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Kuba Oms brings the positive

Victoria collective finds its groove in dance, will be testing songs in Whistler

Kuba Oms has a hit on his hands.

The singer-songwriter has a musical repertoire that is truly all over the map, from ska-sounding themes to acoustic guitar ballads you feel compelled to clap along to. But it's Electrolove, a dance tune that you've probably heard pumping out of clubs and the windows of cars recently, that is putting the artist and his band - The Velvet Revolution - on the radar. They're getting all kinds of play and recently released a new music video that got its world premiere in Whistler recently during the warm-up to the Sam Roberts show.

Electrolove sounds very new, but it's somehow timeless all the same - people will be dancing to this track for a long, long time, which is something that makes Kuba Oms happy. It's also the exact kind of vibe he and his bandmates are going for on their new album that's in progress - and Whistler fans will be able to hear samples of this Friday when they play a free show at Whistler Olympic Park.

Pique caught up with Oms at home in Victoria last week as he was waiting for a bus.

"The new stuff I'm doing now will be more consistent (than my solo album)," he says. "There's going to be a dance vibe, but a fairly laid back vibe that's fairly poppy. We're feeling in a positive mood these days and the songs that come out feel good in the same kind of way."

Oms has been in music for a long time, once turning down a tennis scholarship in the U.S. to focus on making music - all kinds of music, to match all of his diverse musical influences. That's why all of the songs on his debut solo album sound so different, like a mixed tape with the one unifying factor being Oms' voice. But with his new sound Oms thinks he's found the right groove.

"We're all excited about the momentum we have right now," he says." Electrolove is paving the way for a new era in our operations, so to speak.

"I feel the singing and the other guys' singing has really developed and we have some beautiful harmonies and some cool builds. The beats are incorporating a DJ, which is something we've always done, but we use lots of DJ which kinds of jolts the audience and gets the place jamming. In some cases if you walked into a club with your eyes closed and heard the music you'd think it's all DJ, but then you open your eyes and see guys on stage."

The Velvet Revolution is a collective, which includes several veterans of Oms' life with the funk jam band Velvet. At full strength they have two bass players, two drummers, two guitar players, etc., but the band Oms is bringing to Whistler just has one of everything.

If you caught Oms at the Squamish Music Festival you have a good idea of what you're in for, but the band - all experienced musicians - does a lot of improv on stage and no song is going to sound the same twice.

Plus, the band is trying out new songs, testing them out on the audience to see what works.

"We're at a place where we can feel the songs out and work them out with a live audience, so when we go into the studio we really know what works and what connects with the audience," said Oms. "We're just feeling out our game right now to make sure that this next album is something we feel really great about. We want to make an album that people will hold dear for the rest of their lives.

"It sounds ambitious, but that's where we are. We've been doing this a long time, we know what we're doing and with the climate of the world and where the world is at it's a good time for people to hear a really positive message. If a song can be a catalyst to make you feel good and feel alive through whatever you're going through, that's a really great thing.

"Where are the buses?" he adds as an aside in an exasperated voice. "I don't think they're running. I haven't seen a bus going either way in like 15 minutes."

Oms grew up in Victoria in a family of mixed ethnicity - a Scottish mother and an Indian father. He's been playing music since he was 15 - sometimes because that was all there was to do.

I hated to bring up Victoria's Nelly Furtado, another versatile musician, but Oms took it as a compliment - and gave a lot of the credit to his hometown for being a great place to make art.

"I think (Victoria) really has influenced us a lot," he said. "It's hard to put your finger on how. We've got a West Coast laid back vibe, and when you're on an island you're on an island - you're secluded in some capacity and there is not really a lot to do in terms of the nightlife and that sort of thing. So often you'd be in the basement, writing songs or making or doing something like that. I think that's one of the reasons that some great talents have come out of here.

"It makes sense. It is an artistic community, full of former hippies and draft dodgers, and all the kids of those people that were brought up a little different. It's not a hippy town, but there is a bit of a hippy vibe.

"Screw it, I'm taking a cab."

Kuba Oms and The Velvet Revolution are playing on Friday, Sept. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at Whistler Olympic Park as part of the RBC GranFondo Whistler celebrations. Following his performance there will be a screening of the 1979 road biking film Breaking Away , an Academy Award-winning comedy starring Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley.