Orvis and His Higher Guns brought the energy to the Selkirk Waterfront this Canada Day.
The country band is just one of bandleader Orvis Thomas’s musical projects. He also performs under Orvis, a rock band.
The name of Orvis and His Guns came from a bit of misunderstanding.
“I worked with a singer previously. I think he wanted to be insulting, and he said, ‘If you act like a higher gun, I’ll pay like a higher gun.’ And my first instinct was that he didn’t realize that the term was hired gun, and it just kind of stuck with me, and I thought that would be a great name for a band.”
Thomas’s first love of music came from the band Collective Soul.
“Ed Roland from Collective Soul, he’s a really prolific songwriter. He always wrote really great songs, and that was always my aspiration, was to be a songwriter first and a performer second.”
When he was 10, he started playing guitar. This came shortly after discovering Collective Soul and his favourite bands, like Foo Fighters and Van Halen.
Thomas was born in Selkirk and was raised in Pimicikamak Cree Nation. After graduating, he returned to Selkirk and played in his first band.
“It was a really good kind of training ground to develop skills and kind of figure out where I wanted to go with music,” Thomas said.
Thomas’s approach to songwriting is relatively free-flowing; he doesn’t force it. Maybe a song title will come to him that he’ll write down and go back to later, or maybe he will start playing a melody and words happen with it.
“There’s no real better feeling than when it all comes together, whether it’s on a recording or on stage. It’s a really kind of intense feeling where everything should be happening where it’s happening, and it all flows seamlessly. I love songwriting, I love playing, I love performing.”
Many of his songs focus on relationships, though he said that with the rock band project coming up, he thinks songs will focus more on social topics and philosophies.
In June, Orvis and His Higher Guns released a new single titled “Rich White Woman,” which is available on Spotify and iTunes.
His relationship inspires it with his partner and their different cultural backgrounds.
“We have quite a few laughs and inside jokes about our differences, as well as we sometimes poke fun at each other over certain things.”
Orvis is Cree and Ojibwa.
“My father lived in Selkirk when he was a child, as well as a young man. He was originally from Black Bear Island. Matheson Island would be the closest community, and his parents, himself, and his brothers moved to Selkirk when he was a young boy. He is Ojibwa, as well as some other things, like English, Irish, and French, but the majority of his background is Ojibwa,” Thomas said. “My mother is Cree from Cross Lake and Norway House as well as Scottish.”
He said his cultural background has shaped his philosophies, such as being kind to people and the Earth.
Thomas also has his record label, Broken Cloud Entertainment, named after his spirit name.
“It’s a name I heard a lot when I was younger. It’s supposed to be the name how I’ll be identified in the spirit world later on,” he said. “It’s significant to me.”
Under the label, he puts out his music and produces his concerts.
Orvis and His Higher Guns will perform on July 6 at Hill Top Resort, July 13 at the Triple S Fair and Rodeo, and July 26 and 27 at South Beach Casino.
Thomas posts all upcoming concerts on his website orvismusic.com.
Record Photos by Brett Mitchell
