(as told by Wes Pohl)
To tell the story of Erwin Vesper, I have to tell the full story of my musical journey, because it’s all connected. It all started in 1985 when I was a teen with a dream, raised on rock and roll, curiously confused by new wave, and provoked by punk. In high school I met Steve Mallet, who would be instrumental in my discovery of music and creativity. Wes and Steve (yes, that was the name of the band) jammed and created original music together for several years. The song “Stray from You” is a derivative of a song we wrote together called “Water” (thank you Steve for being a part of my musical journey – and I love that our song from 30 years ago lives on!). As Steve and I learned and experimented together, the bar had been set for me in terms of the creativity, spontaneity, connection, and passion that I would continue to pursue thereafter. Those experiences spawned a life of music and assorted bands. From Wes and Steve, to Pacific Radio Fire, The Rhythm Priks, Stench, Lloydfinger, Eddie Charles and the Chump Change, Peter and the Johnsons, West Meadows, The Bicker Brothers, The Peat Monsters, Sam and the Other Guys, and of course, Erwin Vesper.
Wes and Steve eventually evolved to “Pacific Radio Fire” which was my first publicly facing band. We actually rehearsed songs and played gigs. We had Joe Raffa on drums and Darwin Trekovsky on Sax. It was an on and off band while I was in art school. Soon after graduating, I took a job in Whitehorse. Up there I jammed with different people, and even took some guitar lessons from Steve Slade (brilliant player and songwriter). I really wanted a band. One day, while relieving myself at a bar, the guy at the next urinal was tapping a crazy rhythm on the metal plumbing fixture. I asked “you wanna play the drums?” The Rythm Priks was formed soon after with Dan LeBrun on drums, Craig Unterschute on bass, Patrick Singh on guitar, and me. We didn’t take ourselves seriously and had a lot of fun in the Whitehorse scene.
Then we moved. My wife Barb was sick of the north and I was ready for a change too. We moved to the warmest place in Western Canada we could think of – Kelowna, B.C. Fresh start. Soon after the move, I missed The Rythm Priks and was itching to have a band again. Erwin Vesper (the first) happened in Kelowna in 1993. Not right away… it came out of the slow disintegration of Lloydfinger, (formerly Stench), which formed out of the classified section of the newspaper. Lloydfinger was doing well in the Okanagan music scene (we hit radio for a summer with Leaving the Shore). The song “Obscure” (on the record) was written around then. Shout out to Ron Schneider (guitar), Mike Valiant (bass) and Ryan Smith (drums) for their mojo and vibe that lives on in the song today. Shortly after our radio success, the band fell apart. Maybe we got too serious… I don’t remember what ended it, but it lost whatever it had that was awesome. Mike and Ryan moved on, but Ron Schneider (the Urchin) remained. Ron and I formed a new band and named it Erwin Vesper with some other guys. We rehearsed in a garage with two goats (for real). But it only lasted for a couple months of rehearsals and two gigs. Before the band had time to find it’s sound, my wife and I got pregnant, which prompted a move to Calgary to make better money and further my “other” career as a designer and illustrator. I always liked the name Erwin Vesper, so I took it with me, and used it as a pseudonym for my musical endeavours. After the move, it was mostly solo noodling, writing and the occasional jam with local Calgary musicians like Craig Reckseidler (from Wandering V’s fame), and some other guys in the folk/indie scene.
In 2003, a newspaper ad connected me to Kelly Palmer (guitar) and Terry Weir (drums), looking for musicians to play a party at the restaurant where they worked. We jammed and played the gig and it was fun. So we kept jamming, eventually naming the band Eddie Charles and the Chump Change. As things started coming together and we switched from covers to originals, we wanted a different name, perhaps more serious. Erwin Vesper (the second) was reborn. A few different bassists filtered through the band in the first year, eventually settling on Frank Bade. Slaughterhouse Rehearsal Studios was our place, where we played every week. Me and my various bands were so frequent there that the room we always played in was renamed “The Wes Wing” in my honour (thanks Bob!) from it’s previous name “The Fubar Room” (yes a scene from the cult movie was filmed there). Erwin Vesper II played some gigs, and developed some fantastic songs. It was in this iteration of the band when I wrote “Mindsurfing” (from the record), and many others. Appreciation goes out to Terry Weir, who was a big part of the band, a powerful force behind the drums, and is a good friend. Life eventually led Kelly and Terry down paths away from Calgary, and the band dissolved as bands always do. Things went quiet for a little while, but I continued to write.
I stayed in touch with Frank, the bassist though, and I did a pile of writing and recording on my own for a while. Frank and I would connect from time to time and we eventually recruited a keyboard/sax player named Dalton Kahn (brilliant young player), and scrolled through a few different drummers. This would mark Erwin Vesper III. This version of the band didn’t last very long, but it was great while it did, giving me a venue to band-test some songs I am really proud of. From the record, the songs “Overtime” and “Number One” were written during this time, among many others (yet to be recorded). As is the case with all bands, it’s time too was limited. First Dalton moved away for school, and then the drummer (whose name I can’t recall) disappeared somewhere and the band was done. The name once again was left to gather dust on the shelf.
But Erwin Vesper was not dead, just hibernating. In the late 2000s, and I formed the duo West Meadows with good friend Mike Korman. We still go on songwriting retreats every year or two. West Meadows evolved to The Peat Monsters with the addition of Ray Mackay on guitar. We would sift through my catalog of material and reconstruct old songs as an acoustic trio. We also formed “Sam and the Other Guys” for a short time with my son, Sam on guitar, mandolin and vocals, and Luis on drums. Also around that time, a poker game introduced me to Jeremy Hrdlicka. Jer would become a big part in my musical circle, and we did a lot of co-writing together (we still do). We started jamming with friends and a new band formed. Initially it was called Peter and the Johnsons for a laugh (shout out to Chris, Paul and Eric, also in the founding line-up). Over time the band evolved, and so did the line-up of members, so we decided that we needed a more serious name. The naming process caused a lot of bickering, especially between Jer and I. As we were fighting over names, Duff, our new bass player says “we should just call ourselves the Bicker Brothers for God’s sake!”. The BB’s were a great band and we had good energy. The main line-up was myself on guitar and vocals, Jeremy Hrdlicka on guitar and vocals, Patrick (Duff) Down on bass, and Carl Raines on drums. At one point Kelly Palmer was on bass and guitar (Shout out to Eric Kveps as lifetime honorary member and champion of the band). As the band evolved, the push for more gigs and more rehearsals was getting in the way of my enjoyment of being in the band. I didn’t want to go at the pace that Jer wanted, and we had different dreams. So I stepped aside to do my own thing and let him run with it. He renamed it Brother Bicker, and picked up Tom Mogen on guitar and Ben Ellard on keyboard. They are a rocking good band and we are all good friends (and still jam together sometimes).
Being bandless, I started to develop some more song ideas that had been brewing, and also dip deeper into my archives of songs I wrote in past bands. Kelly and I reconnected with a shared vision, and decided to start work on a “real” album/project together. We have always worked well together. Kelly makes my songs sound great and is a fantastic arranger and sounding board. “Erwin Vesper” (the fourth) comes back to life. As we planned to record, we borrowed Duff from Brother Bicker (he plays in both our bands now), and brought in the talents of Darryl Swart, studio drummer and producer/engineer extraordinaire. The studio work got us addicted to Darryl’s impressive drumming, and we coerced him to stay a while. The recording process also brought Adam Gill into the mix. Adam is an amazing keyboard player, a wonderful collaborator, and it’s a blessing to have him committed to the band. We bow to his musical genius. The new Erwin Vesper began to gel as we recorded the first album. After recording, we started to rehearse for select gigs (shout out to Dan Brock for his percussion work with us). Our first gig was a big-ass hall party for my birthday. It was the perfect time to present the band to family and friends. What a blast that night was! As for the rest of the story, it continues to unfold. Stay tuned for updates. And if you actually read all of this, kudos to you! – Love you mom!
Wes (Looknesu)
April 2017