Ayahuasca and Rocking out at 7,200 feet!
Recapping 2022, the wildest year yet for Rare Americans, through the eyes of Jamesy Boy himself
It’s 2023 already? Wild. It’s fun to look back on a year and see everything you did. That’s what’s so great about iPhones, the notes and photos apps where you can re-live your year. I took a ride down the last 12 months for my own reflection and figured I would let you guys into it as well. Sometimes I give myself no credit for anything, I’m very much a “whats up next?” type of person, but that’s something I’m working on. Having gratitude for myself, being proud of what I’ve accomplished, and celebrating the little wins. So here’s a look back at 2022.
A Brand New Year - Part 8 - September/October 2022
READ THE FULL SERIES
July/August 2022 (Childish Gambino, New Balance, and Jessie Reyez)
November/December 2022 (Finding Myself Deep in the Costa Rican Jungle)
SEPTEMBER
Let tour madness begin!!!!! You’ll notice there are only 4 of us, no Ginger. We got asked this a bunch on tour. We love Ginger to bits and asked her to come play with us full time but Ginger has a good full time job working in digital advertising. She wanted to keep her career in that field, and also have a lot of life flexibility. Being a full time artist comes with sacrifices, it’s a lot like being a pro athlete. It’s a hard job to “leave at work” - you are constantly thinking about it, what comes next, and preparing for the next big thing. She also is recently pregnant and we are so thrilled for her! Mad love for Ginger.
Here’s the full drum line intro in Los Angeles. This was at El Ray theatre, an 800 or so cap club. We blew out the 350 club in LA on our first tour so we went bigger for this show. Unfortunately it really undersold and this was a tough pill for all of us to swallow. We still rocked it to the very best of our ability, because it’s all part of the journey.
Same Boat we row acoustic in LA
Roger Federer retired during this time. One of my all time hero’s. This is an incredible picture of the two greatest players of all time (well, we can’t forget Novak as well). I think this pic will forever go down in history!
Every night on tour I go into the crowd and I let you guys decide (by yelling) which song I’d play acoustically. San Diego was the only show on the tour to pick Balmoral Hotel, one of my favourite songs ive ever written. Note the fan dressed as Nicky - what a beauty!
Day off means the crew eats well! I like throwing down feasts for everyone.
Menu:
Wings
Flank Steak
Grilled Shrimp & scallops
Salad
Guac
Roast potatoes
The fixins
I kept up with boxing, but as a pre-show warm up. Had to teach Lubo some combos in holding the pads.
Sold out in Phoenix! One of the biggest shows of the tour. This was a 500 cap club, to sell it out was a real honour. Another big win in 2022. I’ve always believed in “winning at every level” before moving up. It’s something I didn’t do in my hockey career. I too quickly advanced to the WHL when I wasn’t ready for it and I didn’t do very well. To be honest I think it killed my career.
I could never gain enough confidence in myself, I was full of self doubt. It led me to the only time in my life I’ve truly felt depressed. I remember sitting in my room alone every night, eating pizza every day, and gaining a lot of weight. I went into a hole and ended up totally quitting hockey.
Our first in-studio TV performance, in Albuquerque New Mexico. This is for a program called Bands of Enchantment which airs on PBS in the USA. It was a full day of filming and really enjoyable for all of us. The crew was super nice and hospitable. The funny part is I had to censor myself, because its for family tv, so I had to alter a ton of lyrics on the spot which was a fun little mental challenge. Another little fun fact, this is Mama Bear, one of the only songs I can’t run or jump around while singing cuz the lyrics are so fast.
The fall tour was our first time doing VIP meet n greets with fans. Essentially fans could buy an upgraded ticket that included a t-shirt, lanyard, and a chance to meet us and ask questions. We also played a couple songs acoustically and previewed unreleased music videos.
I really enjoyed the meet n greets because I got to answer questions from you guys. They really ranged from questions about the business of RA, to what specific songs are about, to my LEAST favourite question of all, “where’d you get the name RA from?”!!!!
Here’s Kids These Days acoustic live from VIP:
This was in Santa Fe, New Mexico at maybe the coolest venue in the world called Meow Wolf.
A sold out Santa Fe. Who the hell would have thought a little band from Vancouver could sell out a 350 cap club in the middle of the desert? Hard to believe! Santa Fe is also 7,200ft in elevation, so we were short of breath the entire show.
This is a snippet of Rhythm Kitchen. Duran grabbing the ukulele to start the show as another “moment” we crafted.
A proposal!! This was certainly a first. We had a fan reach out saying he wanted to propose to his gf on stage at our concert. I had to think about how we could do this without giving away the surprise. We got creative and made it work. It was a super dope moment you can see play out here:
Touring is a real grind sometimes. You get sick a lot, not a lot of sleep, and it’s really demanding on your body. But moments like this, coming out for an encore and everyone singing your song back to you, it’s what I live for man! This was in San Antonio. I pulled my phone out during the concert so its a little shaky.
GEORGE! A big highlight of tour for me was meeting George in person. For those of you who don’t know, George is the artist who has been with us since day 1. Originally he was hired by the director of Cats, Dogs & Rats to draw some additional art in the video (such as the tattoos on the animals). He ended up drawing the album cover as well and I just was hooked on his style.
It’s been 5 years now and he’s drawn all our album covers and merch. He’s phenomenally talented and a great guy. This is in North Carolina. A fan wanted me to draw something that he was going to get tattooed. I really hate when people ask this because I’m so shit at drawing. I said to him “hey wait! I got an idea, our artist is actually here! George, wanna draw him a tattoo?” He drew this on the spot in 5 minutes.
My brother CP and my sister in law Alanna flew out to NYC to watch us. It was a surprise birthday trip for Alanna. It’s always a highlight when family comes, but I’m not gonna lie, I get more nervous for these shows than any others.
And of course… Colin found his way to the stage again lol
I thought my fit looked dope in DC, so I had Michele take a pic for the Rare Americans Apparel account. I really do love our merch, im our biggest fan. I always wear it. Bigger and better stuff coming this year.
Jongo owes Ohio a couple shows. He just HAD to have a baby during this time. Just kidding, we are over the moon for him. He welcomed his first son into the world, Thomas, so we flew him home to be there for his birth. We had our tour opener Dylyn’s bassist join us, his name is Max. He’s a killer player and did both the shows while barely missing a note. In Columbus I had the meet n greet fans wish Jongo congrats!
Thalia Hall - Chicago. The biggest headline show we have done up until this point. It’s a beautiful venue that looks almost Shakespearean. The staff and crew was incredibly professional. We were all like “yep, we gotta start playing 1000 cap venues all the time”. It served as a real motivator to keep pushing and get to the next level so we can experience venues like this every night.
These shows are more challenging to play though, at least for me. Look how far away I am from the crowd. It’s probably 10 feet. When you play 200-300 cap clubs there’s no barrier and people are pretty much touching your feet. In these venues the stage is much larger and people are further away, which makes it seem like there is less energy in the room and I start to question myself on stage. Am I having an off night? Am I lacking energy? Really it’s just my own mental getting in the way, because looking back at the footage, there was a great energy. This is part of the “winning at every level” concept I mentioned earlier. It takes practice on these size stages to feel comfortable.
Denver! My favourite show of the tour. A sold out Bluebird Theatre, roughly 600 cap. Just 6 months earlier we sold out a 200 cap room called Larimer Lounge, so to come back just a few months later and sell out a much larger venue was probably the biggest “win” of the tour for us. I was so jacked up for this show and I think we delivered our best of the tour. This show was packed with energy. I’ll never forget it! Maybe my favourite show of the whole year.
We arrived in Park City to a huge snow fall. This tour was a roller coaster of weather systems. We started on the West Coast where there was a heat wave, temperatures in the 40 degrees Celsius range (thats 105 for the Americans reading). Then we headed south and ran into the hurricane the day it was landing. It started flooding everywhere so we had to cancel our Florida dates. We then headed north where it was snowing and we were freezing. This was all within the span of 7 weeks - the world is crazy. Clearly Alfie was pretty pumped about the snow though.
We ended up playing Risk several times on this tour. I’d never played before and it took me a bit to understand the gist of the game. Duran knew it well and was the master, winning a couple of times. Lubo and I liked it so much that every day we were trying to convince people to play with us, but it takes a long time so no one wanted to. On our day off in Park City I convinced Michele to play with us, which she did reluctantly. This is the set up from the bus! I won this game muahaha ;)
Salt Lake City. This was a good lesson in humility. We rolled up to Kilby Court, a 200 cap “venue” thats more like an outdoor garage with no heater. We were all freezing cold setting up for sound check and after playing Denver and Chicago our ego’s got the best of us and we thought we’d graduated from these tiny shows. Needless to say, “doom is the mood in the room”. It was also nearing the end of the tour and a real intense year, everyone was tired. I took a picture of a “wall of fame” that had notable artists who had played the venue. Everyone from Macklemore to Modest Mouse to Phoenix to Bright Eyes. It was really incredible. That changed all of our attitudes. I was excited to rock the stage in the same way those greats had. The show was absolutely packed to the brim. I had a ton of fun. I even played a couple songs acoustically by the fire pit after the show for fans who stuck around.
The last show was in Boise, Idaho. To be honest, probably my least favourite show of the tour because the venue was very silly and had a table & chairs separating me from the audience so I was very limited in my ability to move around. That always makes it harder to perform your best, but it was the last show and we were all just thankful to have made it to the end safely, healthy, and so successfully. This is a crew photo from the tour in Boise.
Final Goodbyes on the tour bus. At the end of tour I had a trip planned to Costa Rica. It was part vacation, and part self-improvement for me. Months earlier I applied for an Ayahuasca retreat. I was headed there for a week on my own, and Michele was going to meet me after and travel around the country.
This is us on the bus saying our goodbyes. I left from Portland and the rest of the crew drove back to Vancouver later that day. What was tough about this “goodbye” is Ayahuasca carries a lot of perception around it. It’s said that you will likely discover a lot of new stuff about yourself, and those discoveries can lead to changes in your life. Michele (nor i) had any idea how this was going to change my feelings about anything really. That includes my career, relationship, outlook, etc. It just made “goodbye” a little more impactful.
I had a layover in San Jose, Costa Rica before getting to my final destination. What did I do? You know it! Hit a local market to get some food.
I had a couple days to relax in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica before my retreat. This is a coastal region of the province and it was so nice to be by the ocean. I wanted a couple of days to recharge my batteries after a long tour before starting my retreat. I focused this time on setting my intentions, calming my mind, and opening my heart.
I wanted to just live, and not think. I love RA to death, but it really consumes me. It’s all I think about, a 16h a day type of job. I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but it’s also important that I “switch off” sometimes.
For me, as I mentioned earlier, being in nature and going on adventures is a way I can simply just… be. I did a crazy hike that involved swimming up a fast current to reach a waterfall called La Leona. It was exhilarating and beautiful, also a little physically challenging. Here’s a video of someone else getting through the tough part of the current.

These are called Coati’s, they travel in packs of 20-30 and will come right up close to you. Kind of like a cross between a monkey and a raccoon.
On the last day before my retreat I went on a coffee and cocoa tour. I drink coffee every morning and had no knowledge of the inception of this substance I consume every day.
This is a coffee plant. It has thousands of small little seeds/fruits that are actually quite juicy. They pick these, get the beans out of them and then dry them before roasting. Coffee originates in Ethiopia, but a lot of the worlds coffee comes from Costa Rica as it has rich volcanic soil.
This is where cocoa, or chocolate, originates from. Its a large fruit with big seeds. They are super juicy and delicious, I couldn’t believe chocolate could be made from them. It’s the same process as coffee, they extract the seeds and then dry them before roasting.
This is cocoa seeds drying
We roasted the dried coffee and cocoa seeds and made both to taste. For the cocoa they gave us sugar cane to dip into the liquid. It absorbs it and adds a delicious sweetness. If you ever get a chance to munch on a sugar cane, go for it!
Join me next time as we wrap up the last of 2022!
Looks like a blast man I can’t wait till you guys comeback!!
I’ll always remember the LA show as the show i threw a hank plush on stage.