Playing for hundreds of cheering young fans at Sylvan Lake’s Shake the Lake festival on Saturday, Aug. 11, will seem like déjà vu for the Half Chance Heroes.
Not only has the upbeat Red Deer band played at the skateboard/BMX/live music festival before, but the Half Chance Heroes have also recently wrapped a successful 88-show, five-month tour of schools from Ontario to B.C.
More than 1,100 enthusiastic students came out to hear the Central Alberta ska/punk/pop group play at just one Vancouver assembly, recalled singer and guitarist/keyboardist D.J. La Grange.
“The tour was great. The kids loved it, we sold lots of merch and CDs, and we had some big crowds.”
La Grange figures the best thing about joining the tour sponsored by the motivational non-profit Live Different, is getting wider exposure among teenage audiences.
But then, the Half Chance Heroes have been attracting attention for a while now.
The group won the talent contest for the Central Music Festival, getting to open the event two years ago.
It also performed at two previous Shake the Lake youth-oriented festivals, and debuted a 17-song album, Good Intentions, Bad Inventions, last fall that garnered some CBC Radio play.
La Grange, 19, believes his young band was scouted for the Live Different tour because his group’s positive lyrics jived with messages about volunteerism and anti-bullying. Half Chance Heroes bassist Jordan Little was also able to share some of his own stories of being picked on by other kids while in school.
“A lot of bands have negative lyrics, but we have positive, energetic lyrics that kids can feel good about,” said La Grange, who believes this naturally springs from the psyches of the three group members — including drummer Ryan Schultz — who met while attending Notre Dame High School.
The song Boy With a Toy is about “going after your dreams, (the sense that) the world is yours, that your life is in your hands so make it what you want it to be,” said La Grange.
Top of the World, carries a realistic message about long-distance relationships being difficult. La Grange learned this the hard way, being the latest musician to lose a girlfriend while on tour.
“I’m single now,” he admitted — but no less interested in hitting the road. In fact, he hopes his group — which is already getting regular weekend gigs in Calgary, Edmonton, Sylvan Lake and Red Deer — is able to tour Canada someday.
Meanwhile, La Grange, Little and Schultz are working full-time day jobs outside the music industry to save money for the next CD, which is expected to be released sometime next year. Look for the first single in the fall, said the singer, who’s now satisfied that the three-way friendship among band members can be maintained, despite the pitfalls of travelling together.
“Every time we’ve had to solve some differences between us, we’ve come out just way tighter.”
He also believes his group’s sound is also getting more expansive. Schultz is now incorporating DJ-ing into performances “so there’s more synthesizer and keyboards and the sound is just evolving a lot,” said La Grange, who looks forward to playing at next weekend’s outdoor festival.
It’s a chance to visit with other bands and get noticed, he added.
“Sometimes kids will be there to hear other band play, but then they see us and they say ‘I like you guys.’ . . . It’s an awesome experience.”
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.comchance,
this local band
spreads happiness