more about The Fallaways, visit their website.
I Got You is available on iTunes.