adventures of a sonic architect

The blog has moved!

2010-04-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

I've stopped uploading blog entries to Blogspot. Why? Because my real website is now up!

www.jeanpaulderoover.com

Or if you'd prefer to go directly to the blog section, check it out at www.jeanpaulderoover.com/blog

Goodbye!

"How Come No Bones?" on Harmonium

2010-01-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

While I was in Edmonton on the 3 month tour, my friend Andriko enlightened me on a new instrument, the harmonium! Since my theremin was removed from my possession in Winnipeg, I need a new niche instrument to entertain me, and I think I've found it! When I go to Toronto this March, I will find one and claim it! So drone-y, so delightful!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-30T01:21:00.000-08:00

Here's an e-card that I put up, and wanted to share it with you all! (click to enlarge)

December 6th - Kenora - Shooter's

2009-12-30T01:18:00.000-08:00

I was constantly paranoid while in Kenora, as my vehicle had a cardboard window. (For full details about my Winnipeg venture, check out this older blog entry). I also started a campaign as I was driving back home to Thunder Bay, and if more people had seen it, I'm sure they would've joined.

I was glad to be in Kenora, where life was at a slower pace. Fully embodied in this placque.

The show was a lot of fun, I opened for Mike Procyshyn and the Comfort of Ghosts, who delivered a set almost akin to Queen at times. We laughed throughout both sets, with all kinds of jokes about John Mayer and goats, and not always mutually exclusive. Both Mike and Guy were quite welcoming with their hospitality, and it was greatly appreciated after my Winnipeg adventures.

Instead of staying the night, I drove back right after the show, and ended up taking short naps every so often. It was a cold drive, but I managed to plug up the window quite well despite not having any tape. Here are some shots from that early morning, Northern Ontario drive.

Although I had a blast on this tour, I certainly was glad to be home.

December 5th - Winnipeg - FAIL

2009-12-30T01:02:00.000-08:00

Winnipeg, you are a nightmare.

Here's the story, from the beginning of the day:

I woke up late in Saskatoon since my alarm didn't go off properly! Damn technology! I then got into my car as quickly as possible and took off for Winnipeg. I was going to stop in Regina, but due to time constraints, it just wasn't feasible so I skipped it. I got a speeding ticket in Manitoba and found out that that province has the highest fines in Canada, and almost in North America.

I got to the show in time, and set up quickly, only to have several things fall apart, resulting in my first ever no-show. I took my gear down and paid the rental fee for the space, and went to hang out with Bucky from the Liptonians, as I hoped it could cheer me up a fair bit.

We dropped by The Cavern for a bit, then headed to the Royal Albert. As we left the Royal Albert (we parked a couple streets over - a few blocks from Bucky's apartment) we noticed that the passenger window had been smashed and there was glass all over the seat. We got inside and I did a quick check to see what was missing. My laptop, one of Shannon's cameras and my theremin were all missing. Conveniently they all had carrying bags, but they took the time to put the laptop into the bag, after finding it in the back seat. I guess Ontario plates were the give away, as I didn't have anything lying out on the front seats at all.

Bucky was very helpful, watching the car as I filed a police report at 1:30 in the morning, and helping me to empty out my entire car into his apartment (on the 5th floor), so that I could park it in the Hospital parkade. I took a cab back to his place, and made some calls, barely sleeping. Of course it was a weekend, so no auto-glass shops would be open, so I covered it in cardboard (didn't have tape), and made due with that.

Again, I want to thank Bucky for being so friendly and helpful with everything, he even had hiccups for about 2 hours throughout the ordeal. Bucky does not approve of theft or the fact that my thoughts of Winnipeg may be temporarily tarnished.

Alternatively, I'm super excited about my car's new facelift, and the fact that Bucky found shopping carts to move all my gear with! I'm also thankful that I still have a car and gear, as the theft could have been much worse!

December 4th - Saskatoon - Lydia's Pub

2009-12-30T00:17:00.000-08:00

I crashed in Saskatoon for 2 nights, hanging out with Joel Hryniuk from Volcanoless In Canada. We were to rock Lydia's Pub the 2nd night, as it was also the 'end of school' party for all the university students.

Kirk's Big Frat House started off the night, rapping about teen 'staches and all the 'biddy bullshit'. I went on right after that, and had a blast. After, Volcanoless took to the stage and wow, everyone just went berserk! I've circled the photo below, because I want you all to notice that there were people hanging from a beam that ran through the middle of the bar, sometimes having beers poured down their throat, and there was even crowd surfing mixed with more beers being thrown across the room!

The sound guy even said that they know it's a good show when they can measure the depth of broken glass on the stage.

But before the show ended, I was running a merch table for both myself and Volcanoless and encountered some true scum. Two girls ended up coming up to the table, and were chatting on their cell phones, nothing out of the ordinary. One of them mistook me for someone they knew, but they continued to hang out there (I was in a high traffic area). I looked toward the stage for a bit, then looked back, and noticed that there was a cd missing. Now, I wasn't 100% sure if I had accidentally failed to replace it from a previous sale, so I didn't say anything, but kept my eyes open. They continued to loiter, and then started to make out with one another. I kept my eye on the merch, and then a few minutes later one of them came up to me and kissed me on the cheek and said 'bye hun', possibly still misrecognizing me. As they left, the other girl reached out and grabbed a different CD from the table and put it in her purse. I was livid, so I yelled "hey!" after her but they scurried out of the bar. They returned a few minutes later, at which point I ran up to the most recent thief and our exchange went something like this:

Me: "I'd like to have the CD back"
Her: "What CD?"
Me: "The one you stole from me"
Her: "Oh, here you go" *returns the CD
Me: "And the other one too..."
Her: "What?"
Me: (I was getting a little cocky and thought I'd call her on a theft that I wasn't 100% certain of) "The other CD you took"
Her: *opens her purse* "I don't have any other CD's"
Me: "Well I'd like it back"
Her: "I don't have it, but we'll tell everyone about you!" *smile*
Me: "You're an incredibly dishonest person, and I'm sure karma will not be kind to you in the future. Have a good night"

If there's an argument against illegal downloading, this story fits in with it. Just because you 'promise to tell your friends' about the artist/album/song, doesn't make it right.

December 2nd - Lloydminster - The Singing Waitress

2009-12-29T23:26:00.001-08:00

Lloydminster had a great sounding stage, and although there were some communication problems, the few people that were there made it count. Not only that, but this fellow (I forget his name!) did a hilarious cover (which again slips my mind). They put me up for the night and kept my belly full, for which I was very grateful!

November 29th - Edmonton - Avenue Theatre

2009-12-29T22:45:00.000-08:00

The Avenue Theatre was a really neat show. It was in a theatre, whose stage had been extended in order to cover up some skateboard bowls for when it had been a skatepark. The entire show was held on the stage, as it was an intimate, acoustic style show. In fact, I was the loudest act of the night, an interesting change! I also made some really cool friends that play in hardcore bands and also run a screen printing shop out of one of the back offices. It's really great to see people being passionate about all ages concert spaces.

I made Edmonton a temporary home for 3 days, where I visited with old and new friends. I met Greg a few years ago when he was playing in a band called Mapping The Escape, and had booked them in Thunder Bay a few times. He opened up his place for a few nights, where we watched Saw 6, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and waited for pizza for hours, only to receive it and be completely shocked at the size of their 'medium' pizzas. He's in the process of putting together a new band, but in the meantime he does radio advertisements. I woke up one morning to the sounds of recording a new jingle for a funeral home. Pardon me. Funeral Homes. Connelly McKinley specifically. I wish I could link it, as it's fantastic, super peppy with some jazz, and makes me laugh at it's awesomeness every time.

Here's a picture of me being the antonym of awesome.

After that, I went and visited my friend Andriko, who used to play in Fractal Pattern and was also working on his MA at Lakehead with me. We partied hard. We watched a documentary on fonts, and went to a vegan restaurant, where he got the owner to purchase a CD of mine, and we listened to it on the spot. Awesome! That, and he introduced me to my new favorite instrument, the harmonium:

November 28th - Red Deer - Velvet Olive

2009-12-29T19:54:00.000-08:00

Red Deer was pretty neat! It was a really small room, but it definitely filled up after a birthday party group showed up. I got a little scared for my life at one point in the evening, here's the story:

As I was playing, all of a sudden, the audience starts to go crazy! Coming in the main door, is a really buff looking guy...wearing nothing but the same type of g-string thing as Borat, except it was leopard print, and not bright green. So, he heads over to the party group, who are all squealing in hysterics. I definitely stumbled in my lyrics too! When I finished the song, the guy ended up leaving to go back to the bathroom to change, so I figured I'd be a comedian. "This next song goes out to the guy in the very revealing clothes, it's called Junior". Funny, n'est pas? However, one of his friends yelled out something along the lines of "better watch out, buddy!", meant in good fun, but still, I apologetically countered, saying that "that's why I didn't say it when he was in the room, because I saw the size of his arms!" The song repeats the word 'junior' fairly often, so I changed the lyrics half way through to avoid saying it, because my physique is more like that of Borat (although my moustache is less than glorious).

There's a next blog, so I lived!

November 27th - Calgary - That Empty Space/The Underground

2009-12-29T19:34:00.001-08:00

Calgary is always a good time, and I was glad to be coming back to That Empty Space at the University of Calgary campus. I played with Jonathan Li once again, and managed to do an interview at CJSW right before my set! It was definitely set to be a really busy day.

Not only is Calgary always deadly, but anytime I play there, they always make cool posters. Unfortunately, as soon as I came out of the University show the weather had completely flipped. When I walked in at 2, I had socks and sandals (faux pas, I know), but when I left, there were dozens of vehicles every hundred feet along the side of the road with broken axles and stuck in ditches. It's like Calgarians don't know how to handle icy roads at all! (I jest, they were really slippery, even for my new wagon!). Sadly, the roads affected the turnout of the bar show that night, but Brandon and I went upstairs during the breaks to dance it up at a rave in The Warehouse!

November 26th - Cochrane - Java Jamboree

2009-12-29T18:25:00.000-08:00

After hauling to Calgary from Kelowna, I took a quick nap before I headed out to cochrane to play at a coffee shop. Java Jamboree was having a 'cupping' which is coffee speak for 'tasting', and I was to play before it, and potentially after if the crowd so desired. They did, so I gladly obliged!

It was an interesting evening, because at one point I played a song called 'Pensando En Ti', which is sung in Spanish. Before beginning I asked if there were any Spanish speakers in the room, and surprisingly there was one (I say surprising because this was in Alberta - not none for that particular demographic). She understood and enjoyed the song, and was still around after the cupping, but had been joined by some new friends, so I offered to play it again for this new audience. Turns out, she's part of an Honduran - Canadian exchange program, and so were all her friends...all 15+ of them! I tried to think of other music I could play that was in my repertoire, but drew a blank so I asked for a style of music to improvise and a lyrical theme to start with. Someone called out blues while another yelled 'riding on a bus'. Everything was going well until the blues loop I had created started to truncate and was now missing part of a beat at the end of the phrase. I powered through, then asked for more lyrical inspiration. Although he said revolution, I definitely heard 'evolution', so for the next few minutes he sat there perplexed wondering why I was singing about Darwin instead of Che. Please note that I'm fluent in Spanish, but that doesn't take away from the fact that singing about evolution is difficult on it's own without having to worry about translating while keeping time over a dysfunctional blues loop.

Once that was over, they still wanted more, and requested La Bamba. 30 seconds later the latin dance party began, and didn't stop for 15 - 20 minutes! After that, the show was over, and I chatted with my new compadres and comadres, leaving the staff confused as to what the hell had been going on for the last half hour!

I was even invited to a feast the next evening! Had the weather not turned to garbage and I didn't have 2 shows the next day I definitely would have been there!

Rogers Pass

2009-11-30T05:25:00.000-08:00

And now for a special 'show-unrelated' entry! After Kelowna I drove
to Cochrane, beginning at 1am. It was a long trip through the Rockies,
with lots of snow, slush, rain and fog throughout Rogers Pass.
This is the part of the trip when nostalgia really kicked in. AVS and
I have traveled this route a fair bit over the past few years. In
fact, we've taken a group photo everytime we pass a particular gas
station.

2005 - Woodpecker Tour

2006 - 40 days and nights tour

2007 - Rude to TOurDD

And even though it was 4:30am, terrible weather AND I was weather
sandals, I made sure to continue a photo tradition.

2009 - "Windows and Doors" national release tour

Now you can see why I'm sad, as I'm now the only one screaming through the subsequent
tunnels at the top of my lungs. I miss those guys.

November 25 - Kelowna - Grateful Fed

2009-11-30T05:21:00.000-08:00

The Grateful Fed! I've met some interseting people there over the years, including Bucky from the Liptonians (he was touring by himself at the time). On this occasion, I met David Kopp at the open mic night. We discussed our own sounds then agreed that I'd back him up on one of his songs. I did and it went over quite well! Anyway, we got to talking after and he described a script he had written, and then informed me that he wanted me to do the music for it in a film adaptation! I graciously accepted, and the film won't be in production for a while yet. However, it's a great story and I'm really looking forward to reading the script! This opportunity comes at the perfect time as I've been wondering how I was going to get more film composition work!

The roads that afternoon were a little rough!

November 24th - Kamloops - Pogue Mahone

2009-11-30T05:10:00.000-08:00

The roads through the mountains were not the best, and I encountered snow again.

In Kamloops I finally shared a stage with an artist similar to me. Devon (of DevonanKevin) was also a solo act, using an acoustic and a lap steel through an RC-2 loopstation. Pretty standard fare, except that he also had built a wooden box out of plywood and duct tape that he would mic up to create his own stomp box that truly mimiced a kick drum sound. Before the show I did an interview with Kyle for CFBX, and he asked about my sideburns: I suppose I have been growing them for a while! Last trimmed on September 22nd!

Pogue Mahone was a really nice bar, and the promoter.

Sean is one of those guys that really understands promotion and is also helping to foster music within the youth community of Kamloops. He put me up for the night, in his well setup basement meant for film watching. So I went to bed quite late after watching Jacob's Ladder.

November 23 - Vancouver - day off

2009-11-30T05:07:00.000-08:00

Travis and I made plans to finish some recordings and to go see a show at the Biltmore on my day off. The song we were recording was coming along nicely, but we took a break to meet up with Kirsten from Arctic, and then made our way to the Biltmore to catch Ford Pier, as he opened for Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle. I was only slightly disappointed to find out Ford was
performing sans band, but I later started talking to the guy next to me (the only other person yelling along with Ford) discovering that he was the drummer for their band! Regardless, it was an awesome set, with there only being one track I didn't recognize. He even closed with 'My New Bar', which was exciting because of the intense screaming at the end. It was certainly a change of pace for the headlining act (Ford backed up on guitar).

They were alright, except that the material didn't seem as though it was being executed with much precision (despite being a collaboration album release party). They finished their first set, and Travis and I took off, having seen what we wanted to see (of course I gave Ford a
copy of my album to listen to), and feeling like we weren't going to miss much from the headlining second set. That night, I rediscovered Pho.

November 22 - Vancouver - day off

2009-11-30T05:06:00.001-08:00

I went skiing finally! It's been since 2000, and it was definitely long overdue!

I met up with Juan and we hit up Mount Seymour.

There was tons of snow up there, apparently they've been getting dumped upon.

After the ski-sesh, we went back to his place to hang out with some TBay-ites, have some food, and check out his unreal view from the apartment patio.

That night, Travis and I met up again after he finished participating in a 'play-piercing' session.

Open mics are funny things, and you often meet some really interesting people. I played at Darby's Pub, and met two fellows from an open mic earlier that week: a finger-picking champion guitar player, and an actor (who did a lot of voice-work on Transformers Beastwars!). Not only that, but Travis and I had an encounter with a strange lady outside of the venue. All we heard was someone muttering "suck it! suck it!" over and over again, so we looked over, to see this lady wandering across the street. Nothing too intense, until we noticed that she had 2 knives in her left hand. Weird. Then as we criss-crossed each others paths, Travis noticed she had another, bigger knife in her right hand, which she happened to be twitching back and forth, apparently in his direction. It probably wasn't intentional, but you can never be too crazy with some crazies!

November 21 - Vancouver - The Purple Crab

2009-11-30T04:43:00.000-08:00

I managed to have a really productive day on the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver. I worked on the soundtracks for Curtis Jensen's two new short films. I also managed to finally get on deck on the ferry, while it wasn't raining!

The Purple Crab was a great show! I shared the stage with a bunch of different and interesting acts! From the folk of Evan Symons to the 80's alternative sounds of The Rain and the Sidewalk. It was also really nice to have some TBay friends in the audience, making me feel really welcome, and at home.

November 20 - Victoria - CHLY and Solstice Cafe

2009-11-21T03:04:00.000-08:00

The sun was seen briefly today! Very briefly.

Before heading to Victoria, I stopped in at CHLY and did a live to air interview and performance. Dylan the program director even joined me on two tracks playing saxophone. It was so good! Perhaps in the next while I'll put up some of the tracks.

I drove to Victoria. In the rain. BC is not surprising me anymore. At least the show at the Solstice Cafe was awesome! Pauline Edwards did two awesome sets, accompanied by Hon on drums.

At one point, this one fellow came into the cafe, and started to talk, sing and yell throughout my second set. After about 4 songs, it got to be enough, and he was finally removed. At that point, I said to the audience "normally I don't do this, but I'd like you all to give me a round of applause for having been able to play my songs while having someone yell counter rhythms and melodies into my left ear". A solid round of applause. It was a really fun night, as I met up with Cassandra, who had come out to my St Catharines show at the Strega Cafe. Then, I spent the night at the Kelly residence. I met Alyson Kelly in Sackville, and then she told her parents that I'd be coming through Victoria, so that's where I spent the night!

November 19 - Nanaimo - VIU Pub

2009-11-21T02:44:00.000-08:00

I finally managed to get to the island! Unfortunately, the weather again was crap, so I didn't see the sun until the next day, and even then it was only for 15 minutes. I arrived at the VIU pub, just in time to get a parking ticket. Wow. 24 hour pay parking at VIU. Lame.

Ah well, the open mic was really happening! The pub was pretty small, but packed to the max with students. During my last song, I even had some foreign exchange students yelling something along with me. I have no idea what it was, but the melody worked!

I also got to give Greg his copy of the album too! He was having a good time, as he does every Thursday night.

November 18th - Vancouver - Nyala

2009-11-20T05:44:00.001-08:00

I had wanted to go to the island a day before my show at the VIU pub, but because of the weather (winds of 70 km/hr) the ferries were canceled. So, technology served me well, as I posted on facebook about how I wasn't able to get to the island, and soon I got a response from the person at the Georgia Straight that reviewed my album (Miranda Nelson) inviting me to another show happening that night in Vancouver. So I showed up, met her in person, and even ended up getting an opening slot for the band Jackie Treehorn (made up of members of Distracticon). It was at an interesting little African restaurant called Nyala, and I was wearing a 'Wivestale' t-shirt, and ended up having several people recognize the shirt and make the Thunder Bay connection!

November 17th - Vancouver - Corduroy Lounge

2009-11-20T05:43:00.001-08:00

Once I got to Vancouver (after another awesome mountain drive in the rain), I met with Travis, and Bam! We started making music! I'll have something to post quite soon I'm sure!

But in the meantime, we hit up the Corduroy Lounge for an open mic. It was great though, as all the performers were more professional musicians than amateurs, so needless to say the quality was amazing. I also left my power supply for my looper at Travis', so I had to bolt back to his place and grab it. Having to return to grab some of my gear is actually one of my only recurring nightmares. Terrifying, I know.

November 15th - Nelson - Velvet Underground

2009-11-20T05:38:00.000-08:00

Nelson was a rough drive. I left Calgary late, so by the time I was really in the mountains, it was pitch black, and then it started to snow, with tons of wind. As I started to make my descent, the snow changed to rain, which definitely didn't make the drive overly enjoyable.

I arrived at the Velvet Underground (a day early) and found myself at an all ages dance party that would run until 4 am. Dave drove me back to their place (where I'd crash for 2 nights) earlier than the close of their event, and I slept for quite a while. The next day, I awoke to an awesome view, and a fire place that kept me warm all night!

Nelson was a pretty little town, and I was excited to play at the Velvet Undergound that night. Afte a little soundcheck, I played my set to a really excited audience. Everyone really appreciated the music I was making, and I was really excited that they had all taken the chance on a random Sunday night show at a venue most of them had never been to before. Dave and Simon were very kind, and gave me food for my entire stay there. That was great, as Dave was actually a culinary artist!

November 13th - Calgary - Dickens Pub

2009-11-20T05:25:00.001-08:00

Ah, Calgary, the town that is always good to me. It's great showing up at a show to find this:

Also on the bill was Wivestale, who played awesomely! Their new sound blends rock with alternative/prog and even bluegrass beats, but Brandon still has that characteristic scream/yell which made me write songs specifically with him in mind as a vocalist a few years ago. After that I performed, and had a great time, followed by Silo, who played 'Nickelback-esque' rock. They're good at what they do, but it's just not my thing. BUT, I will give them props for having a tour bus that they brought a whole pile of friends to the show with. That's awesome!

November 12th - Lethbridge - The Slice

2009-11-20T05:18:00.001-08:00

I woke up in Lethbridge again, and had a stressful day. I needed to have something mailed to Toronto by the next day at 5, so I was really stressed as I put together the package to be mailed and then proceeded to miss every single courier. Thankfully Shannon helped me out big time by mailing it out from Thunder Bay, saving me many hundred dollars! This is me being stressed (but also excited that the ridiculously has ended).

November 11th - Lethbridge - Henotic

2009-11-20T05:03:00.001-08:00

I had a few cancellations on the western portion, but I was able to make them work. I drove from Regina to Lethbridge early so that I could play at an open mic and crash at the venue called Henotic. It was a really cool place, and because of a double booking for the next night, they were able to put me up for 2 nights. It was pretty cool, I met this one guy Matt Robinson, who was a fantastic guitar player, and he even invited me to play a show the next night at The Slice, which I graciously accepted. Afterwards though, there were some other eclectic acts, such as this beatboxer!

November 10 - Regina - The Club

2009-11-20T04:39:00.000-08:00

Regina is where my uncle lives, so we ended up hanging out, catching up on family stuff, as well as discussing everything from magic equipment to stage lighting!

I was lucky to be added to a show at The Club, opening for Geronimo and Carpenter. I played with Carpenter earlier this year in Dryden just before I went to NXNE, and we've kept in touch. They were really excited that I got to play with them tonight, so I was pumped! I busted out the good camera and snapped some shots of their set, but it was really low light.

This last photo was taken when the lens was foggy. It had an interesting effect!

The promoter that night really enjoyed my set, which is always a great compliment, but everyone else enjoyed it too (especially Carpenter!).

November 8th - Bruno - All Citizens

2009-11-20T04:32:00.001-08:00

Bruno is a tiny little town about an hour from Saskatoon. I found the place quite easily (I looked for streets that seemed like they'd be the 'main drag', and sure enough, I spotted the very iconic blue All Citizens building.

I had a very attentive audience, which began after receiving a little gift from Tyler, the owner/host. I won't say anymore, but it was very thoughtful, and made me really feel welcome in Bruno! I love small shows because everyone gets really into it, and I get to 'pretend' to be a comedian. There are links and more coming from Tyler, so I'll post those at a later time!

November 7th - Brandon - Lady of the Lake

2009-11-20T04:20:00.001-08:00

Brandon didn't seem like an interesting place, but when I pulled into Lady of the Lake, wow, it was one hell of a gem! Here are some photos from the inside:

It's a mixture of a store, bar, cafe, restaurant, diner, and a bunch of other things! I played to a semi-attentive crowd (it's a supper-time thing), and I was able to crash at the owner's place (it's a family business!).

November 6th - Winnipeg - Music Trader / House Party

2009-11-20T04:14:00.000-08:00

I awoke in Winnipeg at Bucky Driedger's house (he's house sitting), and ended up heading to visit the Edge gallery (where I'm playing on December 5th), as well as to check out the facility of Polar Bear Productions Ltd. It wasn't as exciting as I imagined, but it was great to meet with people that have worked really hard on both my albums, and even took over an hour to show me around the place and just 'talk shop' about the printing industry.

After that, I played at Music Trader on Osborne at 5pm, which is always interesting. The deal there is that you get $20 worth of CD's, so I found Rowan Atkinson live album and a live CD/DVD by Justice.

That night, I also played a house party at Liptonia, with the Liptonians and From The Moon. From the Moon are a really quirky group that have songs that feel like inside jokes. Thankfully, I've now been let in on the joke! Here are some photos from the evening.

Matt and Bucky of the Liptonians

Bucky of the Liptonians

November 5th - Winnipeg - The Academy

2009-11-18T03:17:00.000-08:00

The Western portion of the tour has begun!

I left Thunder Bay a little late, and the Winnipeg drive was partially at night, but it definitely allowed me the opportunity to check out some sunsets.

Northern Ontario really is quite lovely, and has it's own appeal as I travel across the country. Even to the point where I did see some other sunsets and did take some photos while driving. I know...I know.. but it's pretty!

I did make another mistake though, and that was get out of the car to take some photos while wearing sandals in some higher snow. No...wearing socks and sandals isn't a mistake!

I played at the Academy that night with several acoustic acts (Take Me To The Pilot and The Way We Talk), but unfortunately the turnout was a bit poor. Ah well, the staff really got into the music by the end of it, and I even had 2 people at the bar asking me to play 'Fix' a second time! They really liked it, and wanted one of their friends to hear it, as he runs a lounge and was looking for an act like me to perform there. We'll see how that pans out. I also purchased a cd from a band called The Idgets. They literally received their cd's that day, and were excited to share, so I grabbed a copy!

October 28th - Sault Ste Marie - Bottom's Up

2009-11-16T03:04:00.000-08:00

The final show of the eastern portion (not including my two shows in Thunder Bay)! I met up with Chris Rancourt from Northern Rocks Magazine, who sadly had the flu. Thankfully, I didn't catch it, as that would have been quite problematic! The Bottom's Up Lounge was a nice place, and I'm excited to go back, as they really enjoyed my set, and want to set something up for high school kids to come and attend a show. It's good to hear, since the Arcadia coffee shop closed down recently. I crashed at Chris' and made my way back to TBay.

October 27th - Sudbury - The Night Club

2009-11-16T03:03:00.000-08:00

Diane cooked me an awesome meal in Sudbury and we watched some episodes of the Office before I headed to the Night Club. It's right beside a strip club, so I was a little nervous. But everything worked out alright, as next to nobody showed up anyway! It's too bad, because it was a really big room, and would've been nice had it been full. It didn't help that when I got into town, I called the promoter, and he had forgotten about me being booked for the night, meaning that I knew no one would be there even before I had arrived there.

Ah well, I met up with Clayton again and we had a vegetarian pizza from nearby.

October 26th - Peterborough - The Spill

2009-11-16T03:02:00.002-08:00

Peterborough was alright, but I knew it wasn't going to be very well attended. The previous time I was there was a little sparse, and despite being a fundraiser for the local coalition against poverty, this show had a similar turnout. The plus was that Diane came with me (I was driving her to Sudbury), and I ended up sharing the show with MoneyHoney, also from Thunder Bay! They were just starting their tour, so I hope it went well for them! We all crashed upstairs that night in the infamous band room.

October 25th - Toronto - The Central

2009-11-16T03:02:00.001-08:00

For the next few shows, I either got bored, distracted or busy, but either way, I stopped taking photos with my camera.

However, Derek Lang of BagelHot was there and snapped a few!

It was a get together for my friend Diane, for no particular reason other than she was in town and wanted to get some friends together. So we combined it with a show at the upstairs of The Central, which wasn't the biggest of spaces. Also, I was situated right beside a furnace. VERY hot all night.

I crashed at Nick's place that night.

October 24th - Wingham - Wingham Legion

2009-11-16T03:01:00.000-08:00

I then headed to southern Ontario again to play near Gorrie, in a town called Wingham. But first! I went through Dorking, an unfortunately named town.

...or...maybe I should just move there.

It was another metal show, but all the kids get into my stuff there, so it's always a good time. AND I went to a fireman's breakfast at a local firehall the next day. Epic meal.

October 22nd - Montreal - Bar St Laurent 2

2009-11-16T03:00:00.000-08:00

On my way out of the maritimes, I thought I would crash in Quebec city, but I decided that I might as well keep going, and ended up in Montreal, but first, I stopped at this strange sight. It was a photography studio, with a pirate flag. Strange, but cool!

At Bar St Laurent 2, I played with The Attic (whose house I crashed at for 2 nights, thanks guys!). It was also their very first show as a band (at a bar), so they were excited, did a really great job, and had a bunch of friends come out and dance to them! Also on the bill was Nadia and the Tchotchkes, whose name is equally as awesome as the music. They had another gig that night, so they took off early, but overall it was a good night.

October 20th - Hampton - The Vintage Bistro

2009-11-16T02:58:00.000-08:00

I drove to Hampton to play at a very small venue called the Vintage Bistro, but was fortunate because I'd be sharing the stage with Said The Whale again, as well as Hannah Georgas. It was a tiny place, but there were about 30/40 people crammed in there (I forget what the capacity was).

Afterwards, we all crashed at the owner of the bistro's place, and wow, what a place it was! Below is a terrible collage I've made using my iPhone photos to try to show you just how intense it was. There were lots of rooms off of the main space as well, and each bedroom had it's own loft. Intense!

We also ended up heading outside for a bit that night to watch a meteor shower. It was a really nice evening!

October 19th - Fredericton - CHSR 97.9fm and St Thomas University

2009-11-16T02:57:00.000-08:00

The next day I met up with Tom, the music director for CHSR in Fredericton, and I had an awesome experience. Not only did I do a recording which would go on air later, but I also managed to 'convert' him! When I called several weeks before to ask about my album's radio play, he had said that he didn't like the 'over packaging'. Fair enough, there's a lot of stuff, but I was skeptical. So when he and I did a little interview, I had a copy of the album in front of me and I explained every artistic nuance to the packaging, how it folded out, what everything meant symbolically, and how a listener was meant to interact with it. After that, there was definitely an "aaaaah" moment where he proceeded to 'get' the album, and fell in love with it on the spot (he had told me up front earlier that he liked the music, just not the packaging). So, chalk that one up on the board of achievements!

Also at the campus radio station, I found some local history on a door that was covered in stickers.

Zoom in closer and you'll find this band from Thunder Bay. I had no idea they had done so much and reached this far!

October 18th - Fredericton - Crumbs Cafe

2009-11-16T02:56:00.000-08:00

I came back to Fredericton and played another set at Crumb's, unfortunately only to a handful of people. AND, I stayed in my first motel of the tour, for only $49.

October 17th - Halifax - Paragon Theatre

2009-11-16T02:55:00.000-08:00

Ah, the Paragon Theatre! I had heard a lot about it, and was so excited to finally play there, that by the time soundcheck rolled around, I just had to take a picture of Slowcoaster prepping.

The show finally began, and it was also the closing party for the Nocturne festival. There were 4 artists doing a live painting in one part of the venue as well as the music (it was just myself and Slowcoaster). Over the course of the night, there was close to 500 people that had attended, and it showed! What an incredibly fun evening!

October 16th - Halifax - Foggy Goggle

2009-11-16T02:54:00.001-08:00

I finally made it to the coast, and got to share a stage at the Foggy Goggle with Holdin' Up Grants. It was a good show, but I was just getting amped for the show the next day!

October 15th - Sackville - Bridge Street Cafe

2009-11-16T02:53:00.000-08:00

The next day I played an open mic, and did a little bit of driving around Sackville. I found a few swans at a little park.

Stop looking at me, swan!

October 14th - Sackville - Mount Allison University Pub

2009-11-16T02:52:00.000-08:00

Here's the show poster for Sackville, and it's awesome.

I ended up hanging out with Aly Kelly for a few nights, and she became my new east coast best friend, and apparently her entire family is just as nice and I'll be visiting them in Victoria when I head there in November.

Additionally, I had a really nice merch table set up.

October 13th - Fredericton - Crumbs Cafe

2009-11-16T02:50:00.000-08:00

I ended up driving to Fredericton to hang out with the guys in Ninjaspy and What's He Building In There? I caught their set at the Capitol, as well as Endast and We, The Undersigned (who were having their CD release). After their show, we crashed at WTU's house, where I made good friends with Liam from WHBIT? and Ace Kinkaid. Interesting story, the singer from WHBIT? was one of the most interesting people as he was actually approached to become one of the frontmen for one of my favorite metal bands, Sikth. I also experienced my first bit of east coast hospitality: I dropped by Crumbs Cafe to check it out, and I ended up walking out with a belly full of spaghetti and salad, despite having walked in on what appeared to be a 'private party'.

What's He Building In There? at the Capitol in Fredericton.

The next day I played a quick set at Crumbs Cafe, meant to be a teaser for my show a week later.

October 11th - Riviere Du Loup - Cafe L'Innocent

2009-11-16T02:47:00.000-08:00

After Montreal, I made my way to Riviere Du Loup, where I played at a small cafe. They were super friendly, even having one of the staff move out of their room for the night so I could crash there. They also had a fantastic menu! I played an awesome set to a really attentive audience, and was followed by Sean Ashby. He played along to some backing tracks, but that didn't matter, because he could rip! He played several different electrics, a lapsteel and an acoustic, and shredded on all of them. Afterwards, both he and I and some other people ended up going to another little bar until early in the morning. The bars close much later in Quebec (4 AM)!

October 10th - Montreal - Burritoville

2009-11-16T02:46:00.000-08:00

Burritoville was an interesting place. Naturally, there was no way to get paid, other than a fantastic burrito meal. It took me a while to find the place though because their myspace page had their old address (a year old) listed, so I was on the complete other side of town, and the neighbours all thought that they had closed down. Eventually I found the place, but it was more of a rehearsal than anything. There were a handful of people that had shown up to eat food, but music was not something they were particularly interested in. Especially the two girls sitting *right* in front of me. I didn't even get a 'hey, this guy is making music and I feel bad that no one's here' pity clap.

Ah well, it was the also the first time I had to pay for lodging. Unfortunately, I tried looking for hostels only to realize that it was in fact thanksgiving (no wonder Burritoville was near empty), and they were all booked up. I contacted all 11 or so hostels, and the very last one had a room available. For $90. I know. That had better be the BEST hostel room I've ever seen in my life! So I got there (it was in older Montreal), and was informed that there had been a cancellation, so I managed to get a bunk in the basement for only $23 instead. However, I had left my sleeping bag in the car in a parkade, and this bunk did not include a blanket. It was a cheap, yet cold night for me. Then when I awoke, I found this staring back at me on the wall of one of the bathroom stalls.
Before heading eastward again, I stopped at a local cafe and had some breakfast.

October 9th - Ottawa - Avant Garde Bar

2009-11-16T02:44:00.000-08:00

October 9th was my birthday! So of course, I spent it driving from Hamilton to Ottawa. But when I got there, I was surprised with a treasure hunt to a little bakery where I found these little treats from Shannon:

They were absolutely delicious, but so rich that we couldn't eat more than one, and even later on I had to try to pawn them off on other bands because my stomach couldn't handle the 'buttercream'.

After that, I went out for celebratory poutine and a milkshake with Josh Hogan, and then I went to the show, which I was SUPER EXCITED FOR! I got to spend my birthday listening to awesome metal bands in a really tiny venue: Ninjaspy, What's He Building In There? and Ace Kinkaid. My set went really well, but there was one hiccup during my final song with the sampler, but I shut it off, kept singing a cappella, then brought it all back together towards the end, and everyone recognized what an awesome save it was, and started applauding! It was a great moment. Ninjaspy was great, although they didn't play my favorite breakdown (size of the room became a factor, ha!). What's He Building In There were really cool, again blending genres with metal, and I'd become good friends with these guys over the next few weeks. Ace Kinkaid was an instrumental act, and jesus, they were great, and I've actually written a review of their disc which I might put up here if they'd like. After the show, I crashed at Ignacio's place, where we caught up on each other's lives, as well as our newest favorite comedians!

October 8th - Hamilton - The Pearl Company

2009-11-16T02:43:00.001-08:00

The Pearl Company was probably one of the nicest venues I played on the entire tour. A multi-floor venue, it was an art gallery, coffee bar and performance space. They had an entire amphitheatre made out of couches! (slight exaggeration - not as big as an amphitheatre). The stage was really well lit and the sound was great. And the few people that came out that night were really into the music and we had some pretty intense Q&A during the show too, which was really nice. I even got a review from David Kidney in the "Rylander Quarterly".

Afterwards I went out and sat with one of the attendees and listened to some recordings he had made decades ago: him playing clarinet in an old gymnasium. It sounded great (despite being lo-fi) and was really inspiring. He even gave me a print of one of his art pieces to take with me. Thanks, it'll go on the wall once I'm back in town!

October 7th - London - London Music Club

2009-11-16T02:41:00.000-08:00

I came back to London once again, after getting a phone call from the London Music Club, asking if I'd like to open for another show. I said sure, and found out that it would be for Said The Whale. I was stoked, and even shaved off my 'moustache' that I had kinda/sorta/notreally been growing for 2 weeks. More like 2 weaks.

The show that night was awesome, as it was my first time hearing STW since having known about them for a few years. The room was pretty full, and everyone was really into it, even for my set!

That night, back at Reggie's, I did some laundry, including a little cleaning rag for my guitar. But when I opened it up, I realized that something had been growing in it as there was some sort of larva in it. That's disgusting for 2 reasons: a) it's a larva. b) all I clean with that rag is my guitar, which is covered in my sweat, so technically, my sweat breeds larva? Gross.

October 6th - Guelph - Planet Bean Coffee

2009-11-16T02:40:00.000-08:00

I dropped by Guelph again, but this time to play a coffee shop. I didn't get there in time to have a dinner with Brent, but he did drop by the show and we hung out there. First up was a high school band, and it was the first time I'd ever heard a cello ripping blues solos. Kudos! THEN...another duo called Tiger Suit (that do a lot of school gigs) did some interesting things: they blended folk and electronica while throwing in different types of world music. In the photo below, the one guys is doing Nepalese throat singing while his partner plays jazzy keys, and would occasionally switch to singing in Japanese and playing one of their traditional instruments. Super cool evening!

October 5th - Peterborough - The Spill

2009-11-16T02:32:00.000-08:00

The next night I performed in Peterborough, sharing the stage with Paper Beats Scissors, a cool trio from Halifax. The frontman Tim used some loops, and had a string player and a percussionist with him. Besides that, the thing that made Tim coolest was that he was the first and only person to ever look at my set up and say "oh, Quadro...cool". He actually knew what the red piping stuff was!! He grew up in England, so he was familiar with it. It blew my mind. Also, the next act was Volcanoless In Canada, from Saskatoon. I'd run into these guys at CMW a while back and we keep running in to one another along the road, so it was great to hang out with them, and finally share a stage.

I put that photo up on my twitter account, and of course Kyle Lees decided to look into it a bit more, and retorted with this little cartoon:

That's several comics of his that I've made it into now!

So anyway...

I slept in the band room upstairs by myself, as the other bands had places to be. Ah well. I woke up the next morning to feed the meter, and eventually made my way to Canadian Tire to get my vehicle serviced for the first time on the trip.

A perfect score except for a broken light on the license plate!

October 4th - Toronto - The Central

2009-11-16T02:30:00.000-08:00

I finally made it to Toronto, where I was going to have another 'northern' night, splitting the evening with Nick Sherman and Aviva Thierry, both from Sioux Lookout. Nick went up first, and I joined him for his last song, which is so catchy, I've literally been humming it for days after, and now that I know how to play it, I just want to keep it for my own! But I will refrain...Still...it's an awesome song.

Aviva went on after that, showing off her amazing voice and switching between guitar and keys very well.
I ended the night, getting several encores and requests, making it a good night after having a tearful goodbye with Shannon at the airport that afternoon as she went back to Thunder Bay.

October 3rd - London - Black Shire Pub

2009-11-16T02:28:00.000-08:00

After Guelph I drove back to London, crashing at Reggie's again.

Shannon and I went out to Spaghetti Eddie's, whose portions were monstruous, and even my big appetite couldn't finish the last meatball.

That night I was playing at the Blackshire Pub, with Modernboys Moderngirls, a band I'd heard a lot of buzz about, as well as Jane Carmichael (who had a full backing band).

I went up first (as usual, I am the 'solo act'), and had quite possibly the largest crowd there. Even old friends from Dryden came out to see it!

Here is a review given by Drew Whitson of the UWO Gazette

*photo by Drew Nelson

Jane Carmichael went up next, playing some awesome radio friendly pop-rock with a guitar player that had the best guitar tone I've heard on the entire tour.

Next was Modernboys Modernboys, who delivered a really groovy dance-rock set. Unfortunately, the evening ended on a sour note when tensions flared between MBMG and the JC crew over borrowing a floor tom. It was especially awkward for me as I tried to be friends with both camps.

October 2nd - Guelph - House Concert

2009-11-16T02:27:00.001-08:00

The next day I headed out to my friend Brent Coleman's in Guelph for a house concert. I stopped in at the UofGuelph to drop off a CD for the campus paper, but found them to be closed. However, I've always appreciated the beauty of that city, having been there several times now. Here's an example of how nice and aged the campus looks (I'm sure it being fall had something to do with it too!).
The house concert went well, and I met up with some more Thunder Bay ex-pats, and ended up hanging out with Brent well into the night, talking about love, life and music. I also grabbed some mp3 files of some songs he had been working on around the same time I had finished my EP at the same studio. Solid stuff!

October 1st - London - London Music Club

2009-11-16T02:20:00.000-08:00

London was an incredibly vital part of the tour: not only did I get to see my good friend Reggie (and stay at his house for several nights throughout my southern Ontario adventures).

We met up as I was traveling through to Windsor for some breakfast, and we were joined at one point by the Jessica Ireland, the A&E editor for Interrobang, Fanshawe's student newpaper.
Also, December 1st was Shannon's birthday, so we had made arrangements for her to come down and spend a few days with me in the town where she had gone to school. We even scheduled a little photo shoot with a Julie Hodgins-Zillman, a photographer friend of hers.

We also did some wandering around town, visiting some vintage boutiques where they had interesting lamps and more made out of old appliances, as well as handmade dresses and things that were of more interest to her than I! (Dresses just don't suit me!)

But we also went for a walk through a park, which by god, had the most squirrels I've ever seen in one place before. It looked like a sea of sideways-moving moustaches. They were mostly of the black variety too. But I decided to get close, until I did realize (by noticing one of their tails - sparse with hair) that they are in fact part of the rodent family and that they *could* be carrying different diseases and infections should I get bitten. Still, I took the risk and got close!

Honestly, sometimes you just can't help it, they look so cute despite giving off the impression that they want to fight you...

...fight you hard, and steal your lady.

But enough about squirrels. That night I played at the London Music Club with Pawnshop Diamond (who I played with in Windsor too) and Darelle London. It was the first of several London shows, but not quite the best (in terms of turnout).

September 30th - Windsor - Phog Lounge

2009-11-16T02:18:00.000-08:00

Driving into Windsor was funny, because at one point you're literally in a line on the only highway into the states, so traffic got pretty slow. However, a van in front and to my left had left their rear door ajar, and I sadly witnessed about 10 fedoras fall out and get crushed. I caught up to him about a kilometre later and told him that the door was open, but he didn't seem fazed about the hats. Maybe he was a hat smuggler? Not a very glamourous job.

Windsor was a nice place, and I got to play the Phog Lounge, a venue I kept hearing about for years, as it was nominated Best Canadian Venue by CBC in the past, so I was very excited to have gotten booked there! Several days before, I checked their blog, and noticed that the owner Tom had put a really positive review on my material, pumping up the show as well as linking to my sites and videos, so I was stoked!

September 29th - St Catharines - Strega Cafe

2009-11-16T02:15:00.000-08:00

I ended up crashing at the promoter's house (Timur), and he put me up for the next 2 nights after that too, as I was playing a cafe 2 nights later. The first of several friends made on the road that will be lasting friendships. I mean, who else gives you a brand new box of unopened Froot Loops for you to take on the road? Timur. That's who.

But before I left St Catharines, I HAD to try the Steak and Poutine wrap from a local pita/wrap place, just because it sounded like it might kill me, and I had to take the risk! Results: delicious.

September 27th - St Catharines - Seventy Three

2009-11-16T02:13:00.000-08:00

St Catharines was an interesting place. It started off with me arriving early for the show, so I talked to Shannon on the phone for a while, walking down towards a river, which had a really nice view. Once I had had enough conversation, I made my way back to the venue, where I found Rah Rah had also arrived. We did the introductions, and then headed to a local coffee shop for some free Wifi. Turns out that the show had forgotten that I was playing, so I played first for a brief 15 minutes. Once that was done, I packed up and sat down to enjoy the rest of the performances. Rah Rah did a great job, and so did Pneumatic Transit.

September 26th - Gorrie - Gorrie Hall

2009-11-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

Gorrie is an interesting tiny town with an awesome name. With promoters like Yvonne Payne who live for metal, it's the perfect place for Gore-fest. Sadly, I didn't get to partake in said festival. However, I did get to play the first of several all-metal shows on the tour. The 26th was at a small hall with several acts, including Starring Janet Leigh.

The drive to Gorrie, looking a little bleak, but beautiful at the same time. Reminds me a little of the Jerry Bruckheimer logo.

The first indications of Fall. GET THEM OFF MY BRAND NEW CAR!

Cutest little pug ever! Yvonne's pet Maggie.

September 25th - North Bay - The Underground

2009-11-16T02:08:00.000-08:00

North Bay has always been good to me, thanks to Kelly Allan, who I met on the Northern Rocks tour last March. I managed to play a cool show in a new all ages underground venue, along with a couple of local acoustic performers as well as The Rough Sea from out east, and Greater Than Giants from Edmonton (I actually had their CD on repeat for a good 2 weeks in the car). Catchy stuff! One of their amps didn't seem to be working, but thankfully the venue also houses several different 'jam rooms' for bands, so a tenant just wheeled out an amp for them to use, and the show went on!

Greater Than Giants at The Underground in North Bay

September 24 - Sudbury - day off

2009-11-16T02:07:00.000-08:00

So I've been super busy on the road for the last while, having non-stop shows since the beginning. However, I dropped the ball on the blog, so now I'm going to summarize the tour up until now, making sure to include any photos that have been taken!

September 24th - Sudbury - day off

Woke up after the show and went out for a breakfast with Clayton (science) Drake. Best host Sudbury has to offer. I'm really looking forward to when he comes to Thunder Bay so I can return his hospitality.

Then there's Rudy's, whose sign makes me want to almost eat there.

Sudbury

2009-09-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

Played an awesome house concert in Sudbury two nights ago.

Clayton Drake of M Lemon and the Birthday Cakes is an awesome host (not to forget John too), and I've been at their place for the last 2 nights, playing music in the basement, going out for breakfast at a little diner, or just sitting around talking about music and what we're all doing musically. Lots of tour stories and 'shop talk'. We had about 30 people crammed into the basement for the show, and everyone had a really good time, I'm excited to come back and have everyone come out once again. Although, next time I'll be at the Nightclub, which is apparently in the same building as a stripclub. Hopefully they're not expecting THAT kind of show!

The other bands that played were Little Albert, an improv noise group that totally one-upped me by using not one, but two theremins, as well as a bassist that had two (smaller) loop stations. I followed them, and then Andrew Lavoie came on and did some acoustic solo work, incorporating delay loops into some originals, blues and a few covers. Solid night!

North Bay tonight, should be a lot of fun, as I'm on a bill with the Rough Sea and Greater Than Giants; an eclectic mix! My favorite!

Cross Canada Tour begins!

2009-09-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Excellent! The Cross Canada Tour has begun, with my first stop in Thessalon, ON. The Auld Kirk is a really cool old church that has been converted into a venue, movie theatre, photo studio and all around 'hang out spot' in one! Played a really intimate show, and then I showcased the stop animation music video in the little theatre! That, and I was treated to a delicious breakfast omelette with home grown garden vegetables and fresh bread. I'm off to a good start! The picture is from after the show once I had set up a cot in the corner, and started to work on finishing my MA thesis (submitted today!). Hooray for late nights!

Here's me trying to look badass while driving a Ford Focus wagon. Is it convincing? I didn't think so.

Tonight I'm off to Sudbury!

Album Release Party!

2009-09-02T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm finally going to release the "Windows and Doors" album (CD/DVD!)

For those of you that would like to purchase a copy, you can do so through The Loop, where you even get free shipping!

You can also check out THREE new songs AND one of the music videos on Myspace.

Here's some information about the Release party:

-------------

ABOUT the event:

Doors open at 8 PM

Includes live performances from:

Jean-Paul De Roover – www.jeanpaulderoover.com
Gaelin Brown – www.gaelinbrown.com
Sparrows - myspace.com/thecedarsoflebanon

This is an All Ages/Licensed event

-----------------

ABOUT the Gallery setup:

Gallery 1: Live music performances / “Fix” music video premiere

Gallery 2: Album packaging showcase / Original album artwork by Greg Dubeau / ‘behind the scenes’ still photography by Shannon Lepere

Gallery 3: DVD content / live performance video footage screening from Apple Wagon Films

-----------------

ABOUT "Windows and Doors":

14 Track CD

Bonus DVD with:
- 9 live performance videos
- 2 music videos
- 2 concerts
- 'Making of the album' featurette

Unique packaging that unfolds to create a 3-dimensional house

-----------------

*Don't forget to bring a flashlight to be a part of the light show!*

How Come No Bones?

2009-08-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

The music video for "How Come No Bones" is up online!

It documents the evolution of the song throughout the recording process by exclusively using footage from the studio sessions. Apple Wagon Films was there to catch it all on film.

It'll be on the new album "Windows and Doors" that comes out on September 12th at Definitely Superior Art Gallery!

Another music video (stop animation) should be going up online soon as well.

Fix!

2009-07-21T10:50:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Shannon Lepere and I shot a stop animation music video for my song "Fix", which will be submitted to Much Music, as well as placed on my upcoming DVD once it's completed.

However, we also had some help from my mother and Megan De Roover, as well as Rebecka Van Deventer! I won't give too much away, but we did use between 500-600 bandaids, and took roughly 2500 photos to create the video. I'll have more details about that as the video is edited!

The beginning of the end of the beginning

2009-07-19T00:32:00.000-07:00

The recording of the album is done! Of course, there's still a mastering phase which will kick in next week, but for now, I can revel in the fact that it's been completed!

With completion comes payment: the bill came in, so Dave and I made sure there was a photo opportunity, and we also took a video at the bank as the money was handed over.

I'm happy and sad at the same time, because the recording is done (and it sounds deadly!), but at the same time, it's the beginning of a series of payments that will leave my wallet very empty by the time I hit the road for tour...

Manual looping

2009-07-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

Good Grief!

We've finished the album, but now we're just re-editing some of the live DVD footage.

"Where's the problem with that? Isn't that fun?"

Normally, yes! However, some of the looping wasn't quite audible, so we had to go back into the studio and build loops after the fact. The problem is that we don't know the original tempo/etc, so we have to build the loops manually. Usually this process could be completed within a half hour, but several hours later, we're still here. It doesn't help that the track is over 10 minutes long, either.

Regardless...Chris Dorota is a champ and pulling through it all, despite wanting to create a personal 'manual loop' for himself right now.

Artwork

2009-07-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

The recording process is on the verge of completion. The CD goes to mastering next week, after some truly insignificant touch ups on Monday.

But in other news, some friends of mine at The Loop are going to help me manage pre-sales for the album as well as potentially tickets for the CD/DVD release party. I'll have some details soon about that, but first...the artwork!!

I don't have any samples to show you ...yet... but you can check out the website and blog of the fantastic artist that will taking care of all the artwork for the CD/DVD project, "Windows and Doors" - Greg Dubeau. I've seen all the sketches, and I couldn't stop shaking in my seat, because of how excited I was to be able to show this to people all over.

More updates soon! But until then, here are some old photos of me in the studio, courtesy of Shannon Lepere.

NXNE 2009

2009-06-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

I was invited to this year's NXNE in Toronto, so this entry will be a little synopsis of my trip, as well as a pseudo-review of my experiences during the festival.

The festival ran from Wednesday June 17th until Sunday, June 21st, however, there was little happening on the Wednesday and Sunday, so most of the activity occurred from the 18th to 20th.

June 18th:

The day began with a booth at the Indie Music Marketplace, where I had the opportunity to sell CD's, and promote the show that night. Several other merchants were also performing at the same venue, so that was great to see. Beyond that, I made some new friends, including Mick DiMaio from StereoGoesStellar.

*photo courtesy of Shannon Lepere - 365 Days of Jumping

Unfortunately they were playing that night as well, otherwise I would have loved to see their brand of piano pop/rock, which is reminiscent of Ben Folds, Something Corporate, and at times I even hear the voice of Placebo. Regardless, we talked about their recording process and their new album while registering for the festival, and by the time I popped the disc into the car, I was already hooked, and it's still being listened to on a daily basis!

I was scheduled to perform on Thursday at The Painted Lady, a really cool little bar with pin-up/strip/burlesque memorabilia on the walls. The stage area was a little tight, and was situated at the back of the room, at what looked to be the end of a hallway no wider than 8 feet.
- The show began with a family act, The Wilkins, who put a fresh spin on a 70's rock sound, because of the inclusion of synthesizers/keys.
- I followed, pushing through a severe cold which had almost rendered me voiceless, but the crowd still enjoyed it and got a taste for what it is that I do.

*photo courtesy of Shannon Lepere

- After me was Rob Szabo, whom I had been informed not to perform after (like it was my choice), because no one else could even compare to his greatness. He delivered a powerful acoustic set, and my attention was drawn in more by his inclusion of a wooden foot pedal with a microphone inside to simulate stomping sounds simply by tapping the top of it with your foot. We chatted before his show, and he was a very kind and friendly person, and it would be great to share a stage with him again.
- After getting my first of two parking tickets, I decided to leave halfway through Paisley Jura's performance. I was disappointed because her band included trombone, glockenspiel, standup bass, lap-steel guitar, piano, drums and a bunch of other things too. We had met at the Indie Music Marketplace earlier that day, and it was really neat to see how she transformed from jeans and a sweater to an evening gown jazz/contemporary singer/performer.
- The last performer of the night was Solarists (pronounced So-LAHr-ists), whose frontman Cam McLellan was going to perform solo for the night. I had also met Cam earlier that day and was really saddened that I couldn't stick around to watch his set. But the sickness was getting the better of me, so I ended my night early.

June 19th:

Friday was the first day of attending conferences, which I have to say were quite poorly advertised. The website made no mention of the different panels, and the only way I found out about the conferences was from a special NXNE issue of Lucid Media, which hightlighted the top 3. I later found a comprehensive listing, and even met up with some friends in The Furr from Winnipeg who I sat with in some of the panel discussions. We sat through two different panels, and left both of them early because they were not presenting anything informative or new, and in the case of one of the sessions, all of the panelists were engaged in conversation with a member of Fucked Up at the back of the room, and they spent the entire session discussing ridiculous tour stories from when they'd travel together. It was hilarious, for sure, but definitely a waste of time.

After the conferences, I made my way to Lacquer Channel to meet with Phil Demetro, who will be mastering my Windows and Doors album. As soon as I arrived I was excited, because he was in the middle of mastering a new remix of The Midway State - Change For You, a track I'd fallen in love with a while back. He gave me a quick show of the place, and even took the time to listen to some of the unmixed wav files so that he could assess what he would need to do. He was very pleased with the mixes as they were, and gave some additional praise to the guys at Dining Room Studios, making me feel very, very confident that this new album will end up sounding great! It was a perfect boost after a lacklustre showcase and poorly organized conferences.

I then made my way over the distillery area of Toronto, for a meeting at Balzac's Coffee to meet with someone regarding the application process to become a musician for Cirque Du Soleil. Imagine that!

That evening, I manged to catch several different sets in a few different venues:

At Supermarket, I caught a little of Bass Lions, and then most of The Paint Movement's set. This showcase featured mostly Nevado Records' bands, and I'm definitely impressed with the quality of their signings, purchasing a Paint Movement disc before leaving. Moving on, I caught Crush Luther at Montana's Sidestage. I've been listening to them for a while, and was really looking forward to a stellar set, but like many performances at NXNE, I found it to be a little tired, and less exciting than I had hoped for. Still, it was nice to hear some recognizable material at the festival filled with acts I'd never heard of. As we were leaving we saw 10 minutes of Parklane from South Africa, who played cliche hard rock/nu metal, but I still felt bad because there were only 3 people watching them by the end of their set which began at 1 am.

June 20th:

Again I attended the conferences, hoping for something more substantial than before. I was not so fortunate. I did however, manage to meet Matt Pollesel from iheartmusic.net, as well as someone who claimed to be the 10th most popular user on youtube.com. The secret to his success? He gets his friends and himself to grab an acoustic guitar and do cover renditions of songs that are currently popular, meaning that people will type in the song name and then watch their renditions while trying to find the actual video they're looking for. Brilliant, but tacky.

All that aside, I attended the Six Shooter Records free barbeque, not only filling my belly with delicious veggie burgers, but also my head with great music from some of their acts. The day was a rainy one, but Six Shooter were ahead of it all, having put up tents all around their back lot, and even bringing in dozens of bags of gravel to put on the ground to prevent bbq'ers from getting their feet soaked. The highlight for me was of course Martin Tielli of the Rheostatics, who was joined by Luke Doucet and Selina Martin.

*photo courtesy of Shannon Lepere

We left soon after to go to a Secret Session at TARA, where we caught the tail end of a funky group, whose name I unfortunately cannot recall.

That evening, I managed to catch Novillero at El Mocambo (sans horn section, which left me slightly disappointed), and then walked all the way to the Whippersnapper Gallery on College St, in the hopes that I would meet Jonas Bonnetta from Evening Hymns whose set I had missed. The lineup wasn't very long, but the capacity of the room was small, so we ended up visiting Soundscapes record store across the street, and who else should be in there than Jonas himself! It was one of three occasions that night when someone called/spoke/yelled out my name. After leaving some discs to be sold there (hint hint, "Dichotomy" is now available at Soundscapes in Toronto), we headed to Lee's Palace to catch C'mon who were the tightest performers of the entire festival (that I saw). We kept moving, and caught Hot Panda at the Horseshoe Tavern. I've been seeing their name a lot lately, so I figured I'd check them out. They were definitely energetic, but I find myself getting bored fairly quickly with what I would consider to be some of the more typical indie acts. Grand Analog was next at the Reverb, and was a great performer. It was interesting to see them live, because I had the opportunity to book them for the Superior Youth Festival in Thunder Bay, but left the decision up to the local skateboard coalition. Grand Analog was humourous because at one point a girl (with a guy in tow) jumped up on stage and started dancing and giving peace signs and more, all the while Grand Analog kept performing and even sarcastically commenting on how much they love the Reverb, because of the great importance they place on stage security. Once that concluded, we kept walking, dropping in at the Hideout to see the corpse painted faces of Fattooth, one of which was a Joker lookalike.

June 21st:

Sunday was a lazy day, heading to the beach where I fell asleep and burnt my face a little, followed by visits with some friends from Sioux Lookout, including Nick Sherman who will hopefully be recording a new album at Dining Room Studios within the next year or so.

*photo courtesy of Shannon Lepere

After some delicious homemade lasagna, we decided to forego the NXNE schedule and check out the MMVA's. Yes, I went to NXNE and ended up seeing Nickelback.

However, it was hilarious, because Lady Gaga's performance concluded with her leaning back as sparks/flames shot out of some wire frames that were covering her breasts.

All in all, it was a very random day, but more fun than schedule ridden.

Thornhill

2009-04-30T12:10:00.001-07:00

The micro-tour with AVS has begun!

We performed at a cafetorium in Thornhill, at St Elizabeth's high school as part of a music night, and it was great. The stage was excellent, and the audience was really receptive to all types of music (we shared the stage with latin, singer/songwriter, a capella groups and more).

During my performance, I even had a young boy stand off to the side and mimic every movement that I was doing. Thanks to Scott Mackay of AVS from capturing the moment!

Before that, we had an interesting day, having driving from Thunder Bay through the night, we arrived in Thornhill, and had 2 interesting experiences: we founda person on drugs in a park that was coming down, and on the verge of passing out. He had scrapes on his forehead and back of his hand, and it looked like he had bit his tongue badly. He was having trouble walking and claimed to have had problems with his back. Some students from the high school were there and had called paramedics, who arrived shortly after we got there. Naturally, the guy was angry that we had alerted some form of authority.

After that, we headed to The Pickle Barrel, a little restaurant in a mall across the street. Our server was great at first, but then as the evening progressed, he continued to upsell us and then even got mad at the end when we wanted to pay for our meals separately instead of one lump sum for 5 people. Weak.

Regardless, tonight we're in Guelph, playing at Jimmy Jazz, which our friend Brent Coleman has organized for us.

Here's one of his lyrics:

"Can't be bought...
Can't be bought...
Can't be bought...
love...can't be sold."

Recording continues....Day __?

2009-04-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

So it's been a long time since I updated the recording blog...I personally blame the fact that I no longer have access to high speed internet, as well as the fact that I was supremely swamped while working on my MA thesis.

Regardless, we've added tons of new things, and we're even starting vocals today!

This is how excited myself and Chris Dorota (audio engineer mastermind) are right now.

More updates soon!

Northern Rocks Tour - North Bay

2009-03-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Spent last night in North Bay, playing a sold out show (we definitely went over capacity!) at the Bull and Quench pub.

It was the first time that I had met the other 2 bands that I'm touring with;

Rabbit Transit - www.myspace.com/rabbittransit - Sudbury, ON
Cody Allen - www.myspace.com/codyoallen - North Bay, ON

We also shared stages with some other pretty cool locals, like Feels Like Yesterday, and the Black Hole of Calcutta, who opened and closed the show, respectively.

Chris Rancourt (of Northern Rocks) and I are pumped to have a short drive to Cobalt, ON today, since I've driven since Tbay, and that was a sweet haul.

Either way, it's Cobalt tonight at the Classic Theatre. There should hopefully be some good photos to come!

Premise Beach - What If?

2009-01-23T21:40:00.000-08:00

My friend Kyle Lees, cartoonist extraordinaire, has several different webcomics going all the time, to the point where he does one EVERY DAY.

His site is called Premise Beach (which is also the title of what is his longest comic series) which originally started in the campus news paper of Lakehead University; The Argus.

One of the other comic strips, however, is called Fight Song, and features Kyle drawing a cartoon about a song of his choice DURING the duration of the song. The following is one that he did for my song Elements.

Looks like Kyle Lees has done it again! Not only put me in a cartoon, but flattered me again.

For the last 8 days, I haven't shaved. It is in his honour that I have been 'trying' to grow facial hair. Sadly, I failed.

Oh Kyle, the sight of your lush chin forest makes my eyes mist in both joy and envy. In fact, I wish I was on one side of that mirror...

As long as you don't murder me like in that 'Mirrors' movie, although hypothetically speaking, I'm totally curious as to how I would die. I wouldn't have my jaw ripped off or my throat slit or anything like that...it'd have to be crazy. Or really really plain...who knows?

But on that note, I've now appeared (ha...rhymes with 'a beard') in his cartoons several times, so please visit Premise Beach (also on Facebook!), he has now been added to my 'friends' links!

Also, one more piece of information about him that will get you hot: click here.

Studio Day 9

2009-01-22T02:19:00.001-08:00

So after 7 days of working on both acoustic and electric guitars, they are all done! However...there is still one more thing that needs to be done with them: I need to royally abuse my old Fender, by laying it down on a baffle, attaching some mics to it, and slapping away like it was a hand drum. For those of you that haven't seen me live, I used to beat that guitar into submission all the time, using it for 'kickdrum' sounds. I would also slap and tap the neck of the guitar to get percussive 'handdrum' sounds as well as a variety of other stuff. That's all that needs to be done, BUT...I'm taking a short break from recording in order to focus on some other things:
the MA thesis is still being worked on. My transcribing machines finally arrived from the States the other day, so I've been diligently working my fingers every day, either by typing out hours of interviews, or laying down tracks for the album.
Secondly, I'm also working on another soundtrack. This short film is called 'The Drink' and has been put together by Apple Wagon Films. I also happened to be one of the 2 main actors, so it's really neat to add atmospheric music that compliments the visual foreground.

[photo by Shannon Lepere]

Studio Day 7

2009-01-15T21:30:00.001-08:00

After the 7th day in the studio, I've been able to finish a whole bunch of additional guitar layers.

My friend Curtis Jensen (of Apple Wagon Films) was there for a most of the evening, filming segments of the recording process to be used for the final DVD's "making of" segment. We're using performance content from the studio to make up a video for one of the songs, called How Come No Bones, which will feature a drum solo from Reggie Modin.

Also there tonight was Shannon Lepere, snapping some photos! [see left]

As the recording process continues, certain things are becoming more obvious as we move along. For example, some of the standout tracks are becoming clearer, but at the same time, I'm also feeling more confident about some of the other tracks that I thought might be cut out. The tracklisting includes 14 songs, with the idea that several of them could potentially be cut. The original list of 14 was already reduced from close to 20 tracks. This means: that the tracks that make the album will be quality! It's all for you, the listener!

Studio Day 5

2009-01-13T22:34:00.000-08:00

On day 5, I managed to get one of the 14 tracks completed in terms of electric guitars, and I've managed to get 2 sweet amps to use:

Marshall TSL-100
and
Fender Super Deluxe Reverb

I've also been using an Ibanez Tube Screamer to help create some fantastic tones that I can't wait for you to hear. I've never used one before, but some magic is happening.

Tomorrow, more electric guitars!

Studio Day 4

2009-01-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

Well, this is more of an attempt at recording...! Day 4 came and went without much advancement, however, Reggie left for London today, and I discovered that my Fender Stage amp, just won't cut it for this album...So I'm going to borrow some gear from friends and see what I can come up with!

Studio Day 3

2009-01-09T22:55:00.000-08:00

Sadly,...I don't have much to say about today's adventures in the studio, however, I managed to get a good 50% of all the acoustic guitar tracks I needed to have done. I was also fortunate to have my good friend Josh Hogan (pictured) come out and do a little bit of drumming for 2 tracks on the album as well. He currently plays in the band Norris, which really showcases the unreal talent he possesses as a drummer (his work in Norris is far more technical than ANYthing on the upcoming CD. Meh, both projects have their own merits).

Tomorrow, I'll spend several hours working on electric guitar sounds to see what will work for the different tracks on the album. 'Til then!

Studio Day 2

2009-01-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

Reggie is the man! That's right, in 2 days (a total of 12 hours of studio time), he managed to finish all 14 tracks for the new album! Several of which include other layers of percussion on top of them.

So...I've attached a video of him getting ready to throw down some conga beats. There's so much more craziness that we achieved in just 12 hours, but that'll have to wait. For now, enjoy Reggie and his mask!

Studio Day 1

2009-01-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

Whewf!

Day 1 of recording has been completed!

A big thanks to Reggie Modin, who is doing all the drums/percussion on the album, and who managed to crank out 11 out of 14 tracks in our first session! Whataguy!

Tomorrow we continue, including recording a track that will feature Reggie soloing through half of it, as well as other alternative percussion!

I'm so excited to finally have things rolling in the studio, and I shall have more updates soon! I'm getting access to a video camera tomorrow in order to shoot segments of the 'making of' portion of the DVD, but I'll also make sure to throw up some video updates as well!

Stay tuned! Things are coming together very quickly!

Belgium photos part 4

2009-01-04T21:31:00.001-08:00

Here's the last installment of my Belgian adventures!

Time to move on! Next up, will be recording blogs!

left to right: Back: Erwin, Paul, Marie-Roos, Guy. Front: Jean-Paul, Stephane

my dad and Stephane De Roover

aged statue

so many different layers of buildings!

an entrance to a building,...fantastic!

many old buildings and churches were being renovated/cleaned/repaired

The Flemish lion

door to nowhere on a river

this is an attempted recreation of a drawing that my dad's brother Eric did when he was younger.

Windows and doors! (of course I'd bring it up!)

Perfect picture, except for the anachronistic green van!

he just looks so sad!

translation: Health Pharmacy

scattered throughout Brugges, these tell you the speed limits in school zones

my grandmother's house

more wind turbines

mud in the fields...

I like this photo in two different dimensions...

symmetry

another church

plant magic!

my grandfather's grave

his gravestone

random gravestone

my uncle Antoon, Moemoe, and dad

church in Lokeren

The masthead of a ship in a restaurant in Lokeren

"yeah, i got gold, frankincense and myrrh, but this guy didn't bring me anything!"

gentile humor...

epic church statues

shining a light

about to behead Saint Barbara

Antoon, Moemoe, dad

Is that John Travolta? No...it's a turkey.

my grandfather's childhood home

the river at sunset

sailing past the moon

Gent (Belgium) city centre at night

Gent

Gent

Gent

a riverfront in Gent (it's not the moon, it's a distant clock tower)
Castle romance in Gent

myself and my cousin Bruno

my friend that I grew up with in Bolivia, over 10 years ago: Inger Kloos, now a professional horse trainer!

Prepping for training

Inger and Ellen Kloos

Inger and Ellen Kloos

The train station in Roosendaal (I think...)
The "Ice House": the City Hall of Den Haag (The Hague) in Holland

potential design for the new International Courts of Justice building in Den Haag. Anyone else see a resemblance with the Loch Ness Monster?

a very strange looking art installation

they had projections of children's faces on the figures.

it was actually quite frightening to watch. They were installed for World AIDS day

my cousin Paul De Roover

more of the "Ice House"

Paul again

more of the "Ice House"

the architecture is very old, but a few newer buildings seem out of place. The two 'peak' buildings are referred to as "The Tits"

eating a fresh herring

...covered in onions...

...delicious...

seagull, taken by my cousin Paul De Roover

lion statue

golden gate

oh really?

How time flies...

My late grandfather, Paul De Roover

Belgium photos part 3

2009-01-04T21:05:00.001-08:00

Here's another photo update from my Belgium trip!

On our way back from France, stopping by to see the Belgian seaside

very developed waterfront properties

reverse view

I was fascinated by the shells

my dad helping me find interesting shells

beach treasures

...and crab limbs...

picturesque

footprints in the sand

thanks to my dad for snapping this cool shot

peeking through the sandgrass

a Zeeman

...aka Seaman

a very strange airplane replica

"the forgotten church"

thatched roof

suspension bridge

this photo was inspired by a photo by Shannon Lepere

A really cool duo that I got the chance to see live in Diksmuide, Belgium.

They're called Kinnego Flux, and they're from Belfast, Ireland.

As a duo, they combine live looping with bass, saxophone, trumpet, voice and electronica to create some really funky, danceable loop music.

Best act of the night, but that's probably because I appreciate live instruments instead of laptop knob twiddling...

Outside of the dance club in Diksmuide

There was a random heron perched below that scared the crap out of me.

Kid606 live in Diksmuide

With the fastest exposure in low light, you can see that he was the most dynamic of the DJ performers that night.

The entire area between the sound booth and the stage was filled with dancing, drinking, and smoking people.

This picture brings me back, and is almost an homage to Green Day, and the back cover of their "Dookie" album. See what I mean.

My cousin Erwin De Roover (left) and the lead vocalist from his band

Erwin De Roover live!

Belgium photos part 2

2009-01-04T20:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delays in the updates, readers!

No doubt I've been busy, not only with the holidays, but getting ready to record!

Here's part 2 of my Belgium photos.

wind energy!

one of the most useful signs for something ridiculously useless.
"who accidentally put their flower bed in the middle of the street?!"

Canadian War Memorial

Canadian War Memorial

Cemetery in a churchyard

stained glass

stained glass

statue in the churchyard cemetery

Passchendale

Passchendale

Passchendale

Inside a museum that allows you to 'experience' the trenches

more trench experiences!

Towards the lobby of the trench 'experience'

The 1st and 2nd floors were all museum pieces, while the basement had been converted into a realistic 'trench' environment.

the view across from the museum

chunks of bunkers

solar powered street signs!

my father outside a German war memorial

myself, outisde of the same German war memorial

Commemorative plaque

Lists upon lists of fallen German soldiers' names

Shadowy figures standing vigil

...always watching...

...in total, there were 63 of these metal sheet lists of soldiers names.

...as well as an entire room with names carved in wood.

more names...

architecture

Funniest street sign of the entire trip!

Dunkerque, France at night

Dunkerque, France at night

All the pharmacies (Apothecaries) have brightly lit neon cross signs

Not only a great band, but apparently a delicious beer

Another pharmacy sign, which reminds me of the Romeo and Juliet film featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

Belgium photos part 1

2008-11-28T15:55:00.000-08:00

The following pictures were all taken in Bruges, Belgium.

Mussels and fries!

"...and answer there came none...they'd been eaten...every one!" - you're supposed to prepare a pound of mussels for every guest.

Pearson International Airport, Toronto.

My dad, after being released from the hospital

Interesting art exhibit at the airport

view from the train on the way from Brussels to Bruges

Excellent depiction of Belgium

The Train

The train and the station

An antiquated phone booth

Waiting for the train...

My grandmother's house, very 1970's

They have sinks in the bedrooms.

Great architecture

Windmills

My father and my uncle Antoon.

A well timed photo of Bruges.

The side of the windmill

Close up of the windmill

Leaving the windmill

Typical of Belgium

Ah, a small alley

More interesting architecture

Gargoyles and Saints

A watermill in a store

Asterix and Obelix kids drinks!!!

The side of the watermill

Reflections of the boutiques

Bellforts are everywhere.

Belgium by train

2008-11-27T08:19:00.000-08:00

This is one of my first impressions of Belgium, as my father and I traveled by train from Brussels to Brugges. I'll be doing some more traveling over the next week and a bit, so there will be more updates and more stories to be told, as well as photos!

I was recently in Ottawa, and I did take some photos, however, Ottawa is not as exciting for most of the Canadian readers, so I'm putting that off for a little while!

Cartoons and work

2008-11-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been working!

And pretty hard too, doing all sorts of film shoots, photo shoots, research, web work, and all sorts of other time consuming stuff.

Regardless, I just wanted to say that there will be more photos from Nunavut posted VERY soon!

And also, the cartoon on the left was made lovingly for me by my friend Kyle Lees, so wish him happy birthday today (November 3rd), and check out his comic strips:

http://www.drunkduck.com/Premise_Beach

(I've even appeared in it a few times)

Nunavut Photos part 3

2008-11-02T16:31:00.000-08:00

Who honestly needs a vehicle like this?

The elementary school

Very strange architecture, especially on the schools

elementary school looking out at the North Mart

The good ol' North Mart

The sky over Iqaluit

Jack Layton talking to people assembled within the elementary school for a feast.

I'm not too focused on politics as you can see...

...and neither is she...

Carrie (in green) with her boyfriend and another friend!

I ended up making lots of excellent music with Andy on the right...who now lives in Revelstoke.

The hillside of Iqaluit

More hillside

The abandoned structure.

A loose piece of sheetmetal.

The abandoned structure.

Inside it...

Abandoned glove...

Walking towards the light

Utterly destroyed

"Don't forget to say Good Bye and Thanks 4 the Future"

A Scary Place.

Holy.

This is the debris outside of the door of the building.

Bubbles under a thin layer of ice.

Bubbles and ice.

Self-explanatory.

...notice the 'liberal' propaganda in the background...

At the beginning of the Road to Nowhere

ATV's on the Road to Nowhere.

Amazing view - Road to Nowhere.

"Left and Leaving"

Inukshuk

An Inukshuk and I.

Ice on the river

Great view on the way back still...

Sand blowing over the slight hills...

Ice on the river

At the Makkuttukkuvik Youth Centre, where I spent most of my time.

Stephane Dion

An airplane, causing interesting shadows...

Wind-burnt.

Nunavut Photos part 2

2008-11-02T12:47:00.000-08:00

Shower

Arctic college residence shower room

Arctic College residence bathroom

ugly mug.

Arctic college residence hall

Arctic college residence HAUNTED hall

Arctic college residence hall

old truck

"Missing my hometown"

" :( "

"Me too"

This sums up the feelings of many youth at the college residence

plane

plane

statues in front of the legislative building

Arctic college residence common room

more fire damage

RIP Arctic Express

more fire damage

burnt down warehouse

Arthur T. Specht

2008-10-13T02:16:00.000-07:00

I'm on tour with AVS right now, just finished at a show in Edmonton, AB.

I haven't updated this blog since October 4th, as that was technically the last day that I was in Nunavut. I do feel proud that I was able to keep the blog updated every day that I was there, but now that I'm back in the 'south', I'm not as diligent!

Regardless, I'm on the road, and will be updating it more readily!

Northern lights and fires

2008-10-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

I've really gotten attached to being up here in Iqaluit. I'm going to be quite sad when I leave on Sunday afternoon. Sure I'll be glad to be back home with everyone I know well and care for, but still, there's something about being up here.

Last night and the night before were the first nights that I've seen northern lights since I've been up here. Mostly because the skies have been cloudy ever since I arrived. The other night they caught me by surprise: I just looked up wondering if they'd be there, and sure enough, they were. Nothing fantastic, and actually quite difficult to view, since they were DIRECTLY overhead. Wearing a large parka and trying to look above you (while walking on a road) makes things substantially more difficult. I also had to keep holding up my mitts to block the street lights, since they were preventing my view. Something else obstructing my view: the various emergency vehicles passing me on the road towards a location across from the residence (already extinguished).

I found out the next day that a courier/delivery service called Arctic Express had it's warehouse burn down. I took photos the next morning, as it was still smouldering, and I'm curious to hear more details, as there was a young woman there who went to the edge of the wreckage (as close as the police would let her) and dropped off some flowers. Apparently because of slow business, Arctic Express had been renting out parts of the warehouse for people needing a place to stay (remember, the housing shortage ongoing in the north).

However, last night, I witnessed the northern lights again, and I'm going to have to write another blog about that experience, because there's so much thinking and writing to be put into that.

'Til then!

The people you meet...

2008-10-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

I've been so lucky to have met so many great people up here in Iqaluit.

But what's even more interesting is the different characters, and their connections. Now as most of you know, I'm also a musician, and as such, I tend to seek out people involved in the music community. That being said, an earlier post of mine mentioned meeting one of the founders of Pop Montreal, which really shows how small Canada really is.

Then today, I found out that one of the individuals that I've been working with fairly closely is related to a Canadian music icon: Fred Eaglesmith, or "Fred J Elgersma"! I even got a free CD!

Of course, you also get the small-town feel, for example, last night I attended a community choir practice, and was graciously given a lift by a nice gentleman named Frank, who as it turns out had a meeting at the research institute today. That, and running into all of the people that you've met over the course of your stay in various locations, like grocery stores and movie theatres.

I was in the movie theatre tonight for my first Iqaluit movie experience. I even lucked out as it was cheap night! I saw "Ce qu'il faut pour vivre" [The Necessities of Life]. It's in Inuktitut and French with English subtitles, so it definitely caught the full demographic range of this city. A great film, one of the young actors is related to one of the people working in this office (NRI), so that reconnects everything yet again! Being in a small theatre, without previews, sharing many laughs (and even tears) with the audience was something you just don't get in a extremely large movie theatre in the south. I attended a movie night at a house a while back, and with about 15 people there, that was a similar experience, but tonight's was far more multicultural.

The world is a tiny place, and getting smaller by the second.

Safety first

2008-10-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Safety is an important consideration everywhere, whether crossing the street, walking with sharp utensils, and even washing your hands.

However, up here in Iqaluit certain cautions are thrown to the wind. For example: seatbelts? No way. Who uses those anymore? I didn't want to wear one anymore after I got my thumb stuck in the hole of the buckle when I was 5 years old, that's for sure. But in my adult life, especially after having been in an accident where a vehicle was flipped, they sure become important.

But certainly not to people driving in Iqaluit. I feel like a fool when jumping into a vehicle and instinctively reaching for the buckle while the driver laughs and comments on how I'm clearly from out of town, since No One wheres seat belts. Other issues of safety and caution that are missing are locking doors. Car doors are rarely locked, unless items of great value are left inside. I've also seen a surprising number of vehicles missing door handles. Also...many vehicles that are damaged altogether.

I've only ridden in a taxi twice since I've been here, but I've been in about 5 different vehicles (some official business vehicles too), and the local conventions still apply. For those driving, the speed limits are posted (usually around 40), traveling at least 20 km above the limit is the norm.

I've even talked to some youth here, and in ONE sitting with 3 different kids in casual conversation, all of them had been hit by a vehicle in their lifetime (13-17 years). Unreal.

Maktaaq

2008-09-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

Today I had an interesting experience.

I tried Maktaaq (Muktuk) for the first time.

For those of you unaware, Maktaaq is a delicacy for Inuit, and I was fortunate to have been given a few samples to try.

It's chunks of whale skin with blubber on the underside. Sometimes served frozen, the servings that I had were room temperature. The pieces that I ate had come from a Narwhal, and had an interesting taste and texture.

I'm not able to place the taste (it was raw), but other people compared it to almonds. I like almonds, and this wasn't unpleasant, except for the fact that the cube of maktaaq is layered as follows:

Where:

1 - whale blubber (fat)

2 - thin layer that almost has a cartilage type of constituency, but is impossible to chew through (I tried for about 5 minutes on one piece). Hardened tissue.

3 - the skin. The piece that I had was a dappled gray (because it was a Narwhal).

The blubber is meant to keep the animal warm, and is prized up here by hunters, as hunters that are able to bring home lots of blubber are 'better hunters', since the blubber is more important than the whale meat. An interesting topic that was brought up today was that Inuit historically have no instances of heart attacks due to cholesterol and other fats. This is because the fats found in blubber are the 'good fats'. And because fat can be broken down into sugars, it is an essential source of energy for Inuit as well. I'm speaking of traditional Inuit, as here in Iqaluit, junkier foods prevail, although I will be attending a feast on Friday. FINALLY, more traditional foods.

As for the layer of really hardened tissue, I'm assuming it is to prevent the skin from being pierced too easily when swimming about.

The layer of skin is actually textured like many many many hair follicles. Mmmm.

All in all, an interesting experience. Definitely weird walking around town knowing that I have pieces of Narwhal stuck in my teeth.

(Vegetarians everywhere are cursing me right now).

Intense...and tourism

2008-09-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

The days are getting far more intense here in Iqaluit.

1. Today, it snowed. Very little mind you, and most of it is gone, but still, it snowed.

2. The amount of rigidity in my schedule is increasing, as tomorrow I have 5 different meetings with different community groups, radio, and even a choir practice.

3. I'm still booking the AdverseVitalSigns tour starting October 10th, and I'm not having that great of luck this time around.

4. Applications for different festivals start quite soon, so I'm trying to do my homework on those. Including the Alianait festival here in Iqaluit.

5. Analysis of the data from my research up here needs to start.

Listing things helps me organize myself mentally.

The next few days until I leave Iqaluit are going to be busy busy busy. But I still need to make sure that I get out and act like a real tourist before I leave. I'd rather not, but I feel like I should. Taking pictures, getting people to take pictures of me, buying overpriced pieces of art for family, the whole nine.

Funk and Punk...and Kung Fu.

2008-09-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last night was an interesting night.

I didn't leave the residence until after 7:30 PM, at which time I had hoped to go to The Legion to catch a band called 'The Ramblers', who were apparently releasing a DVD. Unfortunately, it was membership only, and no one was willing to sign me in that I met.

Just as well, as I went to a "funk and punk" themed party instead. It was hosted by the same group of people that held the "robots and aliens" party the week previous. Interesting note: it was mostly white people, but there were a handful of Inuit there (although I don't think that they were full Inuit), as I've found that the two different groups (francophones would be a third) generally keep to themselves. Sure, white people have X number of Inuit friends, and vice versa, BUT...that number rarely exceeds the number of friends they have of their own ethnic group. Regardless, the reason why I'm glad that I went to this party was because I met two very interesting people.

First was a lawyer working up here who was actually one of the founders of the Pop Montreal Festival. Back in 2002/2003, she helped write up the original business plans (which weren't that great, considering that they lost a lot of money over the first 3 years. Apparently they weren't able to secure any funding from any sources until they had established themselves as a festival for 3 years.

How did this discussion come about? They were serving St Ambroise beer, which has a Pop Montreal logo on the back of the bottle. Our initial interaction went as follows:
"hey look! Pop Montreal!"
"I applied their for the last 2 years and didn't get in"
"oh yeah? I helped create it!"
...and our conversation went on from there. Turns out, she also used to do a lot of work for various environmental activist groups, specifically those interested in protecting Beluga whales.

Next, I met someone else that is currently working at the francophone school serving meals. She's a vegan and enjoys making all sorts of different eco-friendly drinks, smoothies and more. By living in Iqaluit, she's not able to prepare a lot of the different things that she'd like, since certain sprouts, grasses, and even dehydration units (instead of ovens) are not readily available up here. What was most interesting about talking to her was that she's going to go to the Just For Laughs School, for 2 years, taking courses on comedy. This is because she thinks that her life, being a vegan and all her work with healthy foods and eating habits would make for great comedy. I wouldn't be surprised, however, I WAS surprised at the fact that there is a school of comedy. How amazing. If music fails me, that's next.

Meanwhile...at this time I'm currently watching a ridiculous movie called Kung Fu Hustle. If you'd like to see awesome action scenes with ridiculous dancing and stunts, I would recommend this movie. Like it says on the box, "Think KILL BILL meets LOONEY TUNES".

The Knife

2008-09-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

If you haven't been following the blog you may not realize, but the last few have been leaning more towards music than research.

I played guitar in the residence for the first time since being here, and sure felt good.

I even wrote most of a new song. It's working title is 'The Knife'.

Lyrics:

I've got a message to deliver
Before my time has come and gone
Could this reify you?
Could this reify you?

Your words are just a few,
and actions even fewer
How would they define you?
How would they define you?
-------

If I could leave a mark
something set in stone
can you bring me a knife?
for the bones...

-------
Your fears are all against you
but persevere some more
do they petrify you?
do they petrify you?

you want to make a difference
but you're up against the world
Will they nullify you?
will they nullify you?
--------

If I could leave a mark
something set in stone
can you bring me a knife?
for the bones...

--------
your body's aging fast
haunted by an unrewarding past
why would they deny you?
why would they deny you?

when you have been forgotten
and no one knows your name
who would recognize you?
who would recognize you?

When you are under ground
no record of the sounds you made
Would they identify you?
would they identify you?

They will identify you
They will identify you
They have identified you...

by your bones

It's all about perceptions by others. Everything that you do in life, who is it being done for, and will anyone recognize or acknowledge that fact? When it's all said and done, once you've been buried for 50 years, what will anyone be able to identify you by other than your remains; your bones.

What I'm getting at is that we should all make efforts to make a lasting impression of ourselves on the world in our lifetimes. Some impressions will not be as readily acknowledged as others, but it's important to always stand in the face of adversity, for what you believe to be just. [Sigh, sometimes I wish I was Polar Man, or at least an Aquabat]

My contribution? It's hard to say what I would like it to be.

"I'd like to put out an awesome double disc CD/DVD"

...yes...but how is that helping anyone else? You're right. It's not. It's satisfying my own lust for musical creativity and expression. HOWEVER. The conceptualization behind the project is multi-faceted, and in the next few months, you will no doubt read more about that concept. But I'd also like to incorporate something that will empower listeners as well. Ideas: TBA.

However, it's really cool that many different organizations are helping make strides towards change, such as Google.