Travelling is one of life’s joys. I’ve been fortunate to travel to over 50 countries in my life. As a kid my dad wanted to show us the world. Every year or two we would take a trip somewhere off the beaten path like Poland, or Russia, or Central America. We would leave the day school started and come back two weeks later. He’s rationale was “where are you going to learn more, in a text book, or actually experiencing it for yourself?”.
It was also when travel prices would drop significantly so it made sense. That sparked my love of travel and when I was 19 and retired from hockey, I decided to save up some money and go backpacking. I went all over south east Asia and then to Europe. Backpacking is something I recommend to any teenager or young adult I meet. It opens your eyes, forces you out of your comfort zone, introduces you to other cultures in the world, and really just gives you a new perspective on life.
In 2019 we got the opportunity by Music BC (the governing body of music in our province) to play a showcase festival in Seoul, South Korea. It was a such a great experience as we hadn’t really played many shows as a band at that point. We went for a week and explored the city. Here are a few pictures from the famous Gwangjank Market. Fun fact, markets are one of my favourite parts of every city and I almost always go out of my way to find where the locals eat, shop, and hang out. I saw more types of Kimchi here than I knew ever existed!
We also spent one day recording in a South Korean studio. We recorded a live version of “Steam to Blow” well before it came out on RA3. We hired a local videographer to shoot it, but I remember she had an old school “camcorder” and it made file sharing super challenging. We never ended up finishing or releasing this session, I think it just didn’t turn out to the level we wanted it to. However, because you’re part of the RA Fan Club, you get the special privilege of the inner workings of RA, so here you go!
Here are also a few pics from our showcase at the “Canada House”. It was probably our favourite show of the 20 or so we had played up until that point because it was a packed house. Let me clarify, they weren’t there because they knew us, they were there because it was Canada House and a few bands from Canada would be playing. However for us, we’d played a couple dozen shows at that point to between 5-20 people and a packed house was just a totally different experience and one I took a liking to right away!!!
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