Brett Spaulding & The Psychic Spies Livin’ To Play

Brett Spaulding was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta and has been on the local music scene for

over a decade, sharing the stage as a sideman with The Mike Clark Band, Donald Ray Johnson,

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne and more. Spaulding also co-fronted the Silvertone Devils with guitar

virtuoso Brent Wright, under whose guidance Brett studied; learning in depth about chord

inversions, harmony, and most importantly discipline.

In 2015 Brett won the Calgary Blues Music Association Guitar Player of the Year award and has

toured with several acts through western Canada, Brett has been a mainstay at Mikey’s Juke Joint,

one of Calgary’s premier music venues. Spaulding started The Psychic Spies with bassist Chad

Holtzman while doing a regular house gig at The Blues Can in Calgary. Together they started

recording demos in Chad’s studio, Stationblissmusic and began work on what would become their

newest release, Livin’ To Play.

Livin’ To Play is a guitar driven album, laced with heavy grooves, tight harmonies, and pop

melodies. Influenced by a cross section of music including The Beatles, Steely Dan, The Foo

Fighters, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. “We were trying to go for simple but sophisticated”, says

Spaulding. “We also just followed our hearts and went where the music took us. If a mistake was

made, but you could hear something cool in it, it got shaped into a part instead of erased as an

error.”

Brett Spaulding & The Psychic Spies put on a great live show full of energy, and originality, and

have translated that sound to this album successfully. Livin’ To Play is comprised of nine original

and masterfully written songs with a multitude of sounds including rock, blues, funk, R&B and

pop. The Psychic Spies are Chad Holtzman on guitar, bass and back-up vocals, Brent Wright on

slide guitar and back up vocals, Stephen Fletcher on Keyboards and Emmet VanEtten on drums, percussion and back up vocals.