Toronto, A Charles Weston Hotel Residency And 'The White Man's Blues'

Recently relocating from inner Melbourne to “out Pakenham way”, the Barossa Valley-born and -raised frontman multi-instrumentalist of Oliver’s Army, Ryan Oliver is loving getting back to a more rural environment. It’s also a nice retreat from the international touring that saw the band recently playing shows in the US — in LA and New York City — and Canada, including at several showcases at Canadian Music Week in Toronto. As it happens, spending time in Canada has been a major influence on the music Oliver and the band makes.

“I think the first time I was exposed to the acoustic guitar singer-songwriter kind of vibe was when I was living in Toronto,” Oliver recalls. “There’s still a massive sort of Americana/alt-country scene over in Canada especially, and America. I spent most of my first trip overseas when I was 19 in Canada, and just to hang out with other musicians there and playing with them and seeing the power of the music and what they can really get across in this simple… I mean, it’s ingrained in their culture — what do they say, ‘the white man’s blues’, I guess. I don’t know, I just felt really connected to the music. Even though it’s not the most popular genre in Australia it’s still something that really resonated with me and I obviously continue to write in that sort of style, so it’s not going anywhere any time soon.”

"Even though it’s not the most popular genre in Australia it’s still something that really resonated with me."

That said, originally formed in Adelaide in 2010 with his twin brother, the band has been through a lot of line-up changes, and Oliver admits, “Everyone brings something different to the table. If you had to sum it up, essentially it’s my music but I’ve just played with a lot of collaborators over the years that have been regular members of the band. This one [guitarist Sam Billinghurst-Walsh, bass player Tom Krieg, keyboards player Gina Somfleth and drummer James Roberts] has probably been the longest — we’ve been playing together for about two-and-a-half years now. So you can sort of hear it over a lot of the records, different influences from different people and their various music tastes and backgrounds. It’s good for me, keeps it interesting playing with different people.” 

The band released two EPs — Oliver’s Army and II — before Oliver moved to Melbourne in 2013, so it’s the current line-up that features on debut album, Nothing Ever Really Stays The Same, and that’s the band who’ll be keeping you company at their residency Saturdays in July.

“It’s also kind of nice to keep active over winter,” he admits with a chuckle. “We do a lot of genre-hopping anyway so it’ll be a bit different every week. We’re pretty cool with just having a jam and seeing what comes out as well. It’s always nice in residencies — there’s a bit more flexibility to stretch out and it gives us a chance to play a couple of new songs we’re working on.”