‘NO WAKE’ Local folk family band releases first album

BUTTE — After a long life in the military and wandering the world, Pat Wake has found a home in Alaska as a musician among family and friends.

Wake is now the frontman of No Wake, a folk-rock band filled out by his sons, Sean Renard and (occasionally) Daniel Wake, his friend, Michelle LaRose, and the occasional hired extras.

The band released its six-song debut album, “Wind in My Sail,” this summer, after about two years of writing and rehearsing, Wake said.

“I just couldn’t get everybody into the studio. Everybody’s so busy,” he said.

Though Wake and Renard live close to each other on the bank of the Matanuska River, Daniel Wake is often on the move and LaRose is based at the northern edge of Wasilla. Plus, everyone works another job for their primary source of income. Wake, for example, is a machinist and metalworker — and occasionally a medical model for the University of Alaska — while Renard, a 2012 East High School graduate, builds cabins for a living.

All of them love to travel and play music, but the band never would’ve come together if not for Wake’s long journey to Alaska.

Finding a home

Wake grew up in Ohio, leaving home at 18 to tour the country. After he “ran out of luck and money” in Oregon, he joined the Air Force and lived in Germany and North Carolina — serving one tour in the Middle East — before ending up at Elmendorf Air Force Base in 1993.

Wake bought the Butte property on which he currently lives the following year, essentially camping out until he could afford to build a house there.

“I felt at home when I first came to Alaska,” Wake said.

Not long later, he was told he’d soon be reassigned out of state, and potentially ordered to do a second tour in the Middle East. Wake appealed to his commander to let him stay in Alaska.

“He said, ‘well, if you don’t like it, turn in your green card and get out,’ so I did,” he said.

After 13 years of active duty with the Air Force, Wake stepped into the reserves with the Air Guard — which he “didn’t really wanna do either,” he said — in the hopes of making it to a 20-year retirement.

“It was good advice,” Wake said.

As a member of the Guard, he got a job as a temp technician, packing parachutes and loading airplanes for the servicemen and women who would need them in the field — a welcome respite from his experiences abroad.

“I basically came back from the desert war and I went through PTSD and kind of like, crumpled myself,” he said.

Making music

As the trauma of war became more distant and the memories began to fade, Wake picked up his guitar again, encouraging young Renard to do the same. Wake hadn’t played much since his return from overseas, but when his son picked up the viola as an elementary school student, he found himself back at it.

Around that time, Wake moved away to run a “one-man” airport in Galena, leaving Renard with his electric guitar. When Wake returned two years later, he was shocked to find that his son had gotten pretty good at playing guitar.

“And he just kept getting better,” Wake said.

When Wake finally retired from the military and Renard had graduated high school, they jumped into the music scene with both feet.

“We would play some, see if we could play for tips, and then it just kept snowballing,” Wake said.

Wake hit a run of bad luck with some flooding that fall and a harsh winter that froze his shop doors shut with all his equipment inside, but that just freed up more time for gigs with his son.

“You’ve gotta play a lot to get a lot,” Wake said.

The next year, Renard got a job on the North Slope and the music production slowed immensely. However, when his half-brother moved up from North Carolina, it picked right up again.

The Wakes did a few performances together, and when Renard returned, they were a three-man band.

“They hit it off good, they hit it off good musically as well,” Pat Wake said.

Putting it together

Though Daniel Wake’s skill with the “danjo” — a banjo missing the fifth string and tuned to Wake’s liking — was a great complement to his father and half-brother’s guitar and vocals, Pat Wake said, his frequent unavailability means he comes on more as a guest musician than a fixture when it comes to performing.

LaRose, however, has found a more consistent place in the family band.

LaRose said she found No Wake on Craigslist, answering a call for bass players for an open mic night. She said she’d played in an all-girls band in high school years ago, but hadn’t found something that clicked since then.

Until she read the ad.

“Sometimes somebody’s words stand out for you personally … and you get a sense of the person. I saw that in Pat’s advertisement and said, ‘That’s not just another musician,’” LaRose said.

LaRose had actually played with Pat Wake before Daniel Wake arrived, but is wasn’t until recently that they all got together.

“Even if I think about trying an open mic (with another band), I always look forward to whatever we’re gonna do together,” she said.

Credits

In addition to Pat Wake, Renard and LaRose, Doug Schutte and Cameron Cartland are featured on “Wind in My Sail” on banjo and drums, respectively.

The album cover was designed by Pat’s sister-in-law, Colleen Wake, and Kurt Riemann at Surreal Studios in Anchorage did the recording.

No Wake is slated to perform at The Hitchin’ Post at the Alaska State Fair on Tuesday, Aug. 30 at 2:30 p.m. The concert is free with fair admission.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.