A Long Way From Home: The Canadian Adventures Of Heart Beach & Friends

Heart Beach (Spunk Records) is Claire McCarthy (vocals/bass), Jonathon McCarthy (vocals/guitar), Christopher Wessing (guitar/drums) and Jaq Inglis (drums). In 2017, the band relocated to Canada to tour as much as they can across North America and Europe.

Chris stayed in Hobart to work with the band remotely. Jaq, from Dundee, Scotland, joined as live drummer after meeting Claire and Jon at an in-store in Vancouver.

This is parts one through three of the Heart Beach tour diary.

Part 1 – Leaving Home

Claire

Jon and I land in LA at dawn. We take a public bus to Santa Montica beach and head to the foreshore promenade with our bags to look at the ocean. The homeless people who live beneath the palms are just waking up. I feel exposed, fresh and naive.

We replace our instruments on Hollywood Boulevard and eat oysters in a tourist bar. In Oakland, I check the news and there's been a terrible fire at a DIY venue. Thirty-six people have died. The news is shocking, and a devastating loss to family, friends, music and the arts. It reminds me too much of home. I feel like an intruder.

On the way to Portland, the weather turns. In Eugene, I see freezing rain for the first time. Icicles hang from the trees and the shrubs look like glass sculptures. I do a load of washing at the laundromat. A homeless guy my age is in there washing his blankets and drinking a beer. He sells me $5 of weed illegally in a state where marijuana is legal so he can finish drying his socks. He limps over to the machine, puts the warm socks on and smiles.

At the Canadian border, the bus driver almost leaves without us. Jon and I have working visas and it takes them ages to print them out and fold them neatly into our passports.

Jon

We drove over the USA/Canadian border by bus. A long, cold drive. The driver was abrupt, stressed and had a thick American accent. At one of the stops, a passenger seems to be struggling with his mental health. The driver leaves him at the border surrounded by three officials who were sifting through his bags. I hope he's OK.

There is a drug crisis in Vancouver; hundreds of people have died in tragic circumstances. Something called Fentanyl has made its way into the party drug supply. It’s scary. People die on a daily basis. A discussion about decriminalisation of heroin is in the paper each day. I get a job in an accounting firm to save money to tour. I answer phones and make coffee. I'm bad at the job.

It’s the coldest winter in 30 years. Alcohol and tobacco is very cheap. Ice hockey is constantly played on TV and you can gamble in the supermarket or buy whole live crabs. The cultural differences between Canadians and Australians are more pronounced than I expected. I somehow walk away unscathed from a serious car accident on an icy highway. Claire and I live in a basement for two months. We quit our jobs to join a tour with Vancouver band Dadweed. There are 13 shows across the whole country. I start smoking again.

Claire

I temp in downtown Vancouver at the provincial energy company for nine long weeks. Every day, I hear sirens hurling up Main St and E Hastings, attending Fentanyl overdoses. It snows like crazy and then it rains. The city is grey and feels sad. From the 14th floor, I see a pair of eagles circling over Gastown. My boss says often there's a crow chasing them away, and explains to me that a crow is a black bird smaller than an eagle. I feel like I'm from another planet. They give me four company shirts and get me a cake when I leave that says thank-you and good luck. I give the shirts away. I don't tell them I'm in a band.

Part 2 – Superfriends: HEART BEACH & DADWEED Tour, Western Canada

Claire

Tour day finally arrives. Dadweed have invited us to join their van. We call it the "superfriends" tour and accidentally use an old Soviet image for our poster.

Dadweed is James Frost, Ben Middleton, Steve Nelson and Karlan Morrison. Classic Vancouver, they've all moved to town from Edmonton or Calgary. They tour and play like their lives depend on it.

Show 1. Half-Satan, Vancouver, BC

Jon

Half-Satan is a recording studio with a venue attached. Very loud and concrete. We somehow fill the venue. Dadweed are excellent. There are cases of Naloxone in case there is an overdose. At the end of the night, Jaq Inglis, our drummer — from Scotland — scratches his eye somehow and is very hurt, but he's okay. Jaq has bright red hair and plays ice hockey.

Show 2. The Sewing Machine Factory, Edmonton, AB

Claire

The show is at the Sewing Machine Factory on Whyte Ave. We load our gear in and wait for hours for the show to start. A timid woman with torn jeans plays quiet electric guitar over washed-out vocals and the house music comes up slowly. The promoter's girlfriend is working on an anthropology assignment behind the merch desk. Dadweed slay it. Local heroes. We head back to party at Mrs Toast's (anagram from our host). A girl in the garage says my bird tattoo looks like a stick-and-poke. I get offended and stop playing darts with her. I sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag behind the kitchen table.

Jon

We have a large tour van borrowed from a friend. It's silver, falling apart and filled to the brim with gear and sevem people. It's OK to smoke in the van. The seats hurt my back. Everything Claire, Jaq and I own is packed into three bags. James from Dadweed made stew before the tour. Its packed in a cooler, frozen in plastic bags. Delicious. Cheap. The show went well.

Show 3. Skymall Secret House Show, Edmonton, AB

Claire

Edmonton has the biggest mall in the world, or it did, once. There's an aquarium inside. I don't visit. We load gear into a basement that smells like weed but I can tell it will be a good show.

Jon

Sunday night. The venue is a basement crammed full of people. It's hot and sweaty. We play really well and sell lots of merch. Thank god for that, because we need money for fuel. We played with Wet Secrets. They all dress up in costumes and are very good; they made everyone feel happy. Skymall provided chilli before the show. Spicy. It's strange going from town to town and not knowing anyone or where anything is. I leave my pedals and leads at the venue and need to rush to retrieve them the next morning. A guy in a towel lets me in. No one stole the pedals. We continue.

Show 4. Vangelis, Saskatoon, SK

Claire

Saskatoon. The drive is long. It's evening before we arrive and find the little yellow house we're staying in. It's owned by a young couple who play bluegrass. No one in the band had met them before but they look after us like we're old family. Vangelis goes well. Heart Beach is listed in the big slide in letters on the road.

Jon

Monday night. Small town. Empty room. Pinball machines. Free pizza and beer. I was born in Mt Isa and grew up in Queenstown. The best thing I saw was a Pearl Jam cover band so I like playing regional towns to young people who might not get to see many bands. They seemed to like it. The shows are hard to get through.

Show 5. HMS Arlington, Winnipeg, MB

Claire

Winnipeg. The drive is even longer. We cross the prairies and they are dusty and windy. The van wobbles on the road but Karlan and Ben drive like champions. Team Heart Beach offers to drive but hopes we won't have to. Driving on the right freaks me out and the van is spacious; more like a truck. We arrive at the place, HMS Arlington. It smells of cat piss, and in the morning I wake up with a huge, dusty grey cat sleeping inches from my face.

Jon

The best venue I've seen in years. The place is filled with smoke. Some patrons smuggle in a giant, elaborate glass bong. There is a dusty cat that lives there. He tries to sleep on Claire's face. I now know every Dadweed song by heart but forget Heart Beach lyrics every now and then. Early rise for Regina show. Not drinking too much. Feeling pretty good.

Show 6. The Artful Dodger, Regina, SK

Claire

Regina. The Artful Dodger has a mural of the Dickens' character painted on a red wall. We play with Velvetiens, who are up-and-coming, and Doubt It, who I love. Mid-set Jon's guitar goes out of tune but I'm happy because I banter well and the crowd laughs. Show continues. We sleep on Daegan the promoter's floor upstairs. He is best mates with Scotdrakula. I wear my Scotdrakula T-shirt the next day. Karlan and James go to re-park the van and get pulled over by the cops. They agree that parking in the city is terrible and suggest a better spot to park. In Australia, it would have been tour over. I'm relieved. Heart Beach shares a lilo but I have to explain to the Canadians what that means.

Jon

We play at The Artful Dodger, a proper venue with a green room, sound person, door person. We are treated exceptionally well. People turn up to see the show. We sleep above the venue in an old hotel. A woman walks into the lobby in the morning, she appears to be on methamphetamine; there is a bloody gash across her chin but she won’t let anyone help her treat the wound. She is wearing blue high heels and leaves with a muscular man with a ponytail.

Show 7. Captain’s Cabin, Medicine Hat, AB

Claire

Medicine Hat. The show is at a pub called Captain's Cabin. All you can eat fish'n'chips are advertised on the wall but I don't see anyone eating anything. The event is well attended and the bar puts on another staff member to serve beer. We play with Strange Animal. A man buys all seven of us a round.

We go back to the Circle T motel. The two rooms have a joining door. It feels luxurious but the room smells of old cigarettes. Jaq orders pizza. Both bands have made enough to at least break even and everything now is bonus. We give each other stick-and-pokes. We go to bed late and check out early.

Jon

Great venue. Great town. Great show. We play at this great little bar with a nautical theme. Heaps of people come and we sign records. A punk band plays between us. We are invited to a nightclub but decline. We stay in a motel and Dadweed give each other homemade tattoos. I eat a very salty pizza with meat in the presence of two vegans and a vegetarian.

Show 8. Tubby Dog, Calgary, AB

Claire

Calgary. The drive to Calgary is short. A sleep-in would be great but not possible. We drink beers on the way to Ben's mum's house. The show is at a hot-dog restaurant called Tubby Dog. The hockey is on so Heart Beach plays with the game behind us on silent. Jaq tells me he wishes they'd turn it off. Jon keeps checking the score. We play well and eat free hot-dogs at the merch desk. They are so good. The bartender is cute. I give him a T-shirt in the hope that he will wear it.

Jon

We go to a bar before the show. We watch the Montreal Canadians beat the New York Rangers in the playoffs in overtime, the bar erupts and I'm hugged from behind by a muscular twentysomething Canadian. The gig is in a hot-dog shop.

Show 9. The Whole, Penticton, BC

Claire

We wake up in the basement and drive through the Rockies to Penticton. The mountains are stunning and covered in snow. It snows. At the bottom of the valley we drive into brilliant sunshine and a land of green grass and lakes.

Next stop: Canada Music Week and a string of east-coast dates. The sound guy tells me it was hard to mix my vocals because I'm the first woman who has performed there. I get in the van and we go back to James’ friends' house.

Jon

Last show with Dadweed. Sad face. We play at a youth drop-in centre in a town of under 50,000 people. It's peach country. There is a skate park inside the venue. We play well and worry about missing our flight to Toronto the next morning.

Part 3 – Canada Music Week

Claire

We arrive in Toronto late on Sunday and I like it immediately. The sun is bright and it feels like the perfect splice of New York and London. Jaq, Jon and I head out to Sneaky Dees on College St and eat our first non-shared meal in days. Our Airbnb host has a tiny dog called Mr Fitz. He has a bow to tie his hair off his snout and a skinny blue jumper with a hood.

The festival starts and we pick up our passes at the Sheraton Centre and attempt to “meet” people. A woman from a management company with a thick LA accent tells me she wished she’d been born with an accent so she could pick up more. I ask her how to best approach labels and agents in the US and she refers me to Google. Heart Beach plays three showcases. The first is at the Night Owl. We play at midnight after a band from Mexico City who clear the room because they are so loud. People come back in to see us and it feels good. The second is at the Aussie Breakfast at the Rivoli, an excellent venue, and we play well. And the third is the Aussie Night at the Hideout, which is loud and abrasive.

Australia is repped by a collection of industry champs, and bands, including our good mates Quivers, who we head out on tour with this week.

Jon

It's difficult enough to cope with the futility of existence without attending an industry festival. Nevertheless, we find ourselves at Canada Music Week, keeping our heads down as the chlorine seeps in to our googles.