The Medicine Hat unveils new sound at Supercrawl

Emerging Hamilton-based pop rock band, The Medicine Hat, is no stranger to Supercrawl, but last weekend’s performance was a special milestone marked with an energetic performance of brand new songs.

Over the weekend two members of the five-piece band, frontwoman Nabi Sue Bersche and guitarist Tyler Bersche, shared about their experience in Hamilton’s music scene, their new sound and the strange festival experiences from long ago.

It all started while Nabi and Tyler Bersche were in high school in their hometown of Guelph, Ontario. They were sort of dating and definitely writing songs together. Nabi Bersche was pursuing a solo career. Tyler Bersche was in a band with bassist Elliott Gwynne called The Canned Goods, while Mike Boyd played the drums for another band, Dance All Free For All.

“This really changed our music and what it sounded like because we all bring equal parts to the table.”

 

Tyler Bersche
The Medicine Hat

While growing up in a small town that lacked a supportive music scene, the four friends naturally came together after their individual projects fizzled out in 2010. They wrote songs together, jammed out and even produced their first EP in a weekend.

Since that epic weekend, the band has evolved to include a rotating fifth member, with the throne currently being held by Thomas Hammerton on the keyboards and the synthesizer, an instrument that played a significant role in finding their new sound.

“In 2010, every band in Ontario wanted to be like the Wooden Sky and that’s what we were doing, playing kind of okay indie folk rock. Since then… and mostly in the past two years, we’ve [started taking the band more seriously and we’ve] been writing all our songs together,” explained Tyler. “This really changed our music and what it sounded like because we all bring equal parts to the table.”

After moving to Hamilton four years ago, the band is humbled by the legacy of their city, and thrives off of its iconic rock scene and electronic music scene.

“I like drawing from both of those influences and I find it very cool and inspiring to be in a town where both of those scenes are very rich… I would say that we aspire to straddle that line between dance music and rock music,” said Tyler.

Lyrically, the band draws on personal experiences and more recently, about the experiences of others for inspiration.

“‘St. Cecilia’ was written about moving to Hamilton. That was a little bit hard for me, moving to a new city… I had a great time in the country… it was challenging for me specifically with men catcalling and all the unwanted attention,” explained Nabi.

They performed their released singles St. Cecilia and New Survival at Supercrawl, along with their new unreleased work.

“My favourite song to perform is ‘Scars’, which is one of the newer songs we [performed], I feel like an 80s diva when I sing it, and that makes me feel happy,” said Nabi.

The Medicine Hat has had many memorable performances over the years since their first sold out show at the E Club. They’ve also had crazy experiences.

“One [experience] that stands out, is a now defunct music festival in Northern Ontario… We arrive at the festival grounds and it’s empty. There’s space for five thousand people, but there’s like thirty people. Nobody knew what was going on… someone had stolen sound equipment because there was no security, and there was even a fire on stage,” explained Tyler.

“And then torrential downpour,” added Nabi. “[All of the musicians] wound up under a 10 by 10 tent, passing around some whisky and laughed at how ridiculous it all was… and we never even played.”

Luckily, the weather was great during their Supercrawl performance, and their music is even better. The Medicine Hat’s strong showing at the crawl and in the greater Hamilton music scene definitely makes them an act worth watching.