Band of the Day: House Handshake

Clawing their way out of the snowdrifts, welcome today’s BotD – House Handshake…

Simple things first – where are you guys from?

We’re from one of the coldest cities in the world – Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

How did you meet?

Sarah and Quinton (lead vox) were dating for a year when they met Darrell (bass). They were living in Vancouver, Canada in a big house full of other musicians. There was actually 5 Winnipeggers living in the house when he joined. After he moved in across the hall we learned that Darrell and Quintons family have been friends for generations back in Winnipeg. The chemistry that existed between the 3 of us was very strong and we knew something beautiful would come. Something spoke to us at this time and told us to move back to Winnipeg. We followed our gut and came home.

On our first day back Tanner, who was an old friend of Darrell, was there to greet us. Again his chemistry just matched. We soon found a house together in the centre of the city and launched House Handshake. We found our drummer Brennan at a gig we had with Tate (our lead guitar player) before Tate was playing with us. Little did either of us know he was already drumming on our demo we had created. Further along Quinton had broke his wrist and needed a fill in for the guitar parts and that’s where Tate joined. He learned 2 45 minute sets in 2 days. When Quintons wrist healed up their was just no letting go of Tate so now we are a sextuplet

How long have you been playing as a band?

This is our second year. We launched January 2018.

Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?

We wanted something that resembled how we live together and how open we are to other people. One day when we had a guest over at the house one of our roommates was showing this guest a ‘handshake’ that he liked to do and the guy said something like “oh, so it’s like a House Handshake” and Quinton went “stop… that’s it”.

What are your influences?

The people around us is most definitely the thing that continuously inspires us. Our doors are always open to friends and people come in all the time and jam with us and share their energies and it does wonders of influence. It writes songs, It creates new ideas, It helps us all grow.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

Joyful, sensual, indie-folk. We have two lead vocalists. Our songs are full of harmonies. We’re a chosen family of very close individuals who are also very different so it makes for some interesting songs.

Do you have any particular lyrical themes?

We really believe in art and what it can do for everyone so we try to be very honest with ourselves so we can properly express in a healthy way. This way we can help others out there walk through those doors and experience their feelings.

What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?

In a little over a year of playing we’ve played well over 50 shows. We’re told that our chemistries on stage really come off in a really positive vibe to the audience. You’ll see us laughing and grooving a lot. We switch instruments and trade roles and move around the stage we just have the best damn time we can to play our music.

What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?

We are not too picky when it comes to stuff like this unless the amps are cutting in and out. We’ll bring 2 guitars, a ukulele, bass, Keyboard, and a some drums to the stage.

What are your plans for 2019?

We are working towards releasing a full album! This year you’ll be able to find our EP House available everywhere digitally (Spotify, Itunes, Deezer, Google, Youtube) and later in the year we’ll be releasing Handshake, our second EP. Then we will record another 4 or five songs and compile the 2 EPs and release a full self-titled physical album.

If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!

Someone from our town that’s doing great work we’d love to get on their bill is Begonia, and another one we’ve opened for already but we just love every member and their music is amazing is Bright Righteous. Then our good pals who do not get enough credit in our opinion is Odder Than The Otters.

House Handshake: official | facebook | instagram

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