It’s not often you hear a choir sing a Pixies song. But harmonizing on “Where is My Mind” by the alternative rock band that formed in Boston in 1986 is exactly what the Kingsgate Chorus did at Main Street Car Free Day a couple of years ago.
The Kingsgate Chorus “caroled” at the launch of a local goods pop-up shop near Main and Broadway last week. The choir doesn’t actually sing any Christmas songs.
“We’ve also done weird things,” said choir director Jenny Ritter. “We sang at someone’s wedding. We actually sang that Pixies song at their request. It was a hipster wedding and their request was as soon as they kissed we would break out into that song.”
The Kingsgate Chorus and its related rock and roll choir, the Mount Pleasant Regional Institute of Sound, will perform at a Christmas fundraising concert called Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Choir, Dec. 19, with proceeds going to Spartacus Books and Hastings Farm.
Highlights will include songs by Bjork, Sufjan Stevens, Feist, Father John Misty and Bon Iver.
Ritter didn’t know what she was going to do with the rest of her life two years ago.
The then 30-year-old had been touring with Victoria-based folk-roots band The Gruff for seven years and felt burnt out.
Wanting to make music for fun, Ritter invited four friends over to her “crappy” basement suite to teach them vocal harmony. Eight people came the following week. Pretty soon there were 16. The group began rehearsing in a studio space above Our Town Cafe and in January 2011 the Kingsgate Chorus was born. The group proved so popular that an offshoot band of singers, the Mount Pleasant Regional Institute of Sound, grew out of the waiting list for the chorus.
“I was never able to let anybody in because people weren’t leaving,” Ritter said. “And I just felt that there was this real need for it. People were pretty desperate to be involved.”
The two choirs each include more than 30 members. So many people want to join the choirs Ritter has abandoned a waiting list.
She suspects wannabe members are searching for a sense of community.
“You get the amazing endorphin rush from singing in a big group of people and learning how to harmonize,” she said. “But you also get a community from it... There’s a couple of long-term relationships that have come out of this choir. Some people have gotten jobs through other people in the choir.”
But choir members aren’t the only ones who’ve benefited.
“The choirs totally brought me back from not wanting to be a musician,” said Ritter, who’s about to release her second album.
Choir members sang on Ritter’s first album released under her name and have recorded with local songstress Sarah MacDougall. The choirs have sung live with Rae Spoon, Wintermitts and Aunts & Uncles.
The two groups typically perform at Christmas, in the spring and at community events. Ritter arranges most of the music and accompanies the vocals on acoustic guitar.
Her ultimate show would happen, fittingly, at her choir’s namesake.
“You always hear rumours that the Kingsgate Mall’s going to get torn down,” she said. “There’s like 10 different songs called ‘Wrecking Ball,’ and I’m going to arrange a medley of them all and we’re going sing it as the mall is coming down. That’s my dream.”
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Choir takes place Dec. 19, 9 p.m. at Chapel Arts, 304 Dunlevy Ave. Tickets $10 at the door.
crossi@vancourier.com
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