by Scott Roos
photos by Tracy Creighton/Copperblue Design
Sometimes in the music business you just have to be in the right place at the right time with the right kind of talent. That was the case for Calgary hard rock outfit In/Vertigo when they recently landed an opening slot on a series of Canadian dates with Buckcherry. The original openers unfortunately had to drop off the tour thus opening the door for In/Vertigo.
"We have connections who told Buckcherry's people 'Hey look we've got an up and coming kickass western Canadian rock band , which are few and far between' and we were like 'Let's do it' so they got us on here," explained In/Vertigo frontman Reed Alton in a conversation with NSMZ.
Alton and band, over the last handful of years as a band, have been able to successfully carve out a niche in Alberta and throughout B.C. Breaking into the Saskatchewan market, though, had remained elusive. Much of this has to do with distance and demographics as Alton explains.
"We tour a lot from Alberta, all the way from Grande Prairie down to Calgary and we go all through BC just because we built that circle and it's shorter drive time , there's a lot of densely populated areas, a lot of already established scenes. We found going through the prairies because it's hours and hours of drive time, it's been tough to make those tours more productive from a money making standpoint," related Alton.
Of course you'd be remiss if you didn't mention the pandemic throwing a monkey wrench into things as well. In/Vertigo was one of the lucky bands that was still able to play a few live shows in the midst of restrictions that at times could be inhibiting for a hard rock band.
"All political things aside wherever you lean, because in our band and in our province and in this country everyone is on different sides, we have our own personal preferences but you know what? We abide what's been laid out, we saw opportunity and we seized it. We're not gonna apologize for that because anyone would do it. Anyone would be like 'oh we're allowed to do shows? We'll do some shows'" said Alton.
For their part, In/Vertigo prefers to do things the old school way. They like to meet people, network, shake hands, give high fives, talk and converse. They don't pride themselves on having a strong social media presence. They need to see people. They need to be in front of their fans doing what they love.
"You get on these tours and you get these shows and you want to meet people, you want to establish contacts, you want to cut your teeth. We love doing it the old school way too. it's like we don't shy away from the fact that we don't put as much into our online presence as other bands. We've cut our teeth strictly from the old school way right? That's what's kind of cool about that I think," said Alton.
In/Vertigo are a heavy band that has a bit of a funky swagger. Their live sets are engaging and make people want to get up and move. In the studio they are preparing a follow-up ep to their debut release that was entitled Sex, Love and Chaos. For this new release, they worked with Brian Moncarz on the mixing board. Moncarz has worked with acts like Alice Cooper, Our Lady Peace, The Tea Party and The Trews. In short, Moncarz is kind of a big deal. He'll give In/Vertigo that professional studio polish that they'll need in order to take things to the next level.
"Our goal we would hope is that things have kind of died down on the COVID front so that when we launch this new ep we can start touring the shit out of it. Our goal is to work our asses off, write what we write, craft what we craft and lay it down and package it up and then get ready to release it and then showcase it to the world and meet people around the world," Alton adds.
In the meantime, keep your eye on In/Vertigo's website for future updates and hopefully catch them in a prairie town near you. http://www.invertigoband.com/index2.html