Tag: Ontario

LISTEN: Adeline Stringband, “Hickory”

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Artist: Adeline Stringband (L to R: Chris Coole, Mark Kilianski, John Showman, Adrian Gross, Sam Allison)
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Song: “Hickory”
Album: Adeline
Release Date: July 23, 2021

In Their Words: “This session was definitely one of the loosest, most off-the-cuff, and most creative I’ve been a part of, and I’d hazard to say the same is true for the other guys. Smack dab in the middle of the pandemic — when none of us had really seen anyone besides immediate family for about a year — we holed up in a cabin in the woods and recorded old time tunes for three days and three nights. Seeing as it was -20º and there was a blizzard outside the whole time, there was nothing to do but pick tunes and roll the tape, and that’s exactly what we did. We learned “Hickory” from the great fiddler Earl White, and you can really hear the group interplay on this track.” — Adrian Gross

Photo credit: Chris Coole

WATCH: Dana Sipos, “Breathing Barrel”

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Artist: Dana Sipos
Hometown: Hamilton, ON (currently residing in Victoria, BC)
Song: “Breathing Barrel”
Album: The Astral Plane
Release Date: June 25, 2021
Label: Roaring Girl Records

In Their Words: “‘Breathing Barrel’ is ultimately a meditation on being at peace with the present moment. Written immediately upon returning home to the city from a music residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, deep in the foothills of the Rockies, this song is an attempt to integrate a very powerful experience into the more mundane, everyday life. I was trying to trick or convince myself to ‘be July in the wintertime’ — ‘July’ being the Banff Centre in the middle of a bleak Toronto winter, trying to buoy myself and bring back that feeling of abundance and ripe possibility. So in visiting many landscapes, changing seasons, and fleeting moments while focusing on staying present, ‘Breathing Barrel’ turned into a bit of a dreamscape.

“The video was created by Victoria musician Trevor Lang, with dozens of high-resolution scans of vintage magazine cutouts, finely tuned to line up with the rhythm of the song. The pairing of vintage magazine cutouts with the text made to look as though it was coloured in by hand and was intended to mirror the warm and analog textural quality of the recording, the feeling of paper and pencil. The slightly unusual frame rate of this video (eight frames-per-second as opposed to the typical stop-motion animation of either six or 12 frames-per-second) was intended to give the video a familiar but unique rhythm akin to the drum machine featured throughout the song.” — Dana Sipos

Photo credit: Chris Dufour

LISTEN: Hey, King!, “Get Up”

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Artist: Hey, King!
Hometown: Ontario, Canada and Tucson, Arizona
Song: “Get Up”
Album: Hey, King!
Release Date: April 2, 2021
Label: ANTI-

In Their Words: “I feel like every serious, emotionally raw album can use a breath of lightness. When Taylor dared me to write a song from our dogs’ perspective I thought it would be a fun experiment, but we fell in love with the track and are so happy it made it on the record!” — Natalie London, Hey, King!

Photo credit: Richard Fournier

BGS 5+5: Spencer Burton

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Artist: Spencer Burton
Hometown: Niagara, Ontario, Canada
Latest Album: Coyote

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I was playing a solo concert at a beautiful hall in London, Ontario. The Aeolian. I was being introduced (they introduce the artists there before they perform) and following that, was called on stage. The audience held a steady round of applause. As I made my way to the front of the stage through the maze that was the other acts instruments, I heavily scratched my guitar on some sort of piano or synthesizer. One of the loudest sounds I’ve ever made on stage. The entire audience stopped clapping. I stopped moving. There was a mild chuckle then we all simply stared at each other. I loved that moment. I have a mark on my guitar to remember it forever.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I never knew I wanted to be a musician and still don’t know if that’s what I am. I simply live and breathe. Whatever happens, happens.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

The in-between. The time when I’m not writing. That’s the toughest. I sometimes go months upon months without writing. It feels hopeless, but then I’ll sit down and write seven songs in a day. It’s frustrating. Those times when nothing is happening, it can make one feel like nothing will ever happen again.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I love the outdoors. I spend most of my time there. Be it in the woods, on the farm, simply hiking around. It’s inspiring. I wrote a love song once for a deer. No one will ever hear it. Most people don’t understand ungulate anyways.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I’ve had daydreams before… sitting around a campfire in a time forgotten listening to some unknown mountain man with a silky voice, singing songs of adventures past. Feasting on fresh wild game with a marrow sauce. Maybe a berry or two. That would be nice.

Photo credit: Vanessa Heins

LISTEN: Tania Joy, “Planks and Marietta”

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Artist: Tania Joy
Hometown: Uxbridge, Ontario
Single: “Planks and Marietta”
Release Date: February 16, 2021

In Their Words: “’Planks and Marietta’ is a song I needed to write about the difficult relationship between me and racism. I’ve always needed to talk about it, but I rarely have. George Floyd brought it all back, and now after a very dark period I am able to start the conversation, even if it’s only with myself, in ‘Planks and Marietta’. The title taken from a racist incident that occurred at two cross streets in my hometown, is a call out to many others in many towns all over the world. It’s my protest song about all of the little stories that get swept under the rug until they can no longer be ignored.” — Tania Joy

Photo credit: Tracy Walker Photography

The Show on the Road – Bahamas

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

To launch season four of The Show On The Road, we bring you a special cross-continent episode with acclaimed Canadian singer and guitarist Afie Jurvanen, known as Bahamas.


LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS • SPOTIFY • STITCHER • MP3
Born in Ontario and now residing in Nova Scotia, Jurvanen connected with host Z. Lupetin from LA to discuss his playful and powerful newest record Sad Hunk and how he’s transitioned from brooding globe-trotting guitar wiz (he first became known as Feist’s right hand man) to a cheerful, mustachioed family man. Breaking out as a solo act making squirmy vocal-rich albums like Barcordes that made him a headliner across Canada, he’s also played recorder in front of Beyoncé at the Grammys (the best story of the interview), and he tells us how he’s let his recent songwriting get more personal and introspective during the 2020 upheaval in which he found himself surrounded by his kids during his writing.

 

WATCH: Sarah Harmer, “Little Frogs”

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Artist: Sarah Harmer
Hometown: Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Song: “Little Frogs”
Album: Are You Gone?
Release Date: February 21, 2020
Label: Arts & Crafts Records

In Their Words: “Written from a list of summer memories and life’s small pleasures, the video takes you through a day in the life of a little frog — hoser by day, crooner by nightfall.” — Sarah Harmer

“Creating this video for Sarah was so joyful. Her music always makes my heart feel so good, so to support her art through visuals was a golden experience. As a friend, Sarah has taught me a lot about the science of nature and staying grateful inside its gifts – so our little frog friend decided to spend some quality time high-fiving that feeling.” — Ali J Eisner, director and puppeteer

Photo Credit: Vanessa Heins

LISTEN: Terra Lightfoot, “Two Wild Horses”

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Artist: Terra Lightfoot
Hometown: Hamilton, Ontario
Song: “Two Wild Horses”
Album: Consider the Speed
Release Date: October 16, 2020
Label: Sonic Unyon

In Their Words: “I had booked some time to write in Nashville and was having a hell of a time finding songs, inspiration, lyrics, any of it. I was out for a drive, having a bit of an existential crisis to be honest, feeling down about everything.… when suddenly I nearly slammed into two horses in the middle of Franklin Pike on a Saturday night. They walked slowly across the road, totally oblivious to all these speeding cars around them. I pulled over and tried to corral them away from anything that might hurt them, and eventually they ran off into the night.

“Seeing those horses really stirred something in me, made me want to forget about whatever was troubling me before that moment. I guess it fast-tracked me into the present, where I realized that the only thing that mattered was what was standing right in front of me: two beautiful wild horses in the middle of a highway on a Nashville Saturday night. About five days later, I found the song I was gonna write about the whole experience — and then, one by one, I found each song that you’ll hear on Consider the Speed with ease.” — Terra Lightfoot

Photo credit: Mat Dunlap

LISTEN: Bahamas, “Half Your Love”

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Artist: Bahamas
Hometown: Living in Halifax, Nova Scotia; from Barrie, Ontario
Song: “Half Your Love”
Album: Sad Hunk
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Label: Brushfire Records

In Their Words: “It’s a love song. Doesn’t the world need another one of those? My first co-write with the massively cool Pat MacLaughlin. Every line in this one feels well-earned and true and like it’s been there for 1000 years. Hope it’s half as good as I think it is.” — Afie Jurvanen

Photo credit: Dave Gillespie

BGS 5+5: Elliott BROOD

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Artist: Elliott BROOD
Hometown: Windsor, Ontario
Latest album: Keeper

Answers provided by Casey Laforet

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I’m not sure there was ever really a moment for me, to be honest. I started playing guitar in high school (because of Nirvana like so many other kids of that time) I always liked playing, but I never really considered a career at it as a viable option. I’m still not sure that it is! For the first few years of the band as a duo, it was all just for fun and we both worked full time jobs. Things started taking off for us and we had to leave full time work to tour. I think I knew it was going to be a career on our first tour of Europe. That made it all seem very pro.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Some songs seem to just fall out of you and others are definitely harder to pull out of the air or wherever the ideas come from. The song “Northern Air” was a tough one as it involves the death of a friend. The song (chords, melody, etc.) was already written as a breakup song called “Goodbye” about an ex-girlfriend with different lyrics, but at some point it mutated into “Northern Air” which is the story of an annual camping trip taken to visit the memorial spot of a very dear friend. Twenty years ago we brought a mailbox (which was involved in the car accident that killed him) up into the forest in northern Ontario. Over the last 20 years we’ve gone up there to visit him. It took a while to get everything right with that song because of the personal subject matter. I agonized over it probably more than any other song thus far anyways…

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

It kind of depends on the show. One thing I don’t do is eat within 2-3 hours of a show. I play better when I’m hungry. I usually take a post-soundcheck walk for about an hour to check out whatever town we’re in. A lot of times I’ll go find some random bar and grab a drink and hang with some locals for an hour. Those can be fun and informative times. I actually bought a folding bike I’d like to use someday if touring ever comes back.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

That’s a pretty good question. I can guarantee it would be a Mexican restaurant, that’s for sure. It goes Mexican, Vietnamese, Italian in my book. As for the musician, my number one would be Levon Helm. He’s probably my biggest musical hero. I’ve read and watched everything there is to read and watch about the man and he just seems fascinating to me both as a musician and just as a person. I had the opportunity to see “The Ramble” at his farm in Woodstock the year before he died. Garth Hudson was the special guest that night. That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Tequila and tacos with Levon would be my pick.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I think I do that a lot. I think we always try to be as universal as possible. We like to leave it up to the listener. I definitely draw from my own life and experiences but it’s never direct. A lot of times a song may seem biographical but is actually put together from a lot of unrelated experiences. We’re more of a storytelling band. I’ve always loved that kind of songwriting like from The Band or Dylan or Neil, just being able to become different characters and be their voice. That’s always the goal in our book even if the songs are personal ones.