How Victoria's Tyson Barrie unites his love for music and his hometown

As a kid, chasing his dad, Len, around big-league locker rooms, Tyson Barrie found himself living out every young hockey lover’s dream.

While the elder Barrie pursued a life in the game, a pint-sized Tyson found himself wobbling around some of the biggest stars the hockey world’s ever seen — Jaromir Jagr during his dad’s time in Pittsburgh, Luc Robitaille during a stint in Los Angeles, Pavel Bure during Len’s run in Florida.

Still, despite this opening chapter of bright lights and big cities, it was back in his hometown, Victoria, B.C., where the game truly stole Barrie’s heart.

“We traveled all over the world, just following him wherever he went,” Barrie says of his dad, who split his pro career between the NHL, AHL, IHL and DEL. “All over the States. We went over to Germany for two years. But we always came back to Victoria in the summer — those are probably my earliest memories of the island, just coming back and seeing all my friends.

“When I came back to Victoria full-time, when I was about 10, that's when I really fell in love with hockey.”

It was the sense of community back home that finally reeled Barrie in.

He’d seen Hall of Famers working their on-ice magic up close, had taken the ice himself in rinks all over the world. But it was seeing his childhood friends playing the game together, relishing every moment, that made him want to lace his skates up, too. And the more time Barrie spent among Victoria’s hockey community, the more that affinity took hold.

“I loved growing up playing hockey on the island — it's such a beautiful place, there's so many cool spots. All the little teams up and down the island, it makes for good road trips, and a lot of fun,” he says of those formative days. “We had great facilities, we had great coaches the whole way through, lots of ice time. We were really lucky.”

In 2022, after those early years with Victoria’s Juan de Fuca Orcas spun into a third-round selection at the 2009 NHL Draft, a near-decade with the Colorado Avalanche, and turns with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers, Barrie decided it was time to go home and pay tribute to the place where it all began.

The defenceman wanted to do something unique for his hometown, though, something that tapped into another deep love of his, something befitting the place he cherishes most.

“I’ve attended so many hockey guys' charity stuff, and it's usually a golf tournament or softball or something like that. I've wanted to do something for a long time in Victoria, and I've had a passion for music since I can remember, so it just felt like it would be a good fit,” he says. “Something that would be fun and a little bit different. Luckily, I had some friends who were willing to perform.”

In July 2022, Barrie and philanthropy foundation Power To Give brought a few hundred locals together for a charity concert on the island. He reached out to good friend Wesley Schultz — one half of Grammy-nominated band The Lumineers, alongside Jeremiah Fraites — and asked if the duo would be willing to perform an intimate acoustic set at the event. Another message went out to local Juno-nominated duo Ocie Elliott, one of Barrie’s favourite groups, for a set of their own. Both groups agreed.

“All the feedback that we got was pretty overwhelming,” Barrie says. “It was a really great night, the weather was great. And it was a cool way we did it — you bought your ticket, and there was no other ask. You just showed up and you had a good time and enjoyed the evening.

“The Lumineers played, and they just knocked it out of the park. They played it like they were at Madison Square Garden. … It was such an intimate setting. A good local band, Ocie Elliott, opened for them. They're fantastic. It was just a really cool evening, for myself and I think for everybody.”

In all, the event raised $750,000 for the five charities it supported, all of which focus on youth mental health: the Children's Health Foundation of Vancouver Island, the Erica Legacy Foundation, the Washington Kids Foundation, Power To Be, and Foundry’s Indigenous Wellness Program.

Beyond the opportunity to use his platform to give back to his hometown, there was another reason that night under the stars meant so much to Barrie — it granted him a rare chance to put hockey aside and focus all his energy on another of his lifelong passions.

“I was always in love with music, from probably the time I was in middle school,” he says. “You know, moving away from home at a young age when I was 16, there's a lot of emotions that come with that. And I think music really, for me, it's the one thing that can kind of turn your mood around. You can lean into your emotions a little bit. … It gets you pumped up for games, it makes you feel better after a bad game. It's just always been a big part of my life.”

Granted a moment to fully embrace that part of himself, the night went beyond Barrie’s wildest imaginings.

“At one point, Sarah McLachlan was there, and her and Wes and Jeremiah were sitting in this old wooden cabin, just working on a song that they were going to perform last-minute together. I probably had no business being in the room, but I was just sitting there watching them jam,” Barrie says. “It was just really surreal. … It was such a beautiful night.”

The feeling was much the same for Jon Middleton — one half of Ocie Elliott, along with Sierra Lundy — as they performed that night, too.

“It was just really special,” Middleton says. “The music was amazing, and I'm not talking about ourselves, because another band played there that was real incredible. We felt privileged ourselves just to be there.”

For Middleton and Lundy, it was yet another privilege to use their music to give back to a city and a community that has given them so much.

Growing up in Victoria himself, it was out under those same stars, among the trees, that Middleton’s own love of music bloomed.

“Going way back, I got into music from listening to my dad perform around the campfire, playing an acoustic guitar,” he says. “I think that really sunk deep into my soul and inspired me to want to make music. And so when I was able to, in my early teens, I picked up a guitar and just didn't stop and kept working at it.”

That journey eventually led Middleton to Salt Spring Island, just north of Victoria. It was there, in 2017, that he met Lundy and their duo was born. A few years down the line, as the live music world came to a halt amid the pandemic, just as the sports world did, Middleton and Lundy poured themselves into writing, releasing a slew of EPs.

By the time that 2022 night with Barrie and The Lumineers came along, after the world had begun to open up again, Ocie Elliott had found new life, their new songs gaining momentum and shows booked across the country, Stateside, and in Europe, too.

So much of that success stemmed from the support of their hometown, Middleton says — not just the fans, but the community of Victoria artists, as well.

“It's a great city,” Middleton says. “It's small, but it's big enough to be vibrant. There are a lot of musicians here, and it's small enough that people are quite supportive of one another, and everyone kind of knows each other. … And the city itself, it's just a lovely place. It's beautiful, people are nice, and people in the city are very supportive of live music — especially local live music.

“It's quite heartwarming, actually, how supportive people are in Victoria, of bands that are from Victoria.”

It’s more than just the people, though, Middleton says. It’s the place itself, too. The ocean, the trees, the mist that hangs in the seaside air.

“There's no doubt that the natural environment around here has influenced me — as a person and in my songwriting,” he says. “I think it has kind of a calming, meditative effect. It definitely allows you to go to a certain space within yourself, and create in a certain way. I spend a lot of time outdoors, definitely hike a lot, and camp, and I take those experiences of being out in nature and translate them into my music and what I create.”

While their recent run of success has taken Ocie Elliott to countless cities, nothing compares, even still, to the feeling of returning home.

“It's always really special to come back home and perform in front of a hometown crowd,” Middleton says, as the duo prepares for a pair of homecoming shows in March. “You can always sense this extra level of support from the people in the crowd, some people hooting and hollering. When you perform overseas, it's a different kind of feeling — it's great, it's absolutely wonderful.

“But when you come back, it's altogether different.”

If Barrie has his way, there might be yet another chance to perform in front of that hometown crowd down the line. After the magic of the first charity concert, the hope, says the defender, is for many more nights under the stars, giving back to their city.

“It'll be tough to top, but you know, you can always try. And I think we've got a pretty good blueprint in place for how we want the event to go,” Barrie says. “Hopefully we can keep this going for years to come, and get some more great music into Victoria.”