The Okanagan music scene is a palette of different tastes and styles, but do you ever wonder how these local bands got their names?
Some artist titles are stumbled upon serendipitously, while others are the product of deep musings.
Here are how 10 local bands created their band names:
Marci’s Beach - Kelowna, BC
Marci’s Beach is a rock band who deviates from the conventional, they said. “We prefer to write songs about space aliens, robots and black holes.”
Their band name, however, wasn’t a result of intergalactic space travel, but instead it was because of a landscaping job in Kelowna for a nice woman named Marci.
“My close bud JP and I were doing a bit of landscaping on a really nice beach house in Kelowna for a nice lady, her name was Marci,” explained a member of the band.
“Later on in life [my friend] was telling a story about ‘Marci’s Beach’ and as soon as he said it my brain twisted in the best way and now it’s our band name.”
Current Band Members:
Lucas Segal - Vocals and Bass
Austin Garlic - Guitar
Weston Aleric - Drums
High Horse - Kelowna, BC
High Horse focuses their talents on psychedelic progressive rock, with the name being focused on clever punnery and a slides-off-the-tongue sort of alliteration.
The band played with the idiom “High Horse,” in a new way, they explained.
“Since we play our own brand of psychedelic [progressive] rock, it is good to have a signifier in the band name that points to drug use. In this case, the drug reference also works as a clever pun.”
Current Band Members:
Brian Looney - Guitar
Andy Ashley - Drums
Rob McLaren - Bass
Speak Easy - Kelowna, BC
During their time at UBC Okanagan, Oliver Sandberg and Scott Sparrow recorded a demo under the name “Yours Truly.” Afterwards, Lauren Giorgio joined on the bass to form what would become “Speak Easy” in the winter of 2016 after a conversation between Oliver and a mutual friend, Paul, about prohibition.
“Paul mentioned the term ‘Speak Easy’, in which the syllabic pattern was the same as ‘Yours Truly’. After that, Speak Easy stuck and we joked about being really hush-hush about the shows we were playing until they were happening. But then we decided that was a bad idea… cause we’re a band and want people to come to the shows.”
The band says their music focuses on the kind of music “we all like and feel inspired by,” presented through a sort of psychedelic rock with an eclectic sound which resembles a mixture of The Beatles, Pixies and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Current Band Members:
Oliver Sandberg - Guitar, Vocals
Scott Sparrow - Percussion
Lauren Giorgio - Bass
Indecipherable Noise - Peachland, BC
Indecipherable Noise began as a two-piece metal band between drummer Mitchell Corbach and former guitarist Evan Anderson.
“We set out to play instrumental progressive metal; wanted to stand out from what seemed to be a sea of copy cutter bands; and to go against metal stereotypes of being loud, aggressive, and unsophisticated (to the general masses that is),” explained Corbach.
“Basically it is a parody - as Evan put it - of metal being ‘indecipherable noise.’”
The band, now comprised of four members, tries to put out a heavy sound while retaining a strong sense of melody, they explained.
Current Band Members:
Dylan Gutierrez - Guitar
Jevon Carignan - Guitar
Vaughn Janes - Bass
Mitchell Corbach - Drums, Percussion
BL00M - Kelowna, BC
BL00M describes themselves as a five-piece alternative band with a “full bright sound,” in coordination with the definition of bloom.
According to the band, “The name BL00M came from the end of another band that Lexie and our former drummer started and bloomed into a new fresh sound with Jenna as the new vocalist. We wanted something edgy, a bold name to remember.” The band also added that the reasoning behind the double zeroes in the name is to separate them from becoming mixed in with photos of blooming flowers when they’re searched on Google!
Current Band Members:
Jenna Johnson - Vocals
Alexis Artiga - Guitar and Vocals
Devin Corbach - Drums
Paul “Apollo” - Bass
That Awful Rhythm - Kelowna, BC
“We derived our name from the very thing we’re most afraid of,” the band said.
That Awful Rhythm and their musical taste goes against the grain, so much so that their tagline is “Do Not Listen To That Awful Rhythm.”
The band found that the easiest way to conceptualize the origin of the name was through quoting the popular film Fight Club: “working a job you hate to buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t like.”
“The narratives of 'good advice' and 'common sense' we inherently follow often lead us to misery,” the band explained.
“That awful rhythm is what scares you enough to make the 'safe' choice. It is what convinces you to ignore your inner truth & potential in favour of a more 'stable' career path. It is the working poor, the failing state, and all the fear in-between.”
Current Band Members:
Jesse Blashill - Guitar
Michael S.e Elliot - Electric Guitar
ICELANDIA - Kelowna, BC
ICELANDIA may have originated in BC, but they found their name in the aesthetic of Iceland. They found the magicla qualities of the location to reflect their dreamy synthpop vibe. The “ia,” the band said, made its way onto the name because it separated them from the country and made them unique –– and partly because they had been watching a lot of Portlandia at the time.
“Putting it all together the name felt instantly familiar and yet unique. There is also some irony involved in that I actually grew up in Greenland and it has been my life long affliction to correct the person who inevitably gets Greenland confused for Iceland and vice versa,” a band member said.
“Lastly, to my knowledge we’re the only band with the name ICELANDIA and to anyone that’s ever run a search for something they thought was original they’ll know that that in itself is a miracle.”
Current Band Members:
Scott Nettleton - Synthesizers
Steven Cogbill - Drums, Percussion
Anthony Martens - Vocals, Synthesizers
Hot Knox - Kelowna, BC
For the first year of their to-be rock band, Hot Knox, remained nameless until they had the opportunity to perform as a result of their heavy jam sessions.
They were then stuck with the dilemma, "what do we call ourselves?" Inside the garage of lead guitarist Kelly Shepherd, the band began to forge what would be called “Hot Knox.”
“After a brief trial period Hot Knox was chosen. Knox, well that’s obvious, we were jamming near the mountain. But Hot? Why Hot?” said the band.
“Well that was obvious as well. Our jams were fire. So we started the 6-piece band under the moniker and have been thriving ever since.”
Current Band Members:
Tammy Thomas - Vocals, Guitar
Kelly Shepherd - Lead Guitarist
Will Wolodko - Keys
Glenn McCullough - Bass
Luke Olafsen - Drums
Steve “Hawkeye” Lariault - Harmonica
Under the Rocks - Kelowna, BC
The band name Under the Rocks may seem like it's meant to undercut some deeper meaning, but would you believe the band name actually began as part of a joke?
According to Chris Baxter, who started Under the Rocks as a folk duo along with Jordan Klassen, the now bluegrass quartet’s name was established out of necessity.
Under the Rocks began about seven or eight years ago, Baxter said, as a “Joke Band” where music-loving friends would jam out, but never planned to debut the band outside of his friend’s living room.
“Jordan and I started to write music and jam together more seriously. We started getting some small private and bar gigs, so we needed a name so we called ourselves "Under The Rocks" as almost an undercover band from "On The Rocks." We totally made that name as a joke but it stuck!” Baxter explains.
Current Band Members:
Chris Baxter - Banjo, Mandolin, Vocals
Jordan Klassen - Guitar, Vocals
Chloe Davidson - Fiddle, Vocals
Drew Schulz - Bass, Vocals
Tidal Baby - Vernon, BC
“Tidal Baby” lives up to their aquatic name with their Surf Rock-styled music.
Connor Whiskin said that the group’s name was pulled from a song his friend had wrote after his original name “Grim Futures” –– which was a reflection of his stage name, Grim –– didn’t seem to resonate with the project.
“In some strange moment of eureka the title of my friends old song just seemed to perfectly fit the vibe and thus “Tidal Baby” was born so to speak,” Whiskin said.
Current Band Members:
Connor Whiskin - Lead Guitar
Neil Graham - Rhythm Guitar
Jim Lagerquist - Bass Guitar
Shane Ranger - Bass Guitar (Intermittent)
Daniel Greene - Drums
