On Tour: Villages

Villages announce a string of Eastern Canadian tour dates in support of their debut, full-length album.

Matt Carter

If you stop and think about it, any album by any band probably has an interesting backstory, although few are ever truly fleshed out. An album is a collection of compositions and these collections are a combination of inspiration, experience and personality, refined and interpreted. There’s always a story if you look hard enough. But sometimes you don’t have to look that hard at all.

Take the band Villages and their 2018 EP Hymn After Hymn for example. This same group of musicians have been playing together as Mardeen for years, sharing their own brand of pop-rock heavily influenced by the musical lineage of their hometown, Halifax, Nova Scotia. But a couple of years back, another musical lineage would come to influence this same group of musicians, completely out of the blue.

“One late night, a singalong of Rankin Family tunes broke out,” says vocalist Matt Ellis. “I remember saying to the rest of the band that we need to write something that evokes the sound of home.”

And with that, the members of Mardeen launched a new project. Villages was born.

As Villages, Matt Ellis, Travis Ellis, Jon Pearo and Archie Rankin are now preparing to release their self-titled debut full-length album, taking their appreciation for Celtic and British Folk music beyond a simple four track EP.

Villages will be touring the Maritimes this spring in support of their debut album.