Where are you currently based?
We are currently based in Prince Edward Island, Canada 🙂
How did The East Pointers form?
The East Pointers formed out of friendship and a love for traditional Celtic tunes and songwriting. Tim and Koady are first cousins, but met Jake in our early touring years with different projects. We always joked about starting a band, and then in 2014, we finally did! It happened quite organically, only a few pub gigs for fun and then it eventually grew bigger than we expected it to.
What’s been happening recently?
We recently released a brand new EP, called House Of Dreams. It’s quite bittersweet having this released to the world. We lost Koady on January 6, 2022. We wrote and recorded this album together and now it’s time for everyone to hear it. His excitement for the album and the songs is what has been keeping us going through this difficult year. He’d be pretty pumped to see the lovely reaction we have received!
Your latest EP House of Dreams will be released on September 30, what influenced the sound and songwriting?
We wrote the majority of the EP while we were all on Prince Edward Island during the pandemic. We wrote a new song every few days and began the recording process in summer 2021. Our producer, Derek Hoffman, played a huge part in finding our sound for House Of Dreams, and our weekly meet ups with Colin MacDonald (who we co-wrote almost every track with) to discuss life, our challenges, battles and triumphs weaved into every song.
How did you go about writing House of Dreams?
The three of us would get together in Jake’s studio basement more often than not since we were off the road. Someone would have a riff, lyric or melody and we’d start jammin. We were lucky enough to hop on Zoom with Colin MacDonald, he’s a great writer. A lot of deep discussions would happen (and sometimes laughter), and we’d end up finding a message or story we’d feel passionate enough to share.
What does this EP mean to you?
It means a lot, for many reasons. It’s hard to find the words — losing Koad, and then the emotions and surreal feeling of completing the EP without him. We all worked so hard on these songs and we’re really happy to have them out into the world. 🙂
Where and when did you record/produce/master and who did you work with?
We recorded most of the album in Jake’s basement studio in Charlottetown, PEI, throughout 2021. The intro track was recorded at Koady’s house during a 2 week isolation once Jake arrived on PEI. Derek produced the EP from afar, over Zoom and FaceTime calls from Toronto. He is brilliant, and was the perfect fit for the sounds we were trying to piece together. It was really nice to be at home, comfortable enough to be creative, and trust what our producer was up to on the other end. The EP was mixed by Adam Ayan (Gateway Mastering), who has done most of our East Pointers stuff, and we keep going back to him.
How did you approach the recording process?
We worked through arrangements on voice memos and then switched over to Pro Tools, recording all our parts and ideas into a session. We sent stems over to Derek in Toronto, who instantly made everything sound amazing, and came back to us with suggestions and parts that he was keen to hear. This process really worked for us, and Derek is such a pro, it felt like he was in the studio with us.
What’s planned for House of Dreams?
Now that it’s out there, I think we’re done? Nah, there’s a bit of a plan. We are working with Nettwerk as our label for this release, and are pretty excited to have them on the team. But mainly enjoying the release for now, seeing fans react to the new songs, and thinking of Koady and how proud he would be to see it out there.
Any upcoming shows?
Our circumstances have changed, but we definitely want to play these songs live for our fans at some point. We’re taking it slow, and starting to talk about touring, and what that would look like without Koady.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
So many things! Some incredible music has emerged from the darkness of the pandemic, large and small. Harry Styles is sounding pretty good though, gotta say.
What’s planned for the remainder of 2022 going into 2023?
We’ve just been working on a new festival on Prince Edward Island called Harvest Home. We unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute because of Hurricane Fiona, but we’ll be working hard to make it happen in 2023. And back to writing for sure, we’ve got plenty of ideas to work on, and Koad’s licks are going to keep us busy for ages. New music coming down the pipeline for sure in 2023 and beyond.
Favourite food and place to hangout?
Going to narrow this down to Charlottetown and say Slaymaker & Nichols for food and cocktails, an amazing spot. We often end up at Upstreet’s Craft Beer Corner for a quick pint and a chat. Oh, and of course The Old Triangle, where we played our first gig as The East Pointers. They have weekly Irish sessions and it is a nice place to hang for the whole family.
Website: https://www.eastpointers.ca
Twitter: @TheEastPointers
Facebook: /EastPointersMusic
Instagram: @theeastpointers