Psychedelic Jazz Funk band Apollo Suns have played at Prince George venues so many times this year alone that it feels as though they're part of the local music scene.
It's hard to believe that this typically nine piece band isn't a local act. They're from Winnipeg, but they've played at Prince George venues so many times this year alone that it feels as though they're part of the local music scene.
CFUR News thought is was unusual that an instrumental band, let alone an out of town act, could establish a strong following here and evidently well beyond our city limits. So they spoke with founder Ed Durocher who has been touring with the band since 2017. Reflecting on this recent stint to BC, Durocher remarked, “BC almost from the start was like, yeah. Apollo Suns is one of our bands. Outside of Winnipeg, BC was one of the first places to kind of ‘get it’.”
In the early days, Apollo Suns started touring with a minivan, upgrading to a full size van amidst their early touring to make road life a bit easier. Durocher says it was worth the investment, casually mentioning, “We’re usually doing about 120 shows a year.” Despite enough initial momentum that got the van rolling, Durocher was faced with making some financial risks to take the group to the next level. “Full transparency, even a year ago around this time I was having an existential crisis,” he admits.
“To run this band, to create the album we just did, I took on a lot of debt,“ he continued. “Especially when you’re going into the US coming out of the pandemic it wasn’t super comfortable and I was living on debt, even just in order to pay the players to tour. Even a year ago is such a huge turnaround. I think we can see the little kernels, little nuggets of growth. Not just musically, but also seeing that we had a growing fan base starting to get even bigger than that.
“Now friends of friends are telling their friends. Those 30 people in the room are turning into 100 people in the room or even more and then that’s even getting bigger,“ he continued. “Even from a year ago I was considering shutting down the band. You know when you have tens of thousands of dollars in debt, it ain't pretty. To anyone listening, it would take a lot for me to consider that because I believe in what we’re doing as a very positive thing. I do think that you’ve got to bleed a little bit, you've got to sweat, and things take time to build. Anything that you build, that you want to have stand on it’s own, is going to take a little bit of skin off your back. I feel like last fall was that for the band and myself.“
These six (out of a typical nine) members have travelled together in one big van from grass-roots tour date to tour date, keeping up a near-relentless pace since March 2022. Currently burning the gas money recently earned at Prince George’s Legion 43 with opener Joe Daniels, and promoter Mad Loon Entertainment, are: Ed Durocher w/ Guitar; Bryn Herperger w/ Bass; Anatol Rennie w/ Keyboards & Synths; Tim Iskierski w/ Percussion; Aaron Bartel w/ Baritone Sax; and Benjamin James Hill w/ Trombone. Meanwhile, jamming at home are Erika Einarson on Percussion and Garrett Malenko polishing yet another Trumpet. If you're not out of breath reading all those names, imagine how the brass section feels onstage while pumping out what is described as “Psychedelic Jazz Funk” by many followers.
The group has accumulated two Western Canadian Music Awards (2018+2020), released a number of EPs ‘Each Day a Different Sun’ (2017), ‘Dawn Offerings’ (2019), ‘A Relationship of Force’ (2021), and most recently a full length album, ‘Departures’. From the outside perspective as a purveyor of Canadian indie bands, it appears as though the group is doing well. With the accumulated albums, awards, and over thirty thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, the Prince George community has seen them onstage with a healthy audience a number of times in the last couple years.
Feeling a breakthrough, they’ll be on to recording more material, and playing an album release to local patrons over the next couple days in Winnipeg at the Goodwill before ripping down to Fargo North Dakota on the next leg of their tour wrapping up into late December 2023… for now.
Apollo Suns titillated the audience at the Prince George Legion 43 with their tight psychedelic jazz funk and choreographed stage moves. One of many dates on their 'Departures' Tour. Photo Credit - Genevieve Tucker