In Duncan Smith’s opinion, live music can at times become too formulaic. He doesn’t mean any disrespect, especially not to any particular artist or group, but he does believe that an overly-rehearsed set is not always a good thing. Instead, Smith and his Lazy Syrup Orchestra aim to bring distinctiveness and spontaneity to each of their performances—including on July 6 when they’ll grace the Great Lawn at Whistler Olympic Plaza as part of the Whistler Summer Concert Series.
Hitting the stage alongside Smith and company will be Ashleigh Ball, known for fronting the indie band Hey Ocean! and for her voice acting in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic franchise.
Smith has a foot in multiple worlds as well. He and Nick Middleton combine to form electronic duo The Funk Hunters, and they’ve lit up Whistler Village many times before with all kinds of party and dance music. The Lazy Syrup Orchestra aims to accomplish something different, interlacing electronica with live instruments and vocals.
The result, according to Smith, spans a variety of genres from hip hop and house to jazz and funk.
Getting the band together
In 2015, Smith pitched a few names for his then-nascent project to the organizer of the Bass Coast Electronic Music and Art Festival. It was supposed to be a DJ-oriented venture, not dissimilar to The Funk Hunters. Yet when Bass Coast’s organizer fell in love with the “orchestra” moniker, Smith knew he had to diversify his band.
MC and percussionist Thomas Workshop joined trumpet player Cole Graham and Smith to form the Lazy Syrup Orchestra’s original lineup. After a successful debut at Bass Coast, they appeared at various gigs across Western Canada including the Shambhala Music Festival near Nelson. Mark Woodyard, a guitarist, vocalist and live looper, signed on in the late-2010s, completing Lazy Syrup as it is known today.
Ball first collaborated with Smith et al. in the summer of 2020 during a livestream event on the Gulf Islands—an electronic fusion session filmed with drones and multiple cameras. She joined them again on the main stage of last year’s Bass Coast Festival, and Smith was effusive in praising her.
“[Ball] is just hands down one of the most incredible, diverse talents I’ve ever met,” he said. “She has just such an infectious energy and phenomenal voice, and she’s a great instrumentalist too. She plays the flute, the piano, the ukulele and the guitar.
“I had the opportunity to see Hey Ocean! a couple of times when she used to sing with them, and I was just always blown away.”
Playing from the hip
The Lazy Syrup Orchestra is not your everyday musical act. They’re certainly cut from a different cloth than the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) kicking off this year’s Summer Concert Series on June 29. In fact, Smith doesn’t consider his outfit to be a regular band at all.
“Our group really is, I would say, very unconventional in how we share our music and how we perform,” he explained. “The whole project’s really been built around improvisation and collaboration. We’ll often bring guests up on stage without a lot of rehearsal or planning.”
In April 2022, Smith and his crew put on a 7.5-hour livestream with “absolutely no” preparation. Other than bringing in a few DJs to mix things up now and again, band members set up their equipment, turned their cameras on and just began playing to see where the day would lead them. Ball matches their free-spirited energy, which can certainly come across as refreshing.
Although they’ve played in Whistler before, this will be the first time the Lazy Syrup Orchestra features in the Summer Concert Series. Smith lived here for a few years after graduating from high school, and it’s always been a backyard escape for him. Even though music has taken the former Vancouverite across many borders, from Florida to Costa Rica, no place will have his heart quite like the Sea to Sky.
“I’ve toured the entire world and there’s not many more beautiful places in Whistler,” Smith said. “From things like the Ski and Snowboard Festival to this Summer Concert Series, [Whistler] has always brought a lot of amazing arts and culture to the Sea to Sky region.”
Fans who can’t wait for the Lazy Syrup Orchestra to take the stage next week can tide themselves over by listening to their new single, “Mellow Kinda Hype.” Produced in conjunction with Slynk, it’s a throwback to nostalgic ’90s feel-good hip hop and a microcosm of the group’s organic, down-tempo vibe.
The Lazy Syrup Orchestra takes the stage at Whistler Olympic Plaza at 7:30 p.m. on July 6. An opening set from DJ Praiz kicks things off at 6:30.
