Artist description "Palm and Sago is a cacophony of sound and energy, a band that must be experienced!"

Artist History 'Like mice in the kitchen we run the same speed,' declares Palm and Sago vocalist Clea Roddick in the opening line of her bands debut self-titled ep. Though the song was written back when she was just 16 years old, her bluesy voice sounds fresh and confidant fronting the driving rhythm beds and atmospheric pop that layer underneath it. In many ways, says the singer, the song has come to represent the band itself. 'Its like we all have these divergent paths that have meandered and crossed but suddenly we're all here, making this music, working for the same things.' It hasn't always been this way. Raised on the Blue Hills Ranch in backwoods Alberta, Roddick spent her childhood chasing chickens and chopping wood. Her family was very musical (7 home schooled children with a drum kit and piano instead of a TV) and everyday she would trudge through the deep northern snow to cut a drinking hole in the ice for the cattle, all the while singing to herself and dreaming of performing for thousands of people. With her natural flair for the stage, Clea would soon become lead vocalist and keyboardist in her father's touring band, where she learned blues and r&b and tried to sing like Etta James. Her musical travels would lead her every year to the nearby North Country Fair, where she would have the opportunity to perform with some of Canada's finest musicians. 'Those festivals were crucial', says the singer, 'I was very lucky to be a teenager hosting workshops and playing main stage.' Roddick's history with her current band mates begins a few years later in the small mountain community of Nelson, British Columbia. Clea was now an eager-to-learn first-year pianist at the Selkirk College music program where drummer Kyle Koenig was a returning engineer major. A former national karate competitor from the Okanagan Valley, Koenig was immersed in jazz drumming and spent his days locked in a practice room. He emerged occasionally to drum for the schools jazz choir where he first jammed with bassist Craig Newnes, a dropout business student -turned musician from the Shuswap. Due to busy schedules and countless projects, the three rarely had much to do with each other until Clea hosted a year-end party. 'I remember Craig was so tired from school that he slept through the whole thing, while Kyle, who was normally pretty quiet, had everybody playing different African rhythms on hand drums. Its very comical for us to look back and realize that was the first time the three of us were all together. A couple years, and many projects later, Roddick, Newnes and Koenig found themselves in Calgary, Alberta playing together in a band for the first time. Clea was forging her career as a solo singer playing the songwriter circuit, while the band performed blues and r&b covers at local venues. A few months later, the group added guitarist James Bailey, who they had met later at Selkirk and had now returned home to begin his musical career. The group began rehearsing new covers, but soon shifted its focus to original music. 'It wasn't something we really planned', explains Roddick , 'we just started creating this music and everyone fell in love with it instantly.' The band was playing mostly Clea's songs, but all four members contributed so greatly that everyone felt the band needed a name that complemented the music. Perhaps the strength of Palm and Sago's sound is their ability to fuse the old and the new. 'They have this amazing ability to take all these influences from old-time music and put them in a modern context', says one local music journalist. 'In some ways we're a very contradictory band' elaborates bassist Newnes, 'because on one hand we're very much about the vibe in the room like those old blues bands, you know that moment of creation when everything just clicks. But it's also very controlled - every sound, every rhythm has a purpose even if it's just to make you laugh.' The band creates this sound in their own studio where they write and record everything themselves with no compromise in quality, since three of the members are professional recording engineers. One of Calgary's fastest-rising bands, Palm and Sago is turning people's heads with their new ep and their incredible live shows. The band is currently recording their debut album while performing select shows in preparation for a summer tour.

Group Members Clea Roddick - Vocals and Keys, Kyle Koenig - Drums, Craig Newnes - Bass, James Bailey - Guitar

Albums Palm and Sago EP

Location Calgary, Alberta - Canada

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