A Tri-City rock outfit will be on tour with the Sam Roberts Band next year after it clinched first prize in a radio contest.
Last month, Pigeon Park was named the platinum award winner of The Fox 99.3 FM Vancouver Seeds competition.
The musicians - Coquitlam residents Kevin Okabe (guitar), Nick Weber (vocals), Artur Leppert (bass) and Hunter Elliott (drummer), and Logan Pacholok (guitar/vocals) of Port Moody - beat out The Post War and The Oceanographers in the Sept. 20 finale at the Commodore Ballroom.
"At this stage of our career, this means the world to us," said Weber, a Heritage Woods secondary grad. "It's a huge step up for us to have been validated by the people in the industry. It feels good."
It was the third time Pigeon Park had entered the Seeds contest.
Among the prizes is a five-date tour with the Sam Roberts Band as well as $10,000 in tour support from the radio station plus another $10,000 in gear from Long and McQuade.
In addition, Pigeon Park will be recording a new five-track EP at the Nimbus School of Recording Arts with Canadian music producer and engineer Garth Richardson, whose credits include Motley Crew, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nickelback.
The prize package also includes a music video from Brass Tacks Films.
Weber said Pigeon Park is now writing material for the new EP and, next month, it will continue its tour of B.C. and the Prairies to promote its latest work, Black Widow, a four-track EP produced by Port Moody's Jordan Oorebeek that was inspired by a recent story of an elderly Nova Scotia woman who was known to poison her lovers, two of whom died.
The second tour starts on Saturday at the District Public House in Chilliwack. Pigeon Park will also be making stops later on Vancouver Island and the Okanagan.
Weber said the new songs will keep with the same heavier sound. "They're going to be as good as - if not better than - Black Widow."
