The Okes: How It Started

The Okes didn’t start with a plan or a name or anything particularly intentional.

It started, like a lot of bands do, with a few friends who kept finding their way back to music whenever life gave them a bit of space.

clockwise: Tom, Joe, Jacob, Mark

Jacob and Tom had known each other since high school. They spent a lot of that time playing guitar together, usually in Jacob’s upstairs room surrounded by Led Zeppelin posters, instruments, and whatever else had accumulated over the years. Jacob played trumpet in the school band, while Tom was on guitar and also sang in choir, so music was always part of the friendship even if it was never something formal.

Early jams were simple. Covers mostly. Songs like Slow Cheetah by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jack Johnson tracks, and Crystalised by The xx. Nothing too serious, just the kind of music that felt good to play in a room. Those sessions slowly became more frequent, then less frequent again as life moved forward the way it does.

Joe, the skeleton

By some small coincidence that still gets mentioned in hindsight, all of them ended up at Capilano University studying business. During that time the circle widened. Tom met Mark on a trip to China and they ended up travelling together through Southeast Asia afterwards. Jacob was already good friends with Joe, and the first time Tom met Joe was at the Squamish Music Festival where Joe showed up in a full skeleton costume, which probably set the tone more than anyone realized at the time.

After university, things split in different directions. Jacob moved to London and started a business there, still playing guitar on the side whenever he could. Tom stayed closer to home, playing acoustic guitar, learning how to sing more seriously, and slowly building up a repertoire of songs. Joe started jamming more regularly with a group of friends and ended up behind a drum kit more often than not. Mark had not really picked up his bass in a while, but it was still sitting around.

Eventually, Jacob came back from London and started jamming again with Joe. Tom heard about it and wanted in. That first session together ended up happening in a warehouse on the North Shore. It was also the first time Tom realized Joe was actually a drummer, which helped a lot.

At that point there was still no full band setup, so things were a bit improvised. Tom picked up bass duties to fill the gap so they could actually get through songs properly. They worked through a couple early covers like Californication and Soul to Squeeze, slowly getting enough momentum to keep showing up.

As things started to take shape, the band began playing small open mics at The Eagles Pub in North Vancouver. Those nights were loose and low pressure, just getting used to playing in front of people and figuring out how the songs felt outside of a rehearsal room.

After a while, it became clear they needed a fourth member, so Tom could move back to guitar and focus on singing, which felt more natural anyway. In conversation with Mark, it came up that he used to play bass and still had one sitting in his basement. He brought it out, learned a few songs quickly, and came to the next jam.

The Okes, warehouse session

That first full warehouse session with everyone was the turning point. No big moment, just a room full of friends playing music together and realizing it felt easy in a way none of them really expected.

From there it just kept going. More covers, more jams, and eventually their first proper live shows started to happen. A first chaotic one at Tom’s communal house on the Capilano River got shut down by the cops, followed by a run of shows out of their warehouse space near Bridge Brewing on the North Shore. After that came more traditional venues like Centennial Theatre, local pubs such as Wildeye Brewing and The Roxy, and more recently rooms like The Pearl.

See how far they’ve come along by checking out their upcoming gigs!