The East Pointers

It was 2010 and Jake Charron was on Prince Edward Island for a project with Stephanie Cadman. On that trip, he made a connection with Koady Chaisson. Koady told his cousin Tim about this guy from Ontario he had to meet, hang out, and play music with. They spent a good bit of time together and forged a strong personal and musical curiosity. The idea of starting a project was floating around them, but nothing concrete had been discussed. 

Jump to 2013. Koady was struggling, and in an effort to help his cousin, Tim called Jake and urged him to come to PEI for a visit. The hope was that their musical connection and Jake’s presence would bring some light into Koady’s orbit, and it worked. It energized Koady and gave him direction and drive to dig into something he had always felt so passionately about.

During that initial session, the trio spent time playing tunes and solidifying their musical chemistry and personal bond. They worked on original songs and things came together very fast. They made recordings that would become their first release and the band they’d talked about three years earlier was suddenly a reality. The East Pointers essentially formed around Koady to help him through that tough time. For Koady Chaisson, it marked the beginning of a very positive personal transformation and over the years that followed, he and the band were thriving. 

Although Jake was still living in Ontario, the band was quite active. They started touring and creating new music. In 2015, their debut full-length album Secret Victory was released, and in 2017, it won the group a JUNO Award for Traditional Roots Album of the Year. 

They toured and developed a dedicated audience in Canada, the United States, the UK, and Australia. The music kept coming—they released What We Leave Behind in 2017 and Yours to Break in 2019. They were on the rise and then, Covid sidelined the world. In 2020, in an effort to carry forward during Covid, Jake moved his family to Charlottetown.

Suddenly, in 2022, Koady passed away from an aortic aneurysm and it rocked the music community. Jake and Tim had to reach deep to find their way through this tragedy, but it was their musical connection that carried them through the grief of losing their bandmate, cousin, and most of all, their beautiful friend.

During their grieving period, they got an offer from JUNO Fest to perform at the annual event, but they weren’t sure how they would perform without Koady. After careful consideration, they said yes. It was uncharted territory for them, but they wanted to use this chance to honour Koady. This performance gave Tim and Jake a confidence to carry on, and to keep the memory of Koady alive through the music that empowered him.

Slowly, they began to work on and finish musical ideas they’d started with Koady, or ideas they pulled from Koady’s voice memos. From this work, they completed and released the House of Dreams and Safe in Sound EPs. They found that the music helped them, and they also made the conscious decision to leave Koady’s space on stage unfilled. They say they can still feel him up there with them. For all their high points, the path for The East Pointers has been one marked with grief, struggle, and unbelievable loss. Tim and Jake have done so well to harness these dark moments and to move forward with light and love.

On January 23, 2026, they will release their brand new album Schoonertown on Nettwerk Records. This is the first album that does not feature Koady, although it ends with one of his compositions. The upbeat and almost party-like energy of the album threads through the story of a lobster fisherman who struggles with life, overcomes his problems, and finds his way through hard times into a place of peace and happiness.