About the Band
Ashley Pearce
Ashley Pearce is a Vancouver based musician and founder of the Canadian band, The Out Seer. She holds a music diploma from Selkirk College's Contemporary Music and Technology Program, where she majored in performance and studied guitar. Her time at school in 2015 was noteworthy when she performed as a guitarist for the international pop star, Kiesza, during Selkirk College’s Gala. As well, she participated in a show with The Mighty Popo and his students from the Rwandan school, Ecole d’Art de Nyundo. Driven to succeed, Ashley continued her education in Capilano University's Jazz Studies program where she developed and improved her musical skills and knowledge. As a representative of the growing generation of female instrumentalists, Ashley has gotten the opportunity to perform as a big band guitarist with renowned bandleader, Jill Townsend, during the Cap U Leading Ladies Series in an all-women’s big band (also performing in the West Coast Big Band Festival, opening for the Sister Jazz Orchestra).
A dedicated and versatile musician, Ashley has invested her skills in a variety of bands, session work, shows, projects, and genres ranging from rock, folk, blues, pop, R&B, hard rock, heavy metal, funk, EDM, jazz, big band, and progressive rock. She's thankful to have her guitar playing featured alongside the talents of Baard Kolstad and Derek Sherinian on tracks for the Canadian prog-rock band, Pareidolon (who were nominated for a Kootenay Music Award in 2017). Ash makes her day-to-day living by gigging, teaching music, running Apricot Music Studios, and by taking music contracts for companies like Capilano Suspension Bridge, Richmond County Farms, and Netflix. She's happily at home on stage or in a recording studio, and has performed and done session work at several different venues and studios all over British Columbia. Excited to share her experiences and help music students enter the industry, Ash is currently serving as chair of the Program Advisory Committee for Douglas College's Music Technology Program.
Ashley's a skilled and technical guitarist whose abilities stemmed from years of refining her talents at music school, all while keeping a love of guitar gods such as Eddie Van Halen, Angus Young, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Santana, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Slash.
Her sound is unique as she has grown up with a variety of different rock, hard rock, and heavy metal styles to draw influence from and has combined them with her vocal characteristics to create a unique blend that is entirely her own.
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Aybars Savat
Aybars started playing drums at the age of ten and has been passionate about rhythm and groove ever since. He moved to Canada from Turkey in 2012 with nothing but a backpack and a goal to complete his musical education. Between then and now Aybars has finished two language schools and completed his third year in Selkirk’s contemporary music and technology program as a Production and Composition major. He has played and worked with many different styles of music including Funk, Pop, R&B, Jazz, Rock, and Progressive Metal. He can also play a variety of percussion instruments. Aybars has toured all around Canada and played in all sorts of venues with a variety of bands. Currently, he is an Audio Engineer, Music Producer, and session drummer. This career path mixed with his skill set have allowed him to play on and record many albums and songs. He has also been working as a live sound engineer for live concerts and TV. Aybars loves to share his knowledge about drums and the music industry, that’s why he is now teaching in his free time to help others find success in music. He just started his company for independent film music and session drumming called, Kaya Productions.
Amanda Chan
Based in New Westminster, BC, Amanda Chan is a pianist, brass musician and graduate of the University of British Columbia School of Music. She has performed in various brass chamber ensembles, symphony orchestras, and is comfortable in many genres including classical, rock, indie, folk, pop, jazz and r&b. She enjoys composing, arranging and film scoring, and currently plays in various cover and original groups.
Lachlan Tocher
Lachlan has been playing guitar since the age of 11, when he finally convinced his parents to swap out his self-built cardboard cut-out keyboard for a real instrument and get him his first electric guitar. Since then he has attended the Selkirk College Contemporary Music program to learn bass guitar, and major in both audio production/engineering and composition, as well as form and lead the progressive rock band Pareidolon. Now residing in Vancouver, CA, he works as an audio engineer for a local recording studio and plays in multiple bands (Including The Out Seer and Charlie PS), as well as continuing to write, record, and release records for his own band. His playing and writing style are heavily influenced by progressive rock and metal, but he has experience with a wide range of genres including jazz, pop, blues, folk and country. He is a dabbling multi-instrumentalist with a solid grasp of guitar and bass, and a growing affinity for keyboards, vocals and violin.
Davis Yates
Davis Yates is a guitarist from Cranbrook BC. In 2017 Davis graduated from the Selkirk College Contemporary Music and Technology Program. He majored in both Music Production and Performance. Since 2016 Davis has been the lead guitarist of several bands, including The Sophistocrats, The Out Seer, and 87 Inch Moth. In this time he has also played a variety of shows in solo, duo, and trio formats. You can hear Davis’ guitar playing on The Out Seer album "Ab Initio", the Sophistocrats EP “Together”, the Pareidolon EP “Lunar Sea” and on the Apricot Studio Youtube channel with Friday Night Jams. Davis has a passion for multiple genres of music and enjoys playing jazz, rock, country, blues, soul, pop and progressive rock. He is excited to be working on a new album with 87 Inch Moth expected to release in 2023.
