Getting To Know Greater Pacific

August 22, 2012

SYS has a chat to laid back country folk gang Greater Pacific, during which their main man, Kyle Kersten, tells Neil Martin a little bit about their LP and what is on their stereo:

Greater Pacific is a group I formed with friend John Phinney (pedal steel, guitar, various other instruments) in early 2010 after working together in the Southern California band Travel by Sea. We are joined by friends Rob Smaw (bass, vocals) and Mike Cusick (drums). We were lucky enough to have some very talented musicians guest on Incandescent. Gretchen Lieberum sings harmony on most of the songs and Tomas Croucier plays bass on a few.

Incandescent is being released by the wonderful Yer Bird Records (yerbird.com) out of Calgary in September. We released an EP with them in January 2011 titled Rainfall. It’s been a pleasure working with Sandy and Judy of Yer Bird and we are honoured to be on their label with other acts such as: John Statz, Pickering Pick, Hezekiah Jones, The Great American Desert, White Pines and Tyler Butler.

Greater Pacific is inspired by everyday life, light, darkness, hope. Some of my favorite songwriters are: Richard Buckner, Will Johnson, Jay Farrar, Tim Bluhm, Joe McConnell (Elephant Micah).

Writing songs is something I do, something I feel I have to do. Shake out the cobwebs… push through the morning fog. Most of the songs I write are not autobiographical. I draw inspiration from books I read, conversations I hear, etc. I hope the listeners can feel something with the songs, in whatever context they interpret. That’s my hope.

We’re currently listening to Beachwood Sparks: Tarnished Gold, Centro-matic: Love You Just the Same, Elephant Micah: And the Agrarian Malaise, Richard Buckner: Devotion + Doubt.

You can order Incandecent here http://greaterpacific.bandcamp.com/ and listen to the lead track here http://soundcloud.com/yer-bird-records/and-you-all-remain-with-me