{"id":72332,"date":"2023-11-12T19:41:59","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T02:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=72332"},"modified":"2023-11-12T19:41:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T02:41:59","slug":"creation-across-the-nation-how-a-calgary-band-continues-with-a-member-in-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/11\/12\/creation-across-the-nation-how-a-calgary-band-continues-with-a-member-in-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"Creation across the nation: How a Calgary band continues with a member in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Touring musician: <\/strong>Lyndon Lalonde, centre, and Dylan Gibbs, right, sing a song with Cheer at Modern Love in Calgary on Friday, Oct. 20. Lyndon had flown in from Toronto a day prior. (Photo by Nathan Iles\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I<\/span>magine travelling 2,707 km to play a gig with your band. That\u2019s exactly what Lyndon Lalonde did for an October show at a popular bar in Calgary’s Beltline.<\/p>\n

Having the bass player fly in from across the country is a reality the Calgary band, Cheer, has been adapting to with gusto. Lalonde, a founding member of the psychedelic rock group, moved to Toronto in August yet remains an active player. Through friendship and modern technology, this independent music project is finding ways to collaborate, even if it means catching a flight for a weekend of shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cI flew in Thursday morning, we did a rehearsal, and then we played the show,\u201d said Lalonde, standing outside Modern Love,<\/a> minutes after performing on the bar\u2019s stage. \u201cYou look at the calendar and we realize we haven\u2019t practised for a full month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within 24 hours of our interview, Lalonde was on the road to play another show in Edmonton at The Buckingham.<\/a> A week later, he was on a plane back to Toronto.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it\u2019s because it had only been seven weeks since we\u2019d last seen each other, but it didn\u2019t feel like it had been that long,” said Gus Rendell, guitarist and fellow founding member of Cheer. “The muscle memory was all there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entire weekend, he said, was a flurry of playing that brought them back together. \u201cFirst practice was practise for the second practice. The second practice was practise for the first show. The first show was practise for the second show. And by the second show, it felt pretty good,” he said.\u00a0 “It felt like we\u2019d come together pretty good, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheer was born out of a two-man project helmed by lifelong friends Rendell and Lalonde. The two were playing throughout the early 2010s in Calgary as Planned Bastard. before meeting guitarist Dylan Gibbs in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first year of our existence, we played improvisational Legend of Zelda jams,\u201d said Rendell, referencing the famous videogame series.<\/a><\/p>\n

By 2018, Cheer was composing original songs and released its debut recording, the EP Time and Space.<\/em><\/a> Following a scrappy tour across Canada, the trio recorded a full-length album, Cardinal Directions<\/em>,<\/a> released early in 2021. It was around this time that drummer Ethan Muzychka was added to the lineup, developing their sound into something they describe as \u201cwonk rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

This new lineup recorded an (as of writing, unreleased) new album Palingenesis<\/em>, and made appearances at festivals such as Frogfest, Big Winter Classic, and Sled Island throughout 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n

It was amidst this momentum for the band that Lalonde dropped the bombshell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI moved for love,\u201d he laughed. His partner, Megan Hamilton, was accepted to a master’s degree program at the Ontario College of Art & Design University after months of uncertainty and waitlisting, and Lalonde wanted to support her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned about it in the middle of June and by the end of August, they were gone,\u201d recounts Rendell.<\/p>\n

Many bands navigate situations like this by replacing the departing member, but it is not something Cheer is interested in. Instead, the group is finding ways to use technology to help the process.<\/p>\n

“There’s a zero-latency mode with some of these video call apps like Zoom that was developed with this sort of purpose in mind; people trying to play music with each other,” said Rendell.<\/p>\n

Each member of Cheer is adept with recording technology, which makes it easy to record a song idea on one side of the country and send it to a band member on the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a healthy, active message board,\u201d says Lalonde. \u201cStupid memes, \u2018What did you have for breakfast.\u2019 It\u2019s good to continue to be friends.”<\/p>\n

Rendell shares a similar sentiment. \u201cI feel like we both appreciate each other more and want to spend time with each other,” he said.<\/p>\n

For these two longtime artists, a week together playing music is the best way to reconnect. The future of Cheer is unclear, but there are opportunities amid the chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (Lynden being gone) increases the amount of personal dedication that needs to come forward for it to not fall apart,\u201d said Rendell. \u201cWe all want this to do well, and we’re all very dedicated and invested in the band and each other. I hope that that sees us through this murky period.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Lalonde, distance makes the heart grow fonder. \u201cIt’s cool to go to a different Canadian city and see different Canadians,\u201d he says. \u201cIt just hardens my love for Calgary and southern Alberta.\u201d<\/p>\n

That love is evident as he soulfully sings into a microphone in Calgary on a Friday night.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Guitarist: <\/strong>Gus Rendell sits by his piano in his home in Calgary on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. Rendell is a songwriter in the band Cheer. (Photo by Nathan Iles\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Calgary band Cheer continues to collaborate, even with a founding member living across the country. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":870,"featured_media":72323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Creation NI","footnotes":""},"categories":[1590,1429,3,212,5,1592],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-72332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts","8":"category-beltline","9":"category-city","10":"category-downtown","11":"category-entertainment","12":"category-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/870"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72332"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72849,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72332\/revisions\/72849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}