Skip to content

VIDEO: Langley Kwerks brings unique Valley sound to Northern B.C.

A local band presents its energetic and humourous style to rural festival organizers.
8720443_web1_Kwerks3C

Their quirkiness is their selling feature. That, and their punchy folk-pop style approach to music.

Speaking of Laura and Ryan Koch and their band, the Kwerks. This is a Langley group that is one of 12 acts booked into a conference in the Cariboo next month.

Rural festival and art organizers from around the province come together for a four-day convention called Northern Exposure Conference. Each evening during the event, select performers – which this year includes the Kwerks – have a chance to impress the audience.

As Laura tells it, if they do a good job at that, they can hopefully secure some bookings for the next summer’s festival season and beyond.

Laura, the songwriter and leader of the Kwerks, said she’s anxious to get their faces, their voices, and their unique act out there for more people to see.

Now, as for her husband, Ryan, he’s the theatre buff and would be content to scrap the music and simply tour with a comedy routine.

But Laura said she isn’t interested in that idea, so he’ll just have to be content doing it her way.

That why she’s glad their act was one of 12 picked from 160 applicants at this year’s Northern Exposure Showcase.

The Kwerks is a fairly new “project,” as Laura calls it, having only been in existence for two years.

And joking aside, the couple is happy with the “loads of success” they’ve enjoyed thus far, pushing their music out to the public.

For instance, this summer they closed off the Canada 150 free concert series at the new outdoor amphitheatre at LEC, drawing what Laura called “a huge crowd.”

“It used to be really nerve-wracking to get up on stage and sing my own songs to people,” said Laura. “But we’re having so much fun with it now. We can’t decide whether we like the music or the joking between songs better. We have a really fun time with the audience.”

With only a small Lower Mainland contingent participating in the showcase, the Kwerks are the sole Fraser Valley act set to perform. The conference runs Oct. 12 to 15 in Wells and Barkerville.

8720443_web1_Kwerks1C


Roxanne Hooper

About the Author: Roxanne Hooper

I began in the news industry at age 15, but honestly, I knew I wanted to be a community journalist even before that.
Read more