Fresh off headlining gigs at both the Toronto Jazz Festival and the North By North East music conference, The Jessica Stuart Few is returning to their home province of B.C., making a stop in Victoria for a show at the Fort Street Café with Anne Schaefer and Julia Wakal.
“We thought it would be a great way to be in B.C. For the summer,” says Stuart, who studied at UVic and managed a popular local vintage shop before moving to Toronto a few years ago.
Stuart’s eclectic influences range from jazz to classic rock to traditional japanese music, and while those influences helped shape her into the talented musician she is today, the band’s music doesn’t really fit into any of those genres.
“I would call it art-pop,” Stuart says. “It’s catchy, hooky melodies, but we’re not playing your standard chord progressions or time signatures. We take that jazz influence and turn it into pop. We don’t exactly fit into any genre but we can make it fit anywhere, which allows us to play all different kinds of shows.”
Stuart, who plays guitar and the harp-like Japanese “koto,” will be accompanied by Josh Cole on the double bass and Dana Tower on drums. “It’s really cool, the mixture of double bass, koto and drums is really interesting, it really matches,” Stuart says. “I guess it’s because the koto and the bass are both large wooden stringed instruments. I think it gives us a very different sound than the average rock, jazz or singer-songwriter sound.”
After the B.C. tour, the Jessica Stuart Few will be touring the Maritimes with Toronto band The Done Fors before hitting up the studio to do some recording for a new album to be released in Spring 2012. Expect to hear some of these new sounds at the show. M
The Jessica Stuart Few
The Fort Street Café
Saturday, Aug.13 8pm
Doors 7:30pm Cover $5