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The Slate Pacific – Performing in Fredericton at The Capital February 29
The Slate Pacific has only existed in full band form since September of last year, but scored a huge gig at ECMAs when they opened for Wintersleep at the Elks Club February 9. Drummer Zach Atkinson is still buzzing from the experience.

'We were all super pumped,' he says. 'They are on our list of favourites, for sure. We had a lot of great compliments and it was a big push for us.'

The quintet has another big push coming up this weekend when they trek to Halifax for the Forward Music Group showcase, which takes place at the Marquee Club March 1. The Sleepless Nights and Grand Theft Bus will officially release their new discs at the showcase, thus ensuring The Slate Pacific their largest audience to date.

The band isn't an official member of the Forward Music family, but Atkinson hasn't ruled out a relationship in the future. 'I work closely with Forward, which has its perks,' he says. 'Who knows, in a bit of time we may be ready to get some help from the label.'

Until then, Atkinson expects a lot more shows, and a date with the studio. 'We're working on a record and trying to get around the Maritimes to play shows,' he says. 'We're just a fairly new band building a crowd.'
- Here Magazine Feb.28'08 by Chuck Teed

Everyone knows someone from their youth who didn't "make it" for one reason or another. Whether it's in a literal sense like death or illness robbing
someone of their future, or something like drugs, crime or ambivalence doing the same, everyone can likely think of someone. This idea is what came
to mind when listening to Thirteen Kinds of Chemicals, the opening song on Safe Passage, the new EP from The Slate Paci?c.
In case you think I'm reading too much into that song (something well within the realm of possibility), the fact that there's also a song about the more
dire of the scenarios in the above paragraph, Jen's Not Going To Make It, suggests that it's a topic that The Slate Paci?c's main songwriter Logan
Hawkes has spent some time contemplating (hawk-eyed, hill super-fans will recognize Jen's Not Going to Make It as the lead-off from our NB
mixtape).
The Slate Paci?c traces it's origin back to an acoustic outlet for Hawkes' songs, but they are now a full-?edged band featuring some of the more active
members of the New Brunswick music scene (from bands like Share, Force Fields, and The Names and Faces). I can't say I've heard any of Slate
Paci?c's previous work, but for me, the full band gives the songs a power they might not have otherwise. The juxtaposition of the heavy subject matter
of songs like the aforementioned Thirteen Kinds of Chemicals and Jen's Not Going to Make It with the lush sounds of the backing tracks is a winning
combo in my books. Even the uptempo songs like OEC have more of a steady, slow burn feel, and the experienced hands help maintain this
atmosphere as well.
As a debut release, I think Safe Passage does a great job of introducing the band. The songs are heartfelt, well-written, and make for an engaging listen.
I'm interested in seeing what's next for this New Brunswick ?ve piece - HeroHill.com

FOR A GROUP THAT began as a solo acoustic entity, Fredericton’s the Slate Pacific couldn’t have grown further from its roots.

Now a five-piece ensemble, the group’s debut EP Safe Passage is a collection of carefully arranged mini-dramas, where swirling guitars suddenly give way to the sound of founder Logan Hawkes accompanied only by drummer Zach Atkinson’s accented, loping rhythm.

The Slate Pacific launches Safe Passage on Friday night at Coconut Grove with Jon McKeil and Bike Rodeo, and Hawkes says that while the band’s sound continues to evolve since they finished recording the EP last summer, he’d always had something more dramatic in mind when he first started writing songs on his own.

"It was more out of necessity than anything," says the Vancouver native who headed east for university.

"I’d just moved to Fredericton and I didn’t really know anyone, so I just started writing my own songs and performing them a little bit with a friend of mine.

""I just hoped that people would hear what I was doing, and I could meet other musicians who would be interested in starting a band."

You can hear the transition in the sound of the Slate Pacific over the course of the song Civil War, which builds from an acoustic intro, layering in keyboards as it progresses, before the final full band climax.

""A lot of our songs do that, and the EP is a record of our growth out of a solo project and into a band," says Hawkes, who chose the name not from his B.C. origins, but from a song by moody San Francisco indie pop songwriter John Vanderslice.

""I think we’re still trying to figure out what we sound like on the EP, it’s more fully realized now."

Listening to Safe Passage, it’s easy see how the Slate Pacific fits in with other East Coast bands like Wintersleep, Sleepless Nights, Share (which Atkinson also drums for) and Olympic Symphonium, who favour atmosphere and intensity over the familiar formula of riffs and hooks.

There is no blueprint for song structure, and the results can surprise as well as mesmerize.

""We all know each other on a more or less personal level, and we play a lot of shows together, so there is a bit of an atmosphere of a collective," says Hawkes, whose record is on the Fredericton label Forward Music Group with many of these like-minded bands.

""The guys in Share and Olympic Symphonium and Grand Theft Bus, they’re all trading members, so that helps to define a cohesive sound. It’s funny because when I was writing these songs, it was music I was barely even aware of, but I think there is this East Coast sound that’s still kind of hard to define. I think there are characteristics that we share though."" - Chronicle Herald

The wait is nearly over for local music fans wanting a copy of The Slate Pacific's five-song EP, Safe Passage.
The band will perform at The Capital Bar on Saturday
evening. Jon McKeil will get the party started at about
10:30 p.m.
Logan Hawkes, who sings and plays guitar in the band,
said the group has grown both physically and musically
since he wrote many of the songs on his acoustic
guitar.
"It feels like we're getting better every show," he said.
"There was one show at Gus' Pub in Halifax, probably
a month ago, where everything just clicked. It was the
tightest show we ever played, and nobody stayed and
watched. We cleared the room. But we were having so
much fun that it was still a success."
It's doubtful they'll have the same experience this
weekend, as many music lovers have been clamouring
for a copy of the band's new CD.
Hawkes said the first 100 people to send an e-mail to
zach@theslatepacific.com will be added to the guest
list and will not have to pay admission to the Saturday
show. They must be over 19 years of age to attend. ENLARGE PHOTO
LAUNCHING NEW PROJECT: The Slate Pacific is
performing at The Capital Bar on Saturday, March 21.
- Adam Bowie - The Daily Gleaner