Guitar gods

FLAYSHER

STAYING TRUE TO MUSICAL ROOTS

STORY BY WYATT TREMBLAY

PHOTO BY ROD SANCHEZ

Flaysher, the popular country/rock band fronted by Airdrie brothers Brad and Ryan Fleischer, say they are hitting their stride with their latest single. ”It’s called Good For You, and it’s a bit of a breakup song, but a stubborn country guy breakup song,” explains Brad, whose guitar playing and edgy rock vocals drive the melody.

The song is about watching the one that got away, get away, he says, but it also touches on the idea that letting her get away was a good thing. It’s a solid addition to their catalogue and reflects their rock roots. ”We’re excited about the sound. We’re very adamant that even though we’re in the country genre, we need to stay authentically us,” Brad explains.

Being authentic has been the brothers’ driving force since their first performance fourteen years ago when Brad was 14 and Ryan 13. ”We had a moment on the stage after the nerves had subsided,” Brad elaborates, ”when all we knew was that we wanted to see how far we could go. There was a recognition of the naivety of our beginnings, recognizing that we knew nothing, and we knew we knew nothing.”

He says they had no idea what the next step was, just that they would find it. Their journey has been one of taking next steps, leading them to over 300 shows on stages in bars, schools, weddings, and the Calgary Stampede.

In 2018, one of those steps took them to Toronto for the Canada Music Incubator’s Artist Entrepreneur Program, which led to a shift in their style from straight-up rock to country.

Recently, they were a showcase band for the 2022 Canadian Country Music Association Awards in Calgary. ”We’d been to the CCMAs before, but this was the first year we had the opportunity to perform,” says Ryan. ”Because of COVID, we started working with many people online, but this year we got to meet a lot of those people in person.”

Like many artists during the pandemic, Flaysher found themselves co-writing and performing online, and building a more significant social media presence. ”We ended up doing virtual shows with artists from the States and all over Canada. It was pretty cool connecting with people on that creative level,” Ryan says.

Over the last few years, the brothers have developed a team consisting of a PR person, a project manager, a digital marketer and a radio promoter. ”You’re not doing everything yourself, then,” Brad explains. ”The more you get a professional team around you, the more there is the opportunity to grow.”

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“There are all these ideas floating in your head, stories that are unwritten.”

With three new singles, their first music video featuring Good For You, and an upcoming EP, the brothers are optimistic about their next steps.

“The beauty of creative work is that it’s never complete,” Brad says. ”You’re always looking to the next thing. There are all these ideas floating in your head, stories that are unwritten.” ”Another thing that has kept us going,” Ryan adds, ”is that every song we’ve released in the country market has done better than the last single.” ”It’s been cool to see each new release gain traction on radio. The last single, Wild One, was on 27 stations,” he says.

And they’re reaching a market beyond even Canada, he adds. ”The highest sales for that song on Apple Music were in South Africa. We even had a fan contact us from Wales to say how much she liked it.”

The brothers have concerts at Whiskey Rose Saloon in Calgary in December, with plans for other shows and a fundraiser in the New Year. ”It might be fourteen years,” Brad says, ”but there are still significant times of growth and learning. Every year it’s been, ’Hey, things are moving, let’s keep going.’ ”We’re creative people and we need to do this.” life

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Since being featured in the Summer 2022 issue of airdrielife, local musician Kyle McKearney’s life has been a whirlwind of performing (including at the Airdrie Homecoming Festival), recording and attending award presentations.

In June, he was the first-ever recipient of the Henry Armstrong Award, an annual $10,000 bursary and mentorship program created to develop, elevate, and support Indigenous artists within the Canadian music industry.

The Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) annual awards show on September 11 at the Big Four Building at Stampede Park in Calgary saw McKearney nominated for two awards: Alternative Country Album of the Year and Creative Director of the Year for his album ‘Down-Home’.

He didn’t win at the CCMAs, but just a week later, at the YYC Music Awards in Calgary, he won Songwriter of the Year for the song ‘Each and Every Day’ from the Down-Home album and was one of the nominees for Country Recording of the Year.

He was a semi-finalist in SiriusXM’s Top of the Country list, and has amassed more than 900,000 global music streams in 2022. It’s been quite a year.

Next spring, the Canadian Folk Music Awards weekend takes place March 31-April 2 (2023), with 104 nominees from across Canada up for awards in 19 categories. McKearney is up for Contemporary Album of the Year, Contemporary Singer of the Year and Indigenous Songwriter of the Year.

In the meantime, besides more tour dates, he’s got a new single out called ‘Mercy’ and a second album due to be released in February. life