News Updates
Well its been a busy winter so far. I have officially moved into my new digs – RavenTape Music room, Had my first solo piano show and am deep in the throws of working with my good friend Mo Glazman in New York on a new project involving three jewish cantors from 3 different jewish factions (Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox). Heres the latest and greatest:
This monday Jan 22 2017, I will be playing another solo piano show as part of The Brudock’s piano fest. This is the 3rd annual festival at one of Toronto’s best live music venues. They bring in a grand piano and book a piano centric program for a week in January every year. I will be sharing the bill with Bryce Kulak. Details on the event including ticket purchases can be found here.
After several months of demolition, painting, wiring, testing… I’m happy to announc that my new studio – RavenTape Music room – is operational. This is my new home base in the East end of Downtown Toronto. Its a creative space for me to make music by myself and with others. Feel free to get in touch with me if you want to come by and check the place out.
Now that the studio is up and running its back to work. Lydia Persaud is back in the studio with me. Following the succesful release of her EP Low Light we are getting straight to work on a full length record. So far things are sounding sweet. So keep your eyes and ears open for that later this year. I’ve also been working on a major project involving 3 New York city based cantors – Mo Glazman, Azi Schwartz, and Chaim-Dovid Berson. We have been working together for the past 6 months developing repertoire for an album that will bring together 3 Jewish Cantors from different backgrounds (Reform, conservative, and Orthodox) to make an album and concert to represent unity and celebrate the Cantor and jewish culture. Its been quite an experience working with these guys and having the opportunity to spend some time working in New York City.
Coming up in the near future I’ll be hitting the road with Donovan Woods to support his new Album which will be released in the next few months. Keep your eyes open for that. If you are interested in seeing me play in the future, check in here for updated tour dates. This will be getting updated in the next few weeks.
Stay Warm!
Announcing…
Happy Fall.
This is my favourite time of year. It’s sweater weather, the trees are changing colours, and we get to eat all kinds of root vegetables. What could be better?
Well… Here are a few things:
1. I spent 2 and a half weeks in Banff earlier this year doing a music residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts. The results of which are now being turned into my first solo Piano album. I go into the studio in early November to begin the recording process, and…
I will be performing music from this set of compositions on November 16th at the Canadian Music Centre. Click here for all of the details
2. Its been a long time in the works, but it is finally time for the release of an EP I’ve been working on with Lydia Persaud. The EP is called Low Light and we are launching it at the Burdock in Toronto on October 25th. More info for the event can be found here. Please check her out.
3. I’m pleased to announce that I have finally moved into RavenTape Music Room. This is my new studio space in downtown Toronto. It is a small facility where I can create my music and work with artists that I collaborate with. We are just finishing up construction and wiring but are in fact operational. More info will be coming including a link to a web site and photos. Actually, here is a sneak peak:
Happy New Year!
its 2017…
New year, New music! After my little trip into the Paul McCartney world (see my last blog post for details), I’ve been inspired to explore more weird synthtastic music. Heres the latest track I just finished. It makes me think of a royal garden in the future proposed in the 1960’s. Check it out:
This next piece of news is what I’m most excited to announce: I have been accepted to do an independent Music residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts! I will be heading out to the most magnificent place on Earth for 2 and a half glorious weeks this January in order to write and record a whole whack of new music for solo piano and electronics. Stay tuned for snippets and photos…
Back from holidays and already back in the studio… I spent this week recording new music with DoubleTooth. Volume 2 is coming along nicely. I also am back at work with the lovely and talented Lydia Persaud. There are two more tracks on the way, maybe 3…
Lots of music to be made in 2017. Hope you get a chance to check some of it out.
Holiday Update
Well the year has come and gone with a flurry of insane events. TRUMP! what?
Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Prince, Sharon Jones… and the list continues. Its been a tough year on the whole. So much loss and so much terrifying change. But, alas there is also some good coming.
2016 also had lots of great music. For me, I got to make a record and play with Lori Cullen, Donovan Woods, Matthew and Jill Barber with the family album band, Royal Wood, Atlas Revolt and more. I made a bunch of records, did some cool DoubleTooth shows in a park as part of Dusk Dances (a dance festival), and wrote a lot of music. Here is the latest…
On the slightly sinister side of things I’m excited to announce that I was a contributor on the latest film installment by the great Mitch Fillion of Southern Souls. Its a Doc about the conspiracy theory surrounding Paul McCartney’s supposed death in 1966. He asked a bunch of Canadian musicians to contribute Beatles covers for the film. You read more about it here.
On the less sinister side of things, I am currently on the Road with the Good Lovelies celebrating there 10 year anniversary with their annual Christmas Tour. Click here for details on upcoming show dates and locations near you.
I am also very excited to announce that this January I will be heading to the Extraordinary Banff centre for the Arts for a musicians residency! This has been something I have been wanting to down for many many years now. I am thrilled and honored to have been given this opportunity. I will be spending 2 and a half weeks there composing new music for piano and synthesizers. More to come on that project as it evolves.
Finally, I am going back into the studio with the wonderful and talented Lydia Persaud to complete recordings for her EP. Keep your eye out for her. She is a powerhouse of talent that you wont want to miss.
Lots to come over the New Year… On deck I will be touring in the new year with Donovan Woods, Jill Barber, Royal Wood, and the Good Lovelies. Also, stay tuned for some new releases under my own name, a live show in New York on Feb 10th with Cantor Mo Glazman, and me moving into a newer bigger studio space!!!
Happy Holidays everyone! stay warm and safe.
Summer 2016
Hello world…
As ever, there is some exciting news coming down the pipes that I thought I would share. Its been a busy summer… that seems to be the standard greeting amongst most of my friends these days. I think that’s a good thing. As long as there is still time to enjoy the spoils of all of the work. Here is what I’ve been up to:
Open Shadow:
Over the past couple of months I have been composing and recording a score along with my good friend Drew Jurecka for a feature documentary film called Open Shadow. It is a film about self help guru Teal Swan. A woman who suffered tremendous abuse in her youth and has come out of it and become a spiritual healer. The process was really fun and Drew and I are quite proud of what we created. The film was made by Director Paola Marina in conjunction with Sama Waham and will hopefully be premiering early next year. Stay tuned for more info on that front.
DoubleTooth:
It’s been a while since we last performed, but the silence has ended. DoubleTooth is pleased to be a contributing performer to this years Dusk Dances @ Withrow Park. Between the dates of Aug 1 – 7. Dusk Dances is a wonderful modern dance festival that has been happening in Canada for the past 20 plus years. It consists of 4 or 5 pieces of choreography that are site specific and performed throughout a public park. The audience is taken from site to site by a wonderful MC and its a very magical event. This year DoubleTooth will be playing a half hour set to start off the event every day. We will be playing from 7-7:30pm and on the thursday and sunday there will be a matinee that starts at 2pm. The performance will be in conjunction with a Nia dance class that is being taught by Martha Randall. We hope to provide a perfect energetic arc for the dance class. We will be playing some of the music from our first album – Volume 1, mixed with some of the newer material that we are working on. Come and see what this will bring…
Lydia Persaud:
I have been working with a wonderful soulful singer named Lydia Persaud. She is a great songwriter who has been singing in many groups around Toronto. She plays with the O’Pears and has provided backing vocals to countless Canadian artists. Her and I sat down together and workshopped some tunes and then recorded an EP. The whole thing was recorded straight to tape and never touched a computer. It was a very magical experience. The EP will be released very soon. We are currently doing a few shows to prepare for the release party. the next one will be at the Cameron house, 6pm on Aug 9th. Definitely keep your ears open for this. She is fantastic!
Thats all for now. Hope to see you at some or one of these events. Stay cool and hydrated!
Update: Summer 2016
Hello dear friends…
Much time has passed, many songs have been created, and even more have been played. I am writing with a blast of what the latest has been in my musical life.
There are several projects on the horizon that I am quite excited about. The first is called SLOW Volumes: One (01). It is a collection of music put together by the great James Bunton and Joshua Van Tassel. It contains slow music created by a list of very talented Toronto Musicians including: Josh and James, Christine Bougie, Sarah sleen, Felicity Williams, Dean Drouillard, Myself, and a few others… All proceeds of this album will go directly to the Toronto Daily Food Bank. It will be officially released on the interwebs on June 3rd. You can check it out here:
https://slowvolumes.bandcamp.com/releases
Here is a link to an interview with James on Chart Attack. We are all very excited to release this music into the world. Download a copy, put some headphones on and take a deep breath.
I will be heading out on the road this summer with a few different artists including Royal Wood, The Barber Family, and Donovan Woods. Check out the calendar for details.
The last piece of news I will share in this post is that I have been working on an EP with a great singer songwriter named Lydia Persaud. She is putting some amazing Acoustic soul music out into the world and we have been capturing it all straight to Half inch tape in the lab over here. It should be all done and ready for release in the near future. Play stay tuned and be sure to check her out anytime you can. She will be playing some shows this summer at the following times/places:
June 18th @ The Belljar, Toronto
July 2nd @ The Local, Toronto
July 13th and July 20th @ The Cameron House, Toronto (I’ll be playing on this one)
Hope to see some of you in the near future, and hope you are enjoying the heat!
Get 7 Inches this summer!
I Hope everyone is enjoying the summer. With all the hoopla from the World Cup, a new war in Israel, International Pride week… Its hard to imagine that this is about to happen:
DoubleTooth is dropping a 7″ from our debut album Volume 1!
Tomorrow we are headed to play two late night shows at the halifax Jazz fest where will be releasing this to the world. Cant Wait!!!
If you are in halifax this weekend, we would love to see you at the Company house. Click here for details.
In other news, I am busy on the road with Jill Barber launching her new album Fool’s Gold. We just played a lovely show at Club Soda For the Montreal Jazz festival, and will be in Quebec City for the Festival d’ete on sunday. Check the calendar for more details of my touring schedule.
Lastly, several recording projects are in the final stages of being completed. Nicky Von Vicky, Old Maps, and some newer collaborations are coming down the pipes. Stay tuned for more and thanks for checking in. Hope to see you this summer…
2014 news
Well its march 2014, and I’m making a pact with myself to stop apologizing for taking so long between updates. I still feel bad about it, but I’ve realized that apologizing does not help me write any sooner. So, please accept me with all of my flaws, and keep checking back periodically. I promise to update more, and will post on social media so that you hopefully i will find you and not you find me. On the brighter side of things, the reason I have not written in so long is due to being busy. so thats good right? So much happening.
So… last time I wrote I was about to go see d’angelo which was Amazing! since then I went on tour across Canada – back and forth, and back again with fiddler extraordinaire Jaron Freeman Fox. that was a trip! The tour took us from festival to festival, met tons of very cool people and played some interesting places. Highlights include a major lobster feed at Stan-Fest in Canso Nova Scotia, and meeting Jaron’s Mom on quadra Island! Pics will be posted in short order.
That leg of tour ended with me crashing my good pal Joshua van Tassel’s wedding in order to play some jazz fest dates in halifax. Josh is a super talented musician/producer/drummer who I collaborate very frequently with and is the other half of Doubletooth. We will be attending the ECMA’s this april in Charlottetown in honor of Josh’s nomination for best electronic album. While there we will be performing some Doubletooth material for the first time ever!! Please stop by and say hi if you are in Charlottetown april 4 – 7.
The canadian tour bonanza was then followed up by a UK tour with songstress Kate Rogers. We spent 8 glorious days criss crossing Jolly old England to promote the release of her new album – Repeat Repeat, which features a song that we co-wrote called contender which made it to the CBC radio top 20 for several weeks this summer. Thanks for all who supported us in that.
Since then, I have been fortunate to be involved in a number of exciting recordings, including new albums by Justin Rutledge, Royal Wood, Jill Barber, Craig Cardiff, Old Maps, Bret Higgins, and have started occasionally performing with David Myles, The Lovelocks, and a few others…
Needless to say its been a fruitful year and I am very thankful for all of the luck and wonderful people that I have been surrounded by.
So whats coming up you say? Well let me tell you… I have been co-writing and producing with a few singer-songwriters as of late and most of these projects are currently in the recording phase. I am very excited for this as there should be some new music to present to the world that I am very proud of in very short order.
The first is Milquetoast. You may have seen or heard her perform with Barzin. She is a wonderful singer songwriter and we are making her first EP in time for her to leave on a long tour of Europe this spring with Barzin. Stay tuned for updates and audio as this project reaches completion. If you want to see Milquetoast, or me, or Barzin perform… we will be all playing together in Toronto March 22 at the music gallery for the launch of Barzin’s latest album – To Live Alone in that Long Summer.
The second is a wonderful singer named Nickyvonvicky. You may have heard her perform with the Mercenaries, or on stages in Niagara and at the Shaw festival. Well the time has come and her and I have been hard at work co-writing, and next month we will begin recording her first EP. We are trying to raise funds to produce it. If you would like to support this endeavour, you can do so at our indiegogo campaign page – NVV. Please check it out and contribute. Any amount will help!
Lastly, I will be going into the studio on sunday to record the last 4 tracks of the Old Maps project that started in the summer. Audio of the first few tracks will be posted later this week so please come back for that!
Ok, thanks for reading, and checking back with me. I look forward to making more music and posting more music for you all soon!
