Currently on tour and promoting their second album, Loma Vista, Family of the Year has come a long way since they first got together just four years ago.
Drummer and vocalist, and former University of Victoria student, Sebastian Keefe made a quick decision right after his first year as a student to quit academia and follow his passion for music instead, heading off to Boston with his brother/Family of the Year guitarist Joseph (the only two family members in the band).
“I quit to join my brother’s band,” says Sebastian. “It was really weird, because I had my whole next year planned out and I had courses paid for and registered, I had my apartment, I had a girlfriend, and all my friends. It was one of those weird decisions where, maybe if I had woken up in a different mood that day, I would have waited. But I did make a decision, and it’s obviously changed my life forever. But sometimes when I sit around, I wonder what it would have been like if I had stayed, and not made this decision. Its kind of crazy.”
While things are going well now, they weren’tĘalways so smooth. After a year playing in Boston and a break from music to work in television, Sebastian rejoined his brother to start up Family of the Year in California. It was these life experiences that have shaped Family of the Year into a tight-knit group and form their up-beat and optimistic indieĐfolk.
“Our environment has always influenced our music, our life experience that has influenced our lives and the way that we do things,” he says. “That’s the largest influence. Also our relationships, members of the band and friends and family. A lot of songs on the album are just like, ‘we’re going to get through this together’ kind of songs, you know. A ‘whatever it takes’ kind of vibe.”
Family of the Year made their first album, the self-recorded Songbook, available to fans by donations. They are continuing this with Loma Vista, also making it available by donation.
“Our number-one priority is to get the music in peoples’ hands if they want it,” says Sebastian. “While we’re on tour, people can get the album for however much they can afford to pay.”
The pay-what-you-can model is the same, but what has changed is how the band approach composing their songs.
“We spent a lot more time with the arrangement of the songs and working on bits and pieces, as opposed to our first album,” he says. “I think the songwriting reflects better what we are like live; it has just evolved, kind of a natural progression bands go though.”
Family of the Year
Tuesday, April 23
Upstairs Cabaret, $16.50
familyoftheyear.net
This band is simply amazing.