Biography

Like the ancient forests from which their name derives, Carmanah is just as comfortable in muddy, bluesy funk as they are among light, soaring harmonies. The band has crafted a niche of its own somewhere between roots, rock and soul — a vintage blend of the intuitive and technical tied seamlessly together by Laura Mina Mitic’s dazzlingly versatile voice. In recognition of the band’s passion for their home and the ways it bleeds into their music, producer Gus Van Go (Metric, The Arkells, Sam Roberts) coined the term “West Coast Soul” to describe Carmanah’s unique sound. The second album, Iris, was recorded in Brooklyn as a moody counterpoint to and natural evolution from the band’s debut, Speak in Rhythms. That album, with two #1 CBC Music tracks, earned Carmanah a nomination for Roots Duo/Group of The Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards in 2018. Now, with Iris, the band has built upon the first album’s strongest elements: its driving melodies, its contorting, energetic rhythms, its bountiful instrumentation, its lyrics that take you by the hand and lead you far, far from where you began. The band — including guitarist and vocalist Pat Ferguson, bassist Jamil Demers, drummer Graham Keehn and keyboardist/backup vocalist Lo Waight — tours in a gutted and retrofitted vegetable-oil driven tour bus, an ambitious project that Ferguson has taken on himself in his backyard. The low-carbon approach is part of a broader ethos the band shares.