Laura Koch, and her sweetie Ryan, are counting on the love of their fans to propel them to the next level in a regional music competition that kicked off last month.
Voting opened on Valentine’s Day for the first round of the CBC Searchlight competition, and the husband-and-wife team of Langley musicians known as The Kwerks definitely felt the love as they were propelled through to the second round as of Wednesday, March 8.
“We made it to round two on your votes,” Koch said. “Thank you a million times over.”
The competition is based both on public votes and the considerations of a panel of judges.
There are four rounds in all, culminating in a final winner that will be awarded the prize on a prime-time televised broadcast on the CBC TV network in April, and this Langley duo are hoping to take that spot, said Laura.
The Kwerks came into fruition, officially, in 2015 when Laura left her job, sent her homeschooled children to school, started playing her guitar, and joined up with her husband to create “a cheeky brand of folk-pop peppered with Canadian bluegrass/country.”
“I’m pursuing my lifelong dream of becoming a rock star. In my 30s,” Laura said.
“The first year of The Kwerks was like coming out of the closet as a musician. Since being young, I had been making music and engaging with it in a personal way, but never wanted to perform. It was a personal experience, rather than a talent I wanted to exhibit,” she shared with the Langley Advance.
“So that first phase of forcing myself onto the stage was pretty tough. Moving through that year, there was a lot of personal growth. Learning to quiet the voices in my head that told me I wasn’t good enough, or that I would fail, was a big task.”
The good news, she insisted, is that growth happened.
“Getting on stage doesn’t feel as terrifying as it once did, and I’m much more comfortable with sharing our music with the world. So much growth happens to a person when they choose to be vulnerable and engage with their passions, and as we have worked through our own personal challenges with performing, we’ve been bolstered up by a great many positive voices from every direction.”
They’ve been touring the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley for the past year and a half, released two EPs, and competed in a number of regional and international music competitions.
For instance, they recently moved into round two of the international contest called The Recording Festival, in which the top three bands will win a trip to Ireland to record in the Grouse Lodge Studio.
Closer to home, the groups is booking music festival slots, including the MoM Festival (formerly Music On the Mountain Festival) in Fort St. James.
They’re building up what Laura calls a “solid following,” and will be performing next month at the Blue Light Studio in Vancouver – a gig, she said, that will be recorded and filmed live.
“It’s all groovy fun with The Kwerks.” said Jeff Bonner, owner of Tractorgrease Cafe and Multimedia. “If the Barenaked Ladies were a married couple, they’d be The Kwerks.”
When they set out to make their goals for 2017, they were able to identify what they really love about doing this, Laura said.
The bottom line is they want to perform for people, “to share the moment with an audience, whether the moment is filled with energy and rhythm that makes us all want to dance, or infused with a hushed intensity that flows out of the struggle of life’s challenges.”
She added: “Watching the audience engage in the music as we share it with them is so incredible. It’s an amazing gift to be able to connect with people that way.”
When setting out to submit for the Searchlight competition, she saw it as an opportunity to continue pursuit of that goal of connecting with audiences.
“This would be a much larger audience, of course,” Laura said. “We just want to make people smile, or get in touch with something deeper as they engage with the music and lyrics. There’s nothing quite as humbling as being the catalyst for that experience.”
If their current momentum is any indication, Laura believes The Kwerks will have a good shot at garnering the public votes and support needed to move on to the next level in the Searchlight competition.
“Keep an eye out for The Kwerks as the competition moves forward,” she said.
Voting opens Tuesday, Feb. 14, and continues for two weeks, with fans able to vote once a day during that period. People can follow the link on The Kwerks Facebook page.
