This week we chat with Polar Island Parkway (the alias of Canadian artist Dev Travis), who is known for creating vibrant and heartfelt indie-rock.
Thanks for chatting with us! Could you give us a little info on your background?
I started making music under the alias Polar Island Parkway in 2019. I had just moved to America from Canada and wanted to start fresh musically. I spent a couple years working on small projects and collaborating and then in March of 2023 I released the first official full length LP ‘Gopherwood’.
What inspired you to create music?
I’ve loved creating music my entire life. It’s the one thing I can’t refrain from doing for a prolonged period of time and somewhere along the way I found it was so much more fulfilling to push myself into uncomfortable territory and make songs in a more original and unique way. Math-rock bands like ‘This Town Needs Guns’ helped inspire me to write more complex instrumentals and Andy Shauf inspired me to devote more attention to making sure everything in a song was in it’s right place. Lyrically I tend to draw inspiration from literature and art, mostly just simplifying big concepts and philosophies so that I can understand them better.
What instruments do you play or have a desire to play?
Primarily I see myself as a guitarist and vocalist. I’ve always been a multi-instrumentalist and also a control-freak so I almost always record every instrument myself, but that’s starting to change. I love collaborating and if someone can play a drum or bass part better or something, I’m always happy to hand over the reigns.
If you could share the stage with one artist/band who would it be and why?
I think I’d pick PUP. They’re a Toronto band who served as a massive influence for me through my teenage years. When I was 17 I was in an indie-rock band that began taking a turn towards more hardcore and punk music and all I wanted was to make music like PUP- it felt so right at that point in my life. I still love them to this day, makes me proud of my home and grateful for the amount of incredible bands that come from Ontario.
Where do you see yourself musically in 10 years?
I’d love to be making a living off my music in 10 years time, but with the way streaming services are right now it’s practically impossible for an indie musician to do that. Either way, if I can have a solid audience of devoted listeners I’ll be very happy and appreciative.
What are your interests/hobbies outside of music?
I grew up skateboarding, that culture is still something I draw inspiration from all the time.
The Nightly Moth is a cool track with great indie/alternative vibes. Tell us about this song, how did the name come about and what inspired it?
The Nightly Moth was something I started writing after reading Jack Kerouac’s ‘Big Sur’. Instrumentally, I really wanted to create something to give the album a more straightforward Indie-rock feel while still keeping it as original as possible. I kept humming the melody for the chorus all morning so I wrote some lyrics about how I was feeling about my life at the time and finished the first draft of the song that afternoon. It felt like a great representation of the type of song I was trying to make for months and I felt very happy with the way it turned out. The response has been great & I’m so thankful people are resonating with the album, it brings me an enormous amount of joy to know that people are finding my music and actually enjoying it.
Anything else you’d like us to know, want to give a shout out to, etc..
‘Gopherwood!’ is available on every major streaming platform including Spotify & Apple Music.
Check them out here!!!!