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Local musicians stop in Fruitvale in midst of Canadian tour

Greater Trail native Gary Morissette and The Sunday Glow played in Fruitvale on Sunday, June 30
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From the left; Eric Tiil

As an aspiring musician it was inevitable that Gary Morissette would fly the coop.

The Fruitvale native left the area to compete on Canadian Idol in 2008 when he was only 21-years-old and he’s still marching to the beat of his own drum.

“I was working construction in Kelowna and did the Canadian Idol because I sort of wanted to get out of town and that brought me to Toronto,” he explained. “I really liked it there.”

But moving to Toronto required a commitment from the band too.

“My band at the time was the Unknown Culprits in Kelowna and I had to convince them to come to Toronto with me,” he said. “I just went out on a limb and decided to go over there. Then we broke up in November and I started this band with my best friend Shane (Deyotte).”

Morissette’s new group The Sunday Glow is Toronto-based and began a cross-country tour after less than a month together.

The band performed in Fruitvale on Sunday in front of a crowd of family, friends and fans.

In addition, The Sunday Glow recorded a new EP with raspy lyrics and diverse sounds, it’s available for purchase on iTunes.

Morissette credits his experience in Canadian Idol as “a turning point” for his life and career.

“I was in Kelowna and sort of stuck in a construction job that I didn’t like and I was partying lots,” he said. “Canadian Idol was sort of my escape from all of that and getting my head back on my shoulders. I started playing music more seriously.”

But Montrose native and drummer Shane Deyotte has been heavily involved in helping Morissette make the transition to a new band.

“We’ve been best friends since we were kids,” Deyotte said. “I think with this band, we’re trying to do something a bit different and we’re doing our own style of music.”

Deyotte said the band’s style has been compared to Weezer, Nirvana, Bad Religion and NOFX and was pleased about how many people associate their music to so many different genres.

“It’s tough to categorize ourselves because we like to use a lot of punk, but overall it’s all rock,” Deyotte said. “We think we’ve found a happy medium with punk and alt rock and done our own thing.”

But walking down a career path as musicians hasn’t always been easy and the summer tour is proof of that.

The group has had a stream of bad luck with bouts ranging from breakdowns to getting caught in a flood in Thunder Bay, getting lost on dirt road detours in Ontario and Manitoba and finally herding cattle until midnight in small-town Saskatchewan.

“It’s been pretty crazy actually,” he explained while reminiscing about the experiences the group has had on the summer tour.

“Before we even left town the van broke down in Sault Ste. Marie and so we had to get the van fixed there so that was $500 right off the hop.”

Fortunately the band is so “amped” on performing, he disregarded the hurdles of travel as simply “funny stories,” but both boys agreed that it’s nice to be home.

“It’s great to be back and getting to play a show for all of our friends and family,” said Deyotte. “We’ve had a really long tour and being home is nice. We get to relax for a week after this and then we head to Kelowna.”

The tour will wrap up in Toronto on July 31.