Toronto based rock band Public Animal are stoked to come out west for probably the first and only time this year when they play the Slice, Jan. 2.
 They kick off a quick four date  tour on New Year’s Eve in  Calgary at the Broken City, the Slice on Jan. 2, Saskatoon on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4 in Edmonton before they fly home.

 “We’re just touring on a 7 inch and a T-Shirt, so we probably shouldn’t be doing this, but whatever, we just love to play,” said co-frontman Ian Blurton.

He shares lead vocal duties with keyboardist Caitlin Dacey. Eric Larock plays bass and Ryan Gassi is on drums.

“ There are a lot of keyboards. It’s pretty different.We started writing together about a year ago. We wanted that big Hammond organ early ’70s sound like Deep Purple and Uriah Heap but without the insane lyrics,” he described.

“ So we started writing about a year ago and came up with 14 songs and whittled them down to  eight for a record,” he said.
 “ It excited me to have those types of textures in the band. This is the type of band I needed at this time in my life and I think the other band members feel the same way. And I’ve been playing with Eric (bassist Larock) for like forever,” he said.

 The band doesn’t tour much outside of the Greater Toronto Area as they not only hold down day jobs, but have their own other bands as well.

Caitlin Dacey is in  the Bella Clava, Eric Larock plays in  Dead Wrestler and used to play with Tricky Woo and   drummer Ryan Gassi had a pretty popular  band in his home town of Ottawa called the Lying Cheats.

“Caitlin is  a French teacher, so she can’t tour much, Eric works at SAW Video, Media Art Centre, a video production  company and the drummer is a video editor too. I guess we‘re all lucky we have jobs in the arts and Ka Caitlin helps kids,” observed Blurton, who is a much sought after record producer.

He is known for his bands Blurtonia, and most recently C’Mon which featured former Nashville Pussy bassist Katie-Lynn Campbell.

“C’Mon just  ran its course. Katie wanted to spend more time at home in New Orleans and that $450 thing to get musicians over the border would have killed us anyway,” he said.

“ It’s ridiculous. There are so many shows that have been cancelled in Toronto since it went into effect,” he fumed.

They are finishing up their debut, full length record which they expect will be released in the spring.
“It’s about 70 per cent done. We want to put out a really good first record,” he said.
Eric Larock and drummer Ryan Gassi Caitlin Dacey keyboards

 “ We’re stoked to play. I haven’t payed out west in January for a long time, so I’m curious to see just how cold it gets,” he continued.

“ We always play from the heart. We want each show to be fresh. Each show is different. Some days we’re dancing on the tables, other days we’re not,” he said.