On Thursday, July 25th, the Kitchener-based Canadian folk band I, the Mountain took to the stage at the Jalynn Bennett Amphitheatre for one of the six musical events part of Catherine Parr Traill College’s Music on the Hill series this summer.

I had the opportunity to speak to the band before their performance to discuss their musical origin, upcoming releases, and their nostalgic connection to Peterborough.

I, the Mountain were formed over ten years ago by Trent University alumni and Arthur’s Volume 49 editor, Matthew Rappolt (percussion) and Matthew Lamers (guitar) after an accidental run-in on move-in day at Lady Eaton College (LEC), where their identical first names caused some confusion.

“I walked into his room thinking it was my room,” Lamers shared to Arthur in an interview before their performance. “Only the first names were on the door in very large letters and I was like ‘Oh, great, my room,’ and then I sort of walked in and noticed [Matt] was there and quite shocked, so then I sort of slunk out of the room without saying anything.”

From there, Lamers shared that the pair started jamming in the LEC music space “just for something to do.”

“Eventually, we really didn’t want to get a summer job, so we quit our kind of cruddy jobs and started busking outside of The Whistle Stop and Mr. Sub on George Street—R.I.P. Whistlestop by the way,” Lamers added.

From busking, the duo began to play farmers markets and began to build recognition until eventually they were asked to start playing gigs around the city.

“It was around the time when I was writing a collection of songs—or what became a collection of songs—so we kind of became I, the Mountain from that little journey,” said Lamers.

His counterpart, Rappolt, reflected on the band’s origin during the interview, stating that the LEC music room “could barely fit the two of us back in the day,” but they were lucky enough to return to the space as a band when the new music room opened in 2022.

“We played a couple songs and talked about how we got started there. It was very, very, very nice to get a chance to kind of go back to see where we started and how it’s evolved into something that’s pretty incredible,” he said.

The other two members, Allison Dyjach (keys) and Rory McLachlin (guitar) would meet the Matts sometime after their LEC origins and eventually join the indie-folk band.

“I met Matt (Rappolt) on Tinder,” Dyjach said. “He always mentioned in our first couple of dates that he was in a band, but the band was sort of on a hiatus at the time—this would have been in 2016—Matt was in teacher’s college, so they weren’t really playing shows at the time.”

As time went on, Dyjach shared that rehearsals would be held at her house with Lamers when the band returned from hiatus where she would listen from upstairs, occasionally popping her head in to offer suggestions or to hop on the piano. Dyjach was eventually asked to join the band in the studio when they recorded their song “Rosa,” sharing that she “wasn’t in the band officially yet, but after recording “Rosa,” it just felt like a natural fit.”

“I really liked singing harmonies, so it added to the band to have a female vocalist to sing harmonies,” she said.

Rappolt added that Dyjach also had a pretty successful YouTube page at the time, where she would record four-part harmony covers of different songs.

“When we first started dating I was like ‘yeah I’m in a band,’ and then I saw your YouTube page and I was like ‘oh shit, that’s so much better,” he laughed.

Around the same time Dyjach officially joined I, the Mountain, guitarist Rory McLachlin—who had met Matt Rappolt at Teachers College at Wilfrid Laurier University—did too.

McLachlin, who had played in bands before I, the Mountain, shared that he had answered a call Lamers put on social media for another guitarist to join the band. Similar to Dyjach, McLachlin said he jammed in one music session “and then stuck around” after that.

“Do you remember the first song we played together at Teachers College?” Rappolt asked McLachlin.

“A Taylor Swift song? Sounds about right,” he replied.

“Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran’s ‘Everything Has Changed’...that’s a banger” Rappolt said, with Dyjach echoing that she used to sing that same song at open mics in Guelph around the same time.

Earlier this month, I, The Mountain released a single titled “Carry On” and when asked about the process behind the song, Lamers stated that it came together from the chorus of an older song.

“It started out with a really kind of slow ballad that I created,” he said, sharing that they had sent the demo to Trent Alumnus Simon Ward of the Strumbellas, who helped work through the initial stages of the song.

“Now it’s going to be part of our upcoming album Wild Flowers,” Lamers announced, sharing that the forthcoming album is “a mixture of oddball songs throughout the years, all the way back to 2021.”

“The album represents our big story,” Dyjach said. “The growth we’ve made as a band. Starting in 2021, we did a lot of touring, going to the East coast, playing more festivals—a lot of personal changes throughout the last couple of years—and so this album represents a lot of growth and milestones we’ve had,” she continued.

On the topic of growth, I asked the band how it felt to be coming back and performing in Peterborough after the immense success they’ve seen since their beginnings in the LEC dorms.

“It’s pretty cool, it always feels like coming home,” Rappolt said. “It’s where I found myself, where I came of age, there were so many wonderful experiences with the people we met working at Arthur I mean, Trent’s such a special place.”

Rappolt also said that despite the band coming so far, they never want to change the essence of the band. “It still kind of feels like the same friends going out to busk at Mr. Sub—we never want to lose that aspect.”

“It’s very much a homecoming—a lot of the times when I think about the band, it’s friendship first,” Lamers also said, sharing that Peterborough “reminds me of a hug, it reminds you of where you came from and there is a part of you still there, and you carry that with you wherever you go.”

“One thing I love about Peterborough is the media community, I didn’t know how lucky I was to be involved in a community like that until you leave,” Rappolt echoed.

In regards to Rappolt’s time bravely serving as an Arthur editor ten years ago, he shared that it was the “one thing I wanted to do coming to university.”

“I had just finished watching Gilmore Girls before coming to university and was so inspired,” he said. “Working as the editor was probably the most formative experience of my life, it was just so incredible.”

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This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

A big thank you to Matthew Rappolt for his dedication to this paper, and Matthew Lamers who was a proud “delivery man” for Volume 49. Arthur remains who we are because of the legacy left behind, thank you.

For more information on upcoming performances and updates, visit ithemountain.com or visit their Electronic Press Kit.

Patreon: I, the Mountain

Spotify: I, the Mountain

YouTube: @ithemountain