Derrival plays two shows this weekend: Friday, Nov. 28 with Morning Show and Fraser Maclean at The Media Club, 695 Cambie St., Vancouver. Doors 7 p.m., tickets $10. And Sunday, Nov. 30, 11:30 a.m. at Jack Poole Plaza as part of the Grey Cup Fan March. Free, all-ages.
Adam Mah has watched many of his favourite bands play at Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom, so to perform on the same historic stage that has hosted everyone from B.B. King and David Bowie to Coldplay and Lady Gaga was a thrill for the 19-year-old member of indie rock band Derrival.
As one of three finalists in the Peak Performance Project music contest, Derrival played a grand finale concert Nov. 20 at the downtown venue along with Good For Grapes and North Vancouver-based The Tourist Company.
"It was pretty incredible and pretty surreal being able to play that stage," Mah says.
Although it was Surrey's Good For Grapes that walked away with the $102,700 grand prize, Derrival took home a cool $75,000 for their second-place finish. The band is "over the moon" with the result, Mah says.
"Our goal from the get-go was to get into the top three, so just doing that alone was amazing."
And they already have a rough plan for their winnings.
"We really want to record a full-length album, so we're just in pre-production for that right now," Mah says. "We're also looking at touring the States after that album's released."
The Peak Performance Project is an annual artist development program and battle-of-thebands style competition launched by radio station 102.7 FM The Peak that is designed to educate, promote and launch the careers of upand-coming B.C. musicians. Past winners have included We Are the City, Kyprios, Current Swell, Dear Rouge and Rykka.
This year's top-12 artists attended a week-long bootcamp in the Okanagan led by industry professionals and performers. Mah was pleasantly surprised to learn that, despite the music industry's money-hungry reputation, building meaningful relationships is critical for success.
"People want to work with people that they're friends with and people that aren't just all about the business side of things," he says. He was also happy to find out just how many grants he is eligible to apply for.
Derrival - a portmanteau of "departure" and "arrival" - consists of Mah (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Glen Jackson (lead guitar/vocals), Dan Kozlowski (drums), Deven Azevedo (bass/vocals) and Shane Stephenson (keys/vocals) - all of them between the ages of 19 and 21.
Mah and Jackson are both in the Arts and Entertainment Management program at Capilano University, but they've been playing music together since high school. Mah, Kozlowski and Azevedo met at Langley Fine Arts school and connected with neighbours Jackson and Stephenson of nearby D.W. Poppy secondary in 2009 to form their fivesome.
"I think when most bands start out you kind of try and emulate who you're listening to a lot and you don't really explore different sounds all that much," Mah says, citing the Februarys, The Kooks, The Strokes and Modest Mouse as early influences. "But I think we've sort of found our sound and we're starting to get influenced by things that aren't just music," he continues, explaining the group has been experimenting with electronic drum sounds and mixing synth with more traditional rock.
To date, Derrival has released a two-song seven-inch featuring "The Autumn Game" and "Modern Age Kids" (2011), an extended playlist called Youth Captured (2013) and the single "Original Script" (2014).
