He will be spending this week in Lethbridge writing with his old friend Shane Love and will cap off his visit with a gig at Henotic , Nov. 9.
“Last time I was here ( a few months ago) I was on tour and I didn’t have as much time as I wanted to visit with people I knew,” DeSouza said. Love will be playing double bass on stage with him.
“Two times ago when I played here, I had a full band with me, last time it was more acoustic. This time it will be even more stripped down,” DeSouza said adding he is hoping lots of people he hasn’t seen for a while will come out even though it is a Monday night show.
“(the different line ups) keep me from being boring and it keeps it fresh for the audience,” he continued.
He has not only released a New CD this year, but has also re-released his first solo CD, “Temporary Redemption,” which he is giving away for free on his website www.marqdesouza.com.
“It’s exactly 10 years since I put it out. When you look at things you did in the past, there are always things you want to improve,” he said.
“It took some work because I had to transfer it from actual tape that I recorded on a four track. I basically redid a lot of vocals and did some touching up,” he said adding there also CD versions of the project which he has available at live shows.
He is just as proud of the new CD which has evolved since he began playing.
“It’s a little bit different. It has some nice variety on it,” he said. He has added a bit of a dance feel to some of the tracks which complements his classic rock and roll feel.
“This CD is a little fuller. I played all of the instruments myself, drums , guitar, and vocals, but on a couple of them I had a cast of thousands, my touring band and lots of guests,” he said adding he worked with producer Marty Ballentyne on the latest project.
“Between the two of us we had a really fully sounding record,” he continued adding response has been positive.
“ On this one I didn’t really care what people thought of it, I wanted to make something I really liked,” he said adding the previous CD was designed with getting radio airplay.
As always, De Souza’s lyrics are pretty poetic.
“I get asked that a lot. I do have a notebook I carry to write ideas down in , but I really have no idea what I was going through when I wrote the CD,” he said adding he is looking forward to his first gig at Henotic— he usually plays the Slice. But Henotic had time available this time.
“It’s an early show, so hopefully I’ll have a crowd,” said De Souza who graduated from LCI in the early ’90s and moved to Vancouver soon after.
— By Richard Amery L.A. Beat editor