Brave New Waves frontman Graham Eyerley ran away from home at 14 years old and made a new home for himself on his friend’s father’s sailboat in French Creek Harbor, just outside of Parksville. It’s here that his interest in music blossomed.
“There was a guitar on the boat, and not having any parents tell me what to do resulted in me sailing around and teaching myself to play guitar with most of my time,” says Eyerley.
In 1994, when Eyerley was 16, he was exposed the punk/ska/reggae band Sublime, and their mix of styles would help define his own style as a musician.
“Sublime weren’t just group of white guys trying to play Bob Marley reggae,” he says. “Their music defines a rebellion.”
Given Brand New Waves’ affection towards Sublime, they are a fitting band to have headline the upcoming Tribute to Sublime Island Style concert.
“Our music, as well as Sublime’s, has a dirty, sandy, West Coast waves, reggae sound to it which embodies the surfer/skateboarder party lifestyle,” says Eyerley. “It’s a lifestyle I know all about because I grew up on waves.”
While defining his style, Eyerley started attending open mics and jamming with other music types until he met Adrien Dube and James Angel. He meshed with their style and eventually they formed Brave New Waves.
The name of the band came from the CBC radio show of the same name, which featured fresh underground music of different genres.
“As soon as the radio show stopped in the early 2000s I sent an email to the host saying I wanted to name my band Brave New Waves and she thought it was a cool idea,” he says.
At first, the band just wrote about typical song topics like partying, women, even surfing, but they have gotten more political with age.
“Now our writing has progressed more into the imbalances of the world scale,” he says, “focusing on environmental and social action, as well as things that we generally don’t agree with.”
Brave New Waves has brought along lots of great life experiences for these guys, doing various tours throughout Western Canada, playing lots of festivals, and being on Victoria Ska Fest’s bill for the past four years.
“Our most epic stage experience was at a gig last summer on Hornby Island with about 450 people in the audience,” he recounts. “It was a full moon that night, so we got all 450 people to howl at the moon with us. It was so surreal to have 450 people all howling together on a small island.”
A Tribute to Sublime Island Style
Thursday, February 23
Club 9ONE9, $16.50
thebravenewwaves.com