In just a few days Estevan’s downtown will turn into a stage for one of the biggest events of this summer. Just before the Rafferty Rumble, the Mercury caught one of the festival headliners, heartfelt country singer Brock Andrews, while he and the band were in the South Okanagan, B.C., enjoying the weather and getting ready for the Estevan performance.
“It’s going to be fantastic. Every single time the new events for the whole weekend pop up the band gets really excited… It looks like a great time and we are really excited to be a part of it,” said Andrews in the interview.
He grew up with summers at Kenosee Lake, has been to Estevan before and is not new to the area.
“We played in Forget a few months ago, at the Happy Nun. And we are trying to do a lot more in the southeast and south parts of the province this year,” said Andrews.
But the Rumble will be the first time Andrews and his band, consisting of Darcy Deschambault on drums, Rob Kolbe on guitar and Brandon Ziola on bass, will be playing in the Energy City. He and the band have a lot of families in this part of the province, which gave them even more motivation to join the Rafferty Rumble.
Andrews is known for performing both with his band and solo and says that both types of shows have a lot of excitement.
“When you play solos, you really have a chance to tell the stories in between the songs, so it’s a slower pace and the audience is coming to … more like to watch a movie… And when you play with the band, there is the confidence that’s behind it because your guys have different parts and there is camaraderie that you get to play off of each other… What you want to do is to create higher energy to yourself on the stage and that translates to the high energy to the crowd,” said Andrews.
So on July 27, the band will be sharing their energy with the Estevan crowd for an hour, which will be a part of the larger great party, which they promise to add to.
“There is a couple of amazing bands prior to us and a couple of really good bands afterwards at the street dance. And we are all about some really heartfelt lyrics and our original songs. But we also love bringing high energy to the stage and trying to get the crowds to sing along and playing them some familiar songs, but in some songs, it feels familiar even though they are new to that. We want everyone to have a great time and continue on from the party that the earlier bands that will start and the later bands will end,” said Andrews.
Even though Andrews didn’t say with a 100 per cent certainty, if they are joining the street dance or not, he said that they would be there after the performance to mingle with the Rumble guests and performers.
This summer the band has taken a few less shows to have enough time to focus on a brand new album and music videos that are in works now. The last song, I Do, they released in January 2019, and the new single is already set to go, but the band decided to take time with presenting their new creation to the fans.
“We are watching it (the previous single) on the charts, and I Do is still on the top 100 billboard chart. We always have a kind of a follow up single ready for it as soon as radio stops playing it, and radio hasn’t stopped playing it,” explained Andrews.
He noted that fans took to the song really well, and radios are still playing it quite a bit. But with the new song on hands now they are just waiting for the right time to release it.
“We want to make sure that it hits at a good spot, good time of the year. Everything has to line up,” said Andrews.
He noted that they want the new single to hit as soon as fall starts up and the album will follow.
