Check Out Tanner Olsen’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanner Olsen.

Hi Tanner, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The band originally formed with our drummer (Graeme Fugger) and me (Tanner Olsen) growing up in the agricultural town of Chilliwack, BC.

Throughout high school, the two of us traveled and performed a lot with our drumline and other school music groups up until we graduated. After we went away to university, we re-connected a few years ago and began writing and performing country music around BC with a variety of local musicians. During the COVID shutdown, we started focusing on our live show as a band by performing a lot of smaller acoustic shows as well as some full-band live streams.

This past year we have taken some bigger steps in exploring music as a full-time profession with the addition of 3 full-time members to the band: Brayson Wong (Bass), Nick Varelas (Guitar), Adrian Sowa (Guitar) as well as playing some of Canada’s biggest Country Music events in 2022 from the Calgary Stampede to a showcase at the CCMA’s.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Coming out of the pandemic has been a bit of a struggle. Being based in Vancouver, BC. It was difficult finding gigs as most of the local live music Honky-tonk venues didn’t survive the COVID shutdowns.

And with BC being so large, it requires traveling large distances to play shows at the remaining establishments. We also went through a few roster changes with the band, with ex-members leaving for more consistent sources of income and different career paths.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a band, we are most proud of our live show. We have worked tirelessly over the years to make sure that every crowd we play for is entertained and left wanting more.

Things that set us apart from other groups would be our stage presence and energy as a 5-piece as well as being able to sing 5 part harmonies, with every member of the band having the ability to sing and harmonize on top of being a top-tier instrumentalist.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
One of the first concerts I went to see with my Dad was a KISS concert, that was a rad live show!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tannerolsenband.info/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tannerolsenband/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tannerolsenband