Scott Roos

Special to the Daily Herald

Funk, Reggae, Soul, Dub and Ska. When it comes to Saskatoon’s The Steadies, their musical alchemy is meticulously concocted to give their audience and fans a good time.

“I think with music and creativity you just gotta play and create what it’s in you, what’s in your blood, what’s in your heart and what you love,” Steadies frontman and bassist Earl Pereira said in a recent telephone conversation with the Herald. “It doesn’t matter where geographically you’re from. You just got to make the music that speaks to you and that you believe in. That’s all I’m doing. That’s all we’re doing.”

Formed around 2011 after his departure from Wide Mouth Mason, Pereira took his groovy and melodic influences with him to The Steadies and has not looked back since. 

“After high school (circa 1995) I joined Wide Mouth Mason which was a blues based band. We were blues/rock and blues based but I tried to bring a lot of the same things to the table – that funk and that mo-town vibe which, when it came to live shows, brought that energy,” Pereira continued. “When I went off on my own, I kept that element of it, and again, coming from being a bass player you’re the back bone. You’re the persona that’s in charge of people moving.

“While everyone is playing rhythm, the bass gets to be the colour and move around a little bit more. You’re still the rhythm but you’re also the melody.”

Pereira and The Steadies will be bringing their party vibe to Bellevue on August 7th as one of the bands performing at the inaugural MooseFest music festival. The Steadies have been able to perform from time to time throughout the pandemic, but are looking forward to the MooseFest gig.

For many people that have been out to experience live shows for the first time in almost two years, music has been an emotional experience. Pereira has, in part, been missing that connection as well.

“Watching people sing and dance (since the re-open) has already been an amazing experience,” he explained. “We’ve been able to play a few shows already where people have been allowed to dance, especially outdoors, and the emotion there is more than I thought it was going to be.

“There were definitely some people in tears of joy. People have been coming up to me and telling me they didn’t know how much they missed it until they got to feel and experience it again. You don’t realize it until it’s gone.”

With The Steadies, League of Wolves and Seven Mile Sun participating in MooseFest by all accounts it’s going to be one heck of a good time. It’s a gig that we all have been longing for since everything shut down at the beginning of the pandemic. Pick up a ticket for yourself, if you still can.

MooseFest is scheduled for Aug. 7 in Bellevue, Sask. For more information, visit www.moosefestsk.ca.