Take five talented Squamish musicians, let them simmer in a local studio for six to seven months, and you’ve got Dentville – Squamish’s newest band.
Although they just formed in October, the band has developed a strong local following and recently made it to the regional top 10 in the CBC Searchlight project.
Comprised of locals Darcy Cavanah (rhythm guitar and vocals), Nadine McNeil (vocals), Darrell Booth (lead guitar), Chris Robertson (bass) and Mike Hewitt (keyboard), Dentville originally came together out of a friendly rivalry between Cavanah and McNeil during their singing competition days.
“Nadine and I have known each for 10 years,” Cavanah said. “We competed against each other in singing contests in the Lower Mainland and would often finish in the top five of whatever contest we’d do. It was a bit of a friendly rivalry.”
Cavanah moved to Squamish a few years later and after another band he was in broke up, he decided to give McNeil a call.
“My wife actually suggested we work together,” he said. “Chris, who used to be in my old band, called me up, and we began jamming together.”
Hewitt, a multi-talented performer and musician, hopped aboard, and McNeil recruited Booth after getting to know each other on the Squamish Connector bus.
Cavanah said the name of the band was simple – Dentville is the location where the band performs inside the Shaw Studios.
“People who don’t know about Dentville think it sounds like a really rough part of town,” he said, laughing.
He described the band’s sound as progressive country rock fusion and said while he writes the majority of the songs, it’s a truly collaborative process.
“Everyone gets to put their paint into the easel,” he said.
“We want to make sure everyone is included and invested in every song we do. Darrell is so good at producing, Chris contributes with his licks, Nadine is helping with the writing and Mike puts in his touch too. We wouldn’t be the same without all the aspects from all the members – they breathe life into my songs.”
Cavanah said the band was overwhelmed with the positive response from the CBC Searchlight project.
“It gave us a really good marker that we’re headed in the right direction,” he said.
“We never thought we would make it that far, we didn’t think we’d get out of the first round. The other bands were way more established and so many of them do it full-time – we all have day jobs.”
Dentville’s new Facebook page blew up during the contest, rising to close to 500 likes, and the Searchlight page had over 500 plays of its three songs.
The band performed live for the first time on Friday at the Brackendale Art Gallery, and Cavanah said new drummer Ross Willard fit in well.
He said it’s going to be a summer full of putting together a full library of songs for the band.
“We’ve had to turn down a ton of gigs because we didn’t know we’d get all this publicity after Searchlight,” he said.
“We all have lots of commitments over the summer, but we’re going to write over the summer and want to put together a nine or 10-song album.”
He said the group is aiming to release the album this fall and then will begin taking bookings for shows.
For more information on the band, visit www.facebook.com/DentvilleMusic.
