Jesse Gander (photo: Jonathan Dy)
We asked Vancouver producer Jesse Gander to pick five of his favourite bands from his hometown. Gander’s recording credits at Rain City Recorders (and previously The Hive Studios) include White Lung, Japandroids and The Pack A.D., among many others great Vancouver bands.
Here’s what he came up with:
Jesse: It was very hard to narrow this list down to just five bands in a city that is overflowing with talent, so I based my choice on music that happened to speak to me on an emotional and lyrical level.
Tranzmitors
Consistently rocking through the ages; all Tranzmitors songs are good, no songs are bad. They are a great band to see live and to listen to on record. It’s impossible to have a bad time at one of their shows. Classic rock and roll never goes out of style.
Ladyhawk
Almost all Vancouverites love Ladyhawk and it’s for good reason; it’s some of the strongest songwriting this city has seen in the last decade. They had people singing along to every song, long before they even had an album out. That says a lot.
OkVancouverOk
Jeff Johnson’s approach to songwriting is without boundaries or barriers. Rules weren’t even a consideration, so the emotion in the music cuts clean through. Very refreshing and interesting music to listen to while sober or medicated.
The Nautical Miles
Corbin Murdoch’s lyrics are meaningful and thoughtful; he’s always reinventing himself and always writing consistently great songs. These are lyrics and songs that should have been written decades ago, yet are still waiting to be sung.
White Lung
Punk rock is not an easy genre to make original music in. White Lung succeed in doing it, musically and lyrically. Nobody plays guitar like Kenny William, and no one is more ferocious a singer than Mish Way.
Jesse Gander currently records bands at Rain City Recorders and plays in a number of Vancouver groups.
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