Big Wreck, Matt Mays & Josh Royse New Year’s Eve, Moncton

Big Wreck
Big Wreck

Casino New Brunswick presents New Years Eve 2015, featuring Canadian rock band, Big Wreck, JUNO award-winning rock musician, Matt Mays and Los Angeles based, indie folk-rocker, Josh Royse in Moncton, December 31 at 9 pm.

Returning to the studio for the first time since the success of 2012’s Albatross, Big Wreck approached the making of their fourth full-length album, Ghosts, with a renewed sense of wonder toward the very things that turned them on to rock and roll in the first place. “Prior to this and before Albatross, I always had to sneak music in somewhere between a designed pop hit,” said frontman and guitarist Ian Thornley. “That was never really my bag. This time I just sort of said, ‘you know what, I’m going to make an album that I would really, really want to hear and that I’m madly in love with,’ and that’s what we did.”

For a band that planted their roots nearly 20 years ago, Big Wreck has finally arrived at that place where all of the pieces fit. The walls are down, the chemistry is electric and the output is their most fearless brand of rock and roll to date. It is that same rumbling voice, those gut-­‐wrenching lyrics and those brilliant reverb drenched guitars that erupt from the speakers before soaring skyward, it’s just been blown wide open further down the track. “I haven’t changed, and for the most part, the people who are directly around me haven’t changed either,” said Thornley warmly. “I think the attitude is just different this time. Once you give up that rock star bullshit it’s a whole lot easier to get down and dirty and make music, and it’s really nice to know that we can spend our time focusing in on what I call ‘the good shit’ and still have a career.”

For more information on Big Wreck, visit: bigwreckmusic.com, like on Facebook and follow on Twitter @bigwreckmusic

Matt Mays
Matt Mays

Matt Mays is on a quest to find and create the music that he hears in his head. When he stays still the sound of it drifts farther away: “when the vibrations stop,” he said, “it’s time to move on.” A few years back, Mays left wherever he was living at the time to embark on a journey into open space. To live in the midst of a world where anything could happen. A crusade into the sound, traversing the vast musical divide that he calls home: Mexico, California, Indonesia, Hawaii, Costa Rica, New York … wherever. He used surfing, yoga, and a ukulele as tools to bring him closer to the melodies and words in his head. Eventually, the sound was found. As soon as he stepped off the plane in Halifax he started work an album he called Coyote: a proper home for all his experiences. Imagery painted with song. Coyote covers the whole spectrum of the sound that Mays finally found.

Coyote is Matt’s fifth album since his self-titled debut. Released in late 2012, it has won three Music Nova Scotia awards, was named Album of the Year by the ECMA and won a JUNO for Rock Album of the Year.

For more information on Matt Mays, visit: mattmays.com, like on Facebook and follow on Twitter @MattMays

Josh Royse is a hard working songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. He is the salty voice of road worn grit fresh off the farm of the Oklahoma panhandle. Employing a coy lyricism as he crafts love songs with abstract tangents of astral inquiry, he said his subversive writing style is inspired by the astronomical depths of culture, creativity and cosmic energy that fills the streets of Los Angeles – all combined with the human
struggle of a young man who has loved, lost and learned so much on his journey. Royse’s catchy songs, contagious energy and tight band will have you humming his tunes for days.

Royse, who recently opened for B.B. King in a sold out show at the Casino New Brunswick this past July, plays original material weekly at three Las Vegas Casinos, including the Container Park, Rosalita’s, and Drop Bar.

For more information on Josh Royse, like on Facebook and follow on Twitter @joshroyse

Tickets for the New Year’s Eve show are on sale now and range in price from $69.99 to $89.99 (plus tax and applicable surcharge). They are available at the Casino Gift Shop (located at 21 Casino Drive in Moncton, exit #450 off the Trans-Canada Highway), by calling 1-866-943-8849 and online at casinonb.ca.

Doors open at 8 pm. The show is restricted to ages 19 and over. No video or audio recording devices are allowed.

Casino New Brunswick is a full-service casino, event centre, hotel and spa. It features over 600 slot machines, 20 gaming tables, (including a private poker room with five tables), as well as a variety of restaurants and lounges. In addition to its luxurious hotel and spa with 126 rooms and suites, the complex also offers a multi-purpose entertainment centre. The Centre presents events year-round and since opening its doors on May 4th, 2010, the venue has hosted several sold-out shows in its 2500-seat concert venue. Casino New Brunswick is wheelchair accessible and features extensive car and RV parking.

For more information on Casino New Brunswick’s upcoming shows, visit: casinonb.ca/ like on Facebook and follow on Twitter @Casino_NB