With summer quickly coming to the BC Interior, more and more venues have started opening up to live music. Pizza Pi has been hosting a few concerts lately, and on Saturday, May 20^th, it opened its doors to a returning musician, Vanden Dool, who first played in Kamloops 4 years ago at the Art We Are.

Starting the night of music was local guitar virtuoso Sean Luciw, performing under the name Nobody Road. You know Sean from his many musical projects, some focusing on the guitar, like Stretch Alexander, and some on electronics, like Lex Plexus. This time around, he was playing solo electric guitar with a backing track. Almost all of the songs were covers in his own bluesy, funky style. The set featured a bluesy take on Johnny Cash’s “Fulsom Prison Blues”, a sprawling version of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”, and a space-surf cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black”. Sean says he has about 30 new songs partially written for a new album coming up.

Ty Vanden Dool, who is the one-man band called Vanden Dool, is originally from Lethbridge, Alberta, but recently moved to Calgary. His music is early 80s synth pop, like Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys, with a minimalist style. Ty uses a vintage synthesizer with a drum machine, microphone and a laptop playing a backing track to create his live set. His music evokes both the icy style of early 80s electronics and the cold landscape of southern Alberta, both through the music and his lyrics which often reference the bleak weather and loneliness of the coulees. He played many track from his self-titled full length, from 2019, and his most recent EP, The View from Here, released in 2020. Vanden Dool should be releasing a new album by winter 2023.