Pat LePoidevin

Much thanks to Suzanne Sutherland for bringing her Lovely Picnic music series to Project 165 this past weekend. It was a super-chill, positive afternoon of awesome folky brilliance – featuring Pat LePoidevin (now on tour across Canada), Sarah Keshen and Nathan Cyprys– and stellar audience participation to boot.

A special moment came as Pat - with surprising ease and charm - shoeless in black sock feat, strumming his wee ukulele, got the whole 30-person+ crowd to sing the chorus to one of his tunes. He even stepped outside to get everybody who had stopped to listen from the street to join in as well. And each time the chorus arose, there came a gentle surge of (dare I say) positive vibrations. ... A big boyish-looking friendly guy, quiet, coming off as humbly thankful in the best possible way, Pat's powerful voice and passionately heart-hitting lyrics gently shock and awe any enthusiastic listener into a genuine kind of man-I-gotta-get-this-guy's-album feeling. It was a real treat to have him perform at Project 165 (not to mention Sarah and Nathan, who also gave exceptionally charming, powerful vocal performances).

If you get a chance to check out these acts - or to attend a Lovely Picnic event - do it! - Broken Pencil - Ryan Ringer

An accidental double booking at Café Deux Soleils led Princeton, B.C.’s singer/songwriter, Pat LePoidevin, to an unexpected new location: a reincarnation-themed birthday party at a house in the heart of Kitsilano.
For such a quaint and low key location, you wouldn’t expect much from the acoustics. However, when LePoidevin and drummer Matthew Sarty started playing, it became apparent that the tiny backyard, complete with people in random animal costumes and soft dangling lights, complimented LePoidevin’s blend of Celtic sounds and indie-folk, far better than any actual enclosed venue. LePoidevin’s husky, Bon Iver-esque vocals resonated throughout the entire yard, impressing even the neighbours, whom applauded politely after each song.
The most captivating moments are when it is just LePoidevin and his ukulele, and watching him gradually build a layered backtrack with a loop pedal. The beautiful song “You Know Your War,” displays LePoidevin’s talent for effectively looping his vocals, into an ethereal and dreamy three-part vocal harmony.
The set ended with “The Moonwolf Departure.” The foot-stomping track loosened everyone up and when the guests in costume started twirling and swaying, I felt like I had been transported to some whimsical renaissance fair. The crowd immediately demanded an encore and by encore I actually mean, we demanded that he play the same song again. He happily complied.
Like a true rock star, LePoidevin stepped into the crowd, and got everyone bouncing and singing along. I found myself in the midst of a dance circle, consisting of LePoidevin himself, and people dressed as an owl and an arbutus tree. It was then I realized this show, was something special. - UBC Discorder - Angela Yen

Like his indie-folk songs, Pat LePoidevin is unique. This isn’t a disparaging comment meant to relegate him to the type of musician who can never play outside a coffee shop; rather it is a compliment on both his music and personality. The 22-year-old university graduate has already criss-crossed Canada and plans on doing so again this spring.

“When I was nine, my family lived in Scotland for a year and that’s where I became interested in music. The bagpipe was my first instrument; I was piping constantly for years and I started playing other types of music when I moved home to Princeton, B.C.,” he explains. “When I moved to Sackville, N.B. for university…, I found my voice musically. Which is funny because I moved from tiny town to tiny town. I planned that out pretty perfectly, moving to a place with a university and a movie theatre.”

Still, for a small town Pat, found Sackville “plays so much a part in what I’m doing. Not due to the university but because of the town and creative atmosphere, it’s incredible. There’s tons of independent music. If bands are coming from Ontario to Halifax, they have to stop in Sackville. It makes for a really intimate time. Last year, seven friends and I rented a house and had shows there. There’s always just a lot going on.”

Currently LePoidevin is in Halifax checking out the scene with friends, but he thinks his time in that city may be running short. “I might be leaving. After touring Canada, I’ll head north and go to Dawson City. Strangely, there’s a Sackville-Dawson connection with musicians like Julie Doiron spending time there.”

The new album, Moonwolves, builds upon his first release’s themes of nature and animal life. “Last album, I figured out how to create an album. And the songs are about how I miss animals from B.C. I used to fear, and my experiences in Sackville. That’s where the lyrics about animals come from: from wanting to go home, which I do on tour.”

LePoidevin’s use of guitar, ukulele, fiddle, his voice, looper pedals and various other instruments contribute to his sound, though he has now added a drummer and is getting more favourable comparisons to other artists. “My friend Matt drums with me now for about four months. It’s nice to have another person with me, especially when touring as I used to tour solo. Now that Matt’s with me we get comparisons to Bon Iver, the National – we don’t sound like them but we’ve been told it’s an influence – and Nick Drake,” he says.

With a national tour pending and a move to the Yukon following that, LePoidevin is enthusiastic about what lays before him. “My home is in B.C., so I always had something I was going to. I always thought I could fill an auditorium in Princeton, just in case one show doesn’t go well, but I will always have something to look forward to. All my shows went fabulously, even an empty room in Thunder Bay…, so why not tour the country again?”

He continues, “I’m a young person doing what they want to do. Mostly I’m just opening, basically contacting venues saying, ‘Let’s just be friends. Here’s who I have shared the stage with, want to be friends with us?’” And being friends with other musicians and venues is something LePoidevin plans on maintaining due to some sage advice from his mother. “I do see it as a career, which can be hard to (do) if you can’t do it all year. My mom is a potter and she told me always consider your art a full-time job even though you’re doing other jobs. And for now, I’m having great time and I’m going to keep it up.” - BEATROUTE - Spencer Brown

At the gazebo, Pat LePoidevin is spooling loops of guitar and fiddle. There is something of a rapids in the way he sings: his convictions do not slow him. These are songs of melancholy, precise and pretty; it is strange to hear them wafting in the open air. We are sitting in blankets, with children playing, and water whispering at our backs. There are a thousand reflections - off bottles, glasses, watchfaces. Pat LePoidevin is in shadow, and the rest of us are in sun. - Said the Gramophone - Sean Michaels

Recorded in the winter of 2009, Pat LePoidevin's album moon wolves suffers a bit from a case of bad timing; a record well-suited to the quiet contemplation of a coming winter, its early-spring release means that it loses some of its effect. Still, if you're in the mood for the kind of melancholy that comes with long nights and cold mornings, you could easily do worse—the introspection and picture painting on moon wolves is top-notch storytelling. - VUE Weekly - Bryan Birtles

A promising young talent with an old soul, Pat LePoidevin utilizes looping pedals in conjuring the homespun folk sounds on this excellent sophomore record. LePoidevin is winning over fans with his earnest voice and lyricism, for sure, but he's all the more intriguing for his composition with a loop pedal that captures his acoustic instruments one layer at a time. Not surprisingly, he cites Owen Pallett and Basia Bulat as influences in this regard; LePoidevin's songs bear that same hint of melodrama, vivid imagery and pure emotional release that make his inspirations such formidable performers. But LePoidevin is hardcore, making Moonwolves in much the same manner he plays live: adding instrumentation and vocal inflections in the moment, on his own. It doesn't hurt that songs like "The Moonwolf Departure" and "You Know Your War" represent the weighty fare of a bold voice on the rise. - Exclaim.ca - Vish Khanna

Pat LePoidevin's second record, Moonwolves, is a moody, stripped-down collection of folk songs whose narratives appear to come straight out of Aesop's Fables. His affecting vocals rise from within low rumbles, morphing into melodious, Bon Iver-ian howls, as if conjuring the emotions of the characters in the song. Like the wolf, the Princeton, BC native sings about isolation and separation ? alone, yet cognizant that his sound echoes to an empathic collective. "The Moon Wolf Dance," tinged with a Scottish flavour, and the folk mantra of "You Know Your War" are attention grabbing tracks, but it's with quiet, contemplative songs like "Ringo the Rat" and "The Moon Wolf Departure" that your heart melts, pleading for more bittersweet agony. Through his life, character and music, LePoidevin shows us, more than tells us, how to find strength forging our own path, singing our wounds to sleep and finding comfort in loving what we once feared. - Exclaim.ca - Nereida Fernandes