A big thank you to you kind readers who have nominated earbuds & ticket stubs for the long list of CBC Radio 3's Searchlight contest for the best music website in Canada! I'm overwhelmed and very grateful. You can vote for your favourite music websites here. You can vote once per day. I know I will be using that opportunity to vote for the many great sites that support Canadian music. Like Justin noted on my other musical project North by East West, we're all aiming for the same thing-- the exposure of the Canadian music scene.
Please support the good folks who love to bring you Canadian music-- vote, donate some money and spread the good word! (on twitter, please use hashtag #Searchlight)
To reiterate for those who may be coming across the blog for the first time, earbuds & ticket stubs is a Vancouver-based music blog by Brenda Lee. It's currently not at full capacity as I'm currently abroad visiting family in Taiwan... but I can't resist when something good lands in my inbox! For more information about myself and the blog, check out the About Mepage.
So thanks again! It's all up to your votes! What should I do if I win? Donate my accolades to charity? Throw a Skype party? Feel free to suggest anything in the comments!
Henry and the Nightcrawlers is Henry Alcock-White-- bassist, guitarist, songwriter. Collaborator and member of Vancouver bands Bend Sinister and The Zolas. As the photo above may imply, he's probably also a sombre, poetic guy with a romanticist streak. But with his fingers crossed behind his back. When you first pop Alcock-White's debut full-length 100 Blows into the stereo, what's evident instead is a forest of bouncy pianos, guitar noodling and drum machines. A musical jaunt as opposed to a waltz.
So where in this solitary image is the possibility of beat-driven pop? Alcock-White combines his youthful forays in rhythm and blues with his more recent endeavors in indie rock, and adds influences from Henry and the Nightcrawlers' rotating cast of supporting players, including members of Said the Whale, The Zolas and We Are the City.
----- CONTEST :Henry has generously given me 3 autographed copies of 100 Blows to give to some lucky readers. To win, simply email brendahlee [at] gmail [dot] com with "Oh Henry!" in the subject line and your name and address in the email body. I'll pick a winner shortly and contact accordingly. (The contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered!)
----- Tour dates (supported by members of The Zolas and We Are the City):
9 NOV Tracks Pub, Olds , AB
10 NOV Bohemia, Edmonton, AB (w/Ghost Cousin) - Facebook info
11 NOV Amigos, Saskatoon, SK (w/Imaginary Cities)
13 NOV Music Trader, Winnipeg, MB (in-store @ 2pm) - Facebook info
13 NOV The Park Theatre, Winnipeg, MB (w/ The Liptonians)
15 NOV The Slice, Lethbridge, AB
17 NOV The Central, Fernie, BC
19 NOV TBA, Kelowna, BC
27 NOV Billy Bishop Legion, Vancouver (Album Release Party - Facebook info)
Mint Recording artists from Vancouver, The Pack a.d. are leaving the fires of B.C. and heading back on tour yet again. This time in Canada. In order to celebrate they are offering up free downloads of fan favourites at the myriad of live shows they have played since releasing their critically acclaimed and chart topping third album We Kill Computers on April 27th.
They are announcing the details of their new contest as well. Here are the contest particulars and rules according to the band:
The Pack a.d.'s Picture Contest
You know we love contests because we like getting things in the mail, right? Anyway, we think that others must like the same thing - so even if your entry doesn't officially win - you still get a handwritten postcard from us. Postcards are cool.
Here's the contest...
You: Draw a picture of us. That's right, however you want to draw it as long as it's by hand. It can be crayon, pencil, ink, oil - whatever medium you prefer. The only guidelines are that it can't be done on a computer and that it's to be somehow of us (Maya and Becky). That means you can draw us as like, even, errr, whalers if you want or perhaps to be more politically correct, you can draw us as The Wailers..minus Bob Marley of course...this isn't a Bob Marley contest.
We: Pick the ones we like. It could be 2 or it could be 30. No matter what the amount, the chosen pictures will be put into the album insert for our next album. Yes, it's true. The winners will be immortalized in a CD booklet just like Christopher Lambert...which reminds me, you can draw us as Highlander too...that would be sweet.
Entry Deadline: November 5, 2010
Send your pictures to:
The Pack a.d.
C/O Mint Records
P.O. Box 3613, M.P.O.
Vancouver, B.C. Canada
V6B 3Y6
CBC Radio 3 Presents The Pack a.d Canadian Tour Dates with Young Rival
09/05 – Vancouver, BC @ Victory Square Block Party (The Pack a.d only)
O9/O8 - Edmonton, AB @ The Black Dog
O9/O9 – Calgary, AB @ Broken City
O9/ll – Saskatoon, SK @ Amigo's
O9/l3 – Regina, SK @ O'Hanlon's
O9/l4 – Winnipeg, MB @ Lo Pub
O9/l5 – Thunder Bay, ON @ The Apollo
O9/l6 – Sault Ste. Marie, ON @ Lop Lops
O9/20 - Montreal QC @ Le Divan Orange
O9/22 - London ON @ London Music Club
O9/23 - Windsor, ON @ Phog Lounge
O9/24 - Hamilton, ON @ Casbah
O9/25 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
O9/28 – Kingston, ON @ The Mansion
09/26 – Wakefield, QC @ The Blacksheep Inn (The Pack a.d. only)
10/22 – Halifax, NS @ Halifax POP Explosion (The Pack a.d only)
Local Vancouver BC radio station and indie champions The Peak 100.5 FM have released the finalists for their second year of the Peak Performance Project, whose aim is to "educate, promote, develop and hopefully launch the careers of some of British Columbia’s top emerging artists." Last year's winners were the boys from We Are The City. Finalists will attend a rock & roll bootcamp at the end of August and be educated in the ins and outs of the industry. That 20 will then be thinned out to a top 3, after which a winner will be announced November 1.
According to the Peak Performance Project website, the 1st place artist will receive $100,500, 2nd is $75,000, 3rd is $50,000, 4th is $10,000, 5th is $5,000 and all 20 finalists will receive $3500 each in initial artists development funding. In addition to this, all of this year’s 20 finalists will receive a showcase spot at The Kelowna 2010 BreakOut West Festival presented by the Western Canadian Music Alliance October 21–24, 2010.
Congratulations to earbuds & ticket stubs mainstays Aidan Knight, Said the Whale and Debra-Jean (with Mother Mother) for making it onto the Top 20! Below you'll find the full list of 20 along with a short clip of their music. Enjoy!
Adaline (Vancouver)
Latest album: Famous For Fire (2008)
Kuba Oms (Victoria)
Latest album: How Much Time (2009)
Christopher Arruda (Nanaimo)
Associated acts: The Lady Esther, Open, Parachute!
Latest album: God Hates a Coward (2009)
Bodhi Jones (Vancouver)
Latest album: Where Do We Go From Here? (2010)
Greg Sczebel (Salmon Arm)
Latest album: Love and the Lack Thereof (2009)
Reaching him in Winnipeg early yesterday afternoon, Royal Wood was bright and enthusiastic when we spoke over the phone. And why shouldn’t he be? Wood is halfway through a tour supporting label mate David Gray, playing to full theatres every night. On top of that, he has a new album to showcase to these crowds. The Waiting, Wood’s third full-length recording, is already out on iTunes and physical copies are set to be released via Maple Music Recordings on May 25. The future, as they say, is bright.
The Waiting differs from Royal Wood’s previous efforts in that it was not self-produced. Wood had previously arranged and played almost all of the instruments in all his records. However, this time around, he felt the “uncomfortable” challenge to take the album “to another level that you can only achieve with someone else.” This someone else turned out to be producer Pierre Marchand (who had previously worked with the likes of Sarah MaLachlan) who produced 3 tracks off The Waiting. The remaining tracks were co-produced by Wood and Dean Drouillard, who also supports Wood on guitar. The Waiting was recorded in Marchand’s studio in Montreal over a span of two days.
Below, Royal joins me in a conversation regarding the experience of letting go of control in the production process, the muse (almost with a capital M) of his music, and becoming a confident songwriter.
Brenda: What do you think the goal of this record was? Royal: Sonically, I wanted to enter into a new territory. I wanted it to not just be about me anymore. And when you’re self-producing, it’s hard to expand into that since you’re calling all the shots, and you’re pigeonholed by your own choices and limits. That’s why it’s so valuable to have a producer and artist coming together to make something that you alone couldn’t make. That really was the vision I wanted to enter upon, this artistic realm where I had the producer and my band with me. My band that I had with me throughout the years, having them there to have a say. So it wasn’t just me writing the parts and dictating it for them, but having them come up with the parts together in the studio. It was a big group effort.
B: Having produced all your previous albums, what was it like to let someone else grab hold of the reins?
R: It was terrifying. That drive up to Montreal to Pierre’s studio was definitely nerve-wracking. There were a couple of sleepless nights. I knew what I wanted, but it’s strange to play your songs for others and for them to add their own ideas.
B: It’s like having your songs before a panel discussion before you record it.
R: Yeah, exactly. But Pierre acted as a captain. Everyone had their own vision of what they wanted the album to sound like, and Pierre filtered a lot of the ideas so we don’t have the cello or whatever going off in a complete different direction.
B: Do you feel like there was a cohesiveness to The Waiting?
R: Most definitely. I knew what my budget was going in; I knew how many songs I could make. Some artists could record 18 tracks and pick out 11 of the best songs, but I didn’t have that luxury at this point. I was recording with Pierre in his incredible studio, in a different city; expenses were very high. So I had to plan out the songs, which ones would be ballads, which ones would be rockier, or mid tempo, and also met the story I wanted to tell.
In terms of inspiration, Royal Wood returns to the muse of life and love again and again. Known for writing love songs, Wood emphasizes that he can’t write jingles or “hokey pop songs that make someone cry.” Songs seem to flow from the pen for him. That’s not to say that The Waiting is an album which only addresses love; for example, “Birds on Sunday” is a song about faith, whether religious or atheistic, about having it, losing it and trying to regain it. All in all, Wood emphatically states that life is the only muse. “That’s what inspires every artist, and what inspires every human being; it’s our existence.”
B: Tell me a little bit of the title, "The Waiting." What does that signify to you and how does that weave into the songs?
R: "The Waiting" is in all intents and purposes an awakening. Hitting my 30s, and realizing that I had spent a good deal of my 20s becoming the man I am, and learning how to have relationships in life, whether that’s with family or your lover, or whomever. Sometimes I found myself waiting for mirror experiences to happen. If you’re in a great relationship, waiting for it to split, and when it has, waiting for it to come back.
With everything, so many of us are not existing in the moment, and The Waiting is about that. In this industry we also live by a calendar, you live on a tour and you have all your days planned out. You’re always thinking of the next 12 shows but what you should be thinking about is the one show you’re doing. So the songs are about that, the duality that we live with, and what I had learned through the process of writing the songs over the course of the two years - how to live in the moment.
B: In your bio, you mention that this is your first album with “real love songs.” Why do you think you can write those real love songs now, as opposed to before?
R: They were love songs, but they were different. They were honest, obviously. When I was a teenager and trying to write, those songs were fake and forced and I never let them see the light of day. That’s why I didn’t produce my first record until I was 24. I just didn’t know how to write something from a place of truth. It was always just about trying to write a song. What differed this time was that search for true relationships, unlike the majority of relationships in my 20s. That’s what I ended up writing about back then, songs based in love but mostly about figuring out what love is – love of your family, love of yourself, love of your partner. It was about learning how to navigate life as your own person but also how to share your life with someone else. Once you actually learn to share your life with someone and let someone in, then I think you truly learn what love is, and that’s what led to some of the songs on The Waiting, this opening up.
B: At your last Vancouver show, you had mentioned that you recently got married. Do you think that the album was a manifestation of that in your life, to be able to write about this love?
R: Oh absolutely. That’s the muse that led to songs that were strictly about having love – not losing it, not wanting to lose it, not trying to lose it, but about just having it.
B: Yet your first single, “On Top of Your Love,” is a song strictly about lust.
R: That song was purely about lust, yes. Lust of someone that you can’t have. In my industry, we have to work a lot of time away from our loved ones. I certainly have to spend a lot of time away from my wife. That definitely led to that song.
Music video for "On Top of Your Love":
Royal Wood also had some songwriting advice for aspiring musicians. A pianist friend had asked a technical question about the song "Thinking About" on his Lost and Found EP, in particular why he had left it unresolved. He points out the importance of intuition, of letting the ideas flow before trying to impose a structure upon them. (Yes, it does pay off to follow me on twitter)
B: I have one more question from someone who’s a big fan of yours. He’s also a pianist and asked you a technical question – why is the song “Thinking About” on the Lost & Found EP left unresolved at the end?
R: Why I left it unresolved! Good question! You can tell him that with everyone song I make, I wait for a particular feeling. I just have to respect that; something tells me what the song will be, when I’m lyrically exhausted. I’m never thinking in a musically technical way, like whether something is unresolved, or this shouldn’t be diminished because it leaves this feeling. I don’t write it from that standpoint; I write it from the muse first. Afterwards, when the song is complete, then I can think about it in a musical, technical way when I’m doing charts or scores or arrangements for my musicians. It’s just what comes out.
B: So the technical follows what your intuition tells you.
R: Correct. Intuition first, technical after. I find that part of the problem of when I was a teenager writing, I would think technical, of what my peers were writing or what people I was listening to were writing. Listening to them, gathering up all that musical knowledge, and trying to write something. It was technical, it wasn’t inspired and it wasn’t from the muse, nor the heart. If you think technical and write technical, it’s going to sound that way. It’s going to sound like music theory. So there wasn’t a specific reason for me to leave it that way, strictly that’s what had felt right to do.
Below are the upcoming Royal Wood dates as he travels through central Canada and the east coast. North by East West has a contest going on, so you should hop on over and take a look if you'd like to win spots on the guest list for yourself and a guest :
20 May 2010 20:00
Foster’s Inn Stratford, Ontario , CA
22 May 2010 20:00
Hamilton Place Theatre Hamilton, CA
23 May 2010 20:00
National Arts Centre - Southam Hall Ottawa, Ontario , CA
25 May 2010 20:00
Centre In The Square Kitchener, Ontario , CA
26 May 2010 20:00
St. Denis Theatre Montreal, Quebec , CA
28 May 2010 20:00
Halifax Metro Centre Halifax, Nova Scotia, CA
2 Jul 2010 20:00
Stan Rogers Folk Festival Canso, Nova Scotia, CA
14 Aug 2010 20:00
Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Fest Salmon Arm, BC, CA
Henry Alcock-White (centre), who goes by the stage name of Henry and the Nightcrawlers, is no stranger to the music scene. Those familiar with local Vancouver music will recognize him as the guitarist in the Vancouver prog band Bend Sinister, although he has recently left the band on amicable terms. Nowadays, you might see Henry and his luscious blond locks backing up fellow Vancouver band The Zolas on bass guitar. And although Henry and the Nightcrawlers is in its infancy, with nary but an EP to his name, Alcock-White demonstrates a pop sensibility influenced by his friends, and many of these friends contribute to the recording of his album and live shows.
You can expect a full-length from Henry and the Nightcrawlers in September 2010. This upcoming album, 100 Blows, was co-produced by Alcock-White and Tony Marriott, who also played drums on four of the songs. Peter Carruthers from Said the Whale played bass on a few tracks, and Tom Dobrzanski of Vertical Studios and The Zolas helped with mixing. Those expecting to hear escalating guitar solos a la Bend Sinister will be pleasantly surprised by Alcock-White's bouncy, beat-driven pop, best characterized by "100 Blows," the title track off of his upcoming full-length.
I have a copy of Henry and the Nightcrawlers' 5-song EP for one lucky reader. These babies are only available at shows and only 100 were printed! All you have to do is post a comment below with the following things:
1) your email
2) your favourite night crawler and why
Be creative! Best entry will receive an email within the next 2 weeks.
Henry and the Nightcrawlers will be playing the following Vancouver dates:
May 22 Lab Magazine Party with Maurice and TV Heart Attack at the Media Club
July 1 with We Were Lovers at the Media Club
As H&NC and The Zolas effectively share the same band members, you will also be able to catch Henry supporting The Zolas on many upcoming tour dates in June. You can check out those dates here.
Part of the "Where You Listen to CBC Radio 3" contest. There sure are a lot of us listening on the bus. Alas, I did not win the iPhone/iPod, but the guy who won it was in mad hiking gear and eating a cactus. That's pretty baller. Anyway, how in the world did someone let me get my mug onto a CBC Radio 3 podcast? More importantly, what was that lady behind me looking at?
I just won 2 tickets to a contest winner-only Metric show at the Media Club next Thursday! "Live, acoustic and intimate with Metric." Best part is, that's the last day of exams so that's a hell of a send-off into summer! Actually no, best part is I've called the Peak almost daily (yesterday alone I called 3 separate times) trying to win tickets and was so close to giving up after being caller 6 yesterday (you have to be caller 5). And today was my lucky day!! Persistence pays off :)
Now, once again, the question (as always) is who I should bring with me...?
