A Crossfield-based band that has been performing live for the last decade has been given a new lease of life thanks to the addition of two new members, the release of an upcoming single EP, and a spot on the roster of an upcoming local music festival.
Set and Stoned is slated to perform at Electric Highway Festival, a music and art experience taking place from March 23 to 25 at Dickens Pub in downtown Calgary. Members Cody New (vocalist), Jordan Wilkinson (bass guitar), Connor Tzupa (guitar), and Jay Skelly (drums), will be taking to the stage on Friday evening, March 24.
Though it isn’t the band’s first time playing at this particular festival, which was previously known as the 420 Music and Arts Festival before it was rebranded in 2020, it will be the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A lot of the bands were scheduled to play [in 2020] and had to be cancelled because of the pandemic,” explained founding band member Cody New. “So, this is the first Electric Highway Festival – it's kind of three years postponed.”
The band first hit the stage together in 2012 and even got some airtime on Rock 104 FM, a Canadian radio station broadcasted out of Olds. Over the years, the band often performed big-city gigs and even played at Morgan’s Pub on Calgary’s Red Mile, 17th Ave. SW.
New said there is always a different energy performing on a stage in front of an audience rather than recording music or practicing at home.
“Nothing really compares to it in my experience,” he said.
The founding Set and Stoned member said making and performing music is good for the soul, adding it is a rewarding experience to play with long-time friends Wilkinson and Skelly.
“We’ve been friends for quite some time growing up in Crossfield together. And as you get older, life gets busy and everyone’s got their own families going, so it’s good to get together with your brothers, though not by blood,” he said. “That’s something we all enjoy doing together.”
Set and Stoned originally formed in 2012 in Crossfield and has had different members come and go over the years, with founding members Wilkinson and New still present.
New shared all but one of the band’s current members hails from Crossfield, including Skelly, who joined the band in 2019. Airdrie resident Tzupa joined the band in 2022.
According to New, Set and Stoned falls under a few genres, but is a compilation of hard rock, metal, and psychedelic rock with elements of classic rock, blues, and funk. The high-energy rock band also takes its influence from a variety of veteran musicians, including the godfathers of metal, Black Sabbath.
“With all of us being music lovers, we like lots of wide variety of music,” New said. “This just happens to be what we play... kind of a modern Black Sabbath, I guess.”
When it comes to the creative process, New said the band members often collaborate when they make music, though he is responsible for writing the backbone of the songs, lyrics, and basic chords.
“Then, typically, Jordan will help me with the direction of the music being that he is more musically trained,” New said. “It’s definitely a collaboration between everybody, but I am technically the songwriter.”
The band just recently released a self-titled EP called “Set and Stoned,” which is available on multiple streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and YouTube.
Moving forward, New said he and his fellow band members would like to continue performing live and releasing more music on those platforms.
“We just want to keep pumping out music because for a while there were several road bumps that kind of slowed things down,” he confessed.
“Whether it was a pandemic or for a while, or it just seemed like the live music industry was, at least on a local level, losing interest... venues were closing down,” he said. “I suppose in five, 10 years I’d like to still be playing music.”
For more info on Set and Stoned, visit setandstonedband.com
For more info on Electric Highway Festival, visit theelectrichighway.ca