The last time the band members of The Matinee played an outdoor show in Coquitlam was when they were Centennial secondary students.
Lead singer Matthew Layzell remembers the July 1 gig at Place Maillardville community centre.
"It's kind of neat to be coming back and doing it on a much-larger scale," he said, referring to their Canada Day gig in Coquitlam Town Centre Park where they will perform before an estimated crowd of 50,000 revellers.
A lot has changed for the band since they graduated in 1997, the most significant happening three years ago when they took third place in the Peak Performance Project.
After clinching their $50,000 prize from the radio station, "we pretty much walked into a record deal so that helped us start running at the gates essentially," Layzell said.
The rockers stretched the cash to pay for rehearsal space, music videos, tour support, photo shoots, a publicist and a debut record, titled We Swore We'd See The Sunrise, that was released last year and produced by Grammy-award winner Steve Berlin of REM and The Tragically Hip fame.
Their tight budgeting and hard work paid off: Their tunes can now be heard in regular rotation on CBC Radio, The Peak 102.7 FM and The Shore 104.3 FM.
But recently, they had a setback with the loss of bass guitar/keys player Mike Young (The Matinee announced the news on its website earlier this month).
Layzell said there are no immediate plans to replace Young just yet.
"The four of us are pretty tight and I think we need to be careful as we bring someone else in the fold, especially with the amount of time we spend on the road and touring," he said. "It's got to be a pretty wise decision."
Layzell said Young's absence has been felt as he was an integral songwriting collaborator as well.
Last week, The Matinee was in Greenhouse Studios in Vancouver to cut a summer single and to work on new material for their sophomore album, due out later this year.
However, with Young out, the studio producers stepped in to help smooth the sound as they are songwriters and musicians, too.
"For this recording, we didn't go into the studio with one song. We actually went in and started jamming so it would feel like a band in there and then we saw what came out of those jam sessions. We just rolled tape and turned the microphones on.
"It was a really inspiring and a free, creative process."
Layzell hinted the band will be playing the summer single at their Canada Day show in Coquitlam as well as material from their yet-to-be-released album.
