The voice behind the JUNO Award-winning album Beyond the Reach of the Sun is happy to call the sunny Shuswap home.
In March the Sorrento resident Kenny Cook and his band Anciients were honoured to receive the JUNO for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year for the August 2024 release. The band's previous album and second full-length release, Voice of the Void, received the same honour at the 2018 JUNOS.
"It鈥檚 pretty rewarding and it validates all the hours that you spent creating music," said Cook of the latest award. "But like I say, it鈥檚 nothing that we plan for when we鈥檙e creating music. It鈥檚 really cool to be recognized on that scale, but when we鈥檙e creating we never think that anything like this will come of it. So it鈥檚 pretty surprising for us."
A vocalist, guitarist and songwriter, Cook co-founded the Anciients in the Lower Mainland in 2011 along with guitarist Brock MacInnes, drummer Mike Hannay and former bandmates Aaron "Boon" Gustafson (bass) and Chris Dyck (guitar). In 2013, the band put out its first full-legnth release, Heart of Oak, which earned high praise among in metal scene and comparisons to the likes of Opeth and Mastadon. saw in the album greatness in the making.
Voice of the Void, released in 2016, earned the band further accolades for their progressive fresh but familiar sound.
Asked to describe the band's music, Cook doesn't get caught up in all the genres and sub-genres.
"It鈥檚 all metal to me man鈥�," said Cook. "Everything is kind of done through metaphor, as far as our lyrical content. It covers a vast array of different emotions鈥� life and death and positivity and negative things. We typically add some sort of fantasy element and sort of mask what we鈥檙e saying through a story.
"It鈥檚 hard to explain to a non-metalhead what we sound like. There are beautiful parts and there are very scary parts."
Asked about band's name, Cook it started with "a huge list of names" that was narrowed down to Anciients.
"There鈥檚 a lot of things that you could write about and connect with that name, so we figured it would be kind of cool, give us some extra themes to incorporate within the band."
Despite the band's growing popularity and 2018 JUNO win, fans would have to wait eight years after the release of Voice of the Void for Anciients' follow up, Beyond the Reach of the Sun. The unexpected hiatus began for Cook with a family health scare.
"That was a pretty serious thing where I had to take a step back from the music," said Cook. "That was a couple of years after our record, and then we had members leave (Dyck and Gustafson)鈥� and then COVID, so there was just a whole bunch of things that were stopping us from getting back into the writing room."
The time leading up to the release of Beyond the Reach of the Sun wasn't all negative. The band picked up bassist and Yukon resident Rory O鈥橞rien in 2023, and Cook and his family left the "rat race" of the Lower Mainland for the more laid-back Shuswap.
"My father-in-law lives in the Shuswap 鈥� he鈥檚 been based in Sorrento for over two decades now," said Cook. "Just living in the Fraser Valley started getting a little nuts for us so I think three years ago we had the opportunity to move up to Sorrento鈥�
"We absolutely love it here鈥� the people are all super friendly and it has just been great鈥� living on the lake."
While the band has yet to play Salmon Arm, it has performed at the Armstrong MetalFest.
"It's probably been almost a decade since we last played there 鈥� we have played it a couple of times," said Cook. "I think we鈥檒l probably try to play it within the next year or two now that I鈥檓 kind of stationed up in this area. I鈥檓 sure it will happen again."
At the end of the summer, however, the band will be embarking on a tour in the U.S. This will coincide with the release of the band's fourth album.
Asked what bands are on his bucket list to tour with, Cook named Pink Floyd.
"That would definitely be one of them 鈥� just so we could watch though," laughed Cook.
