Musician Luca Stricagnoli gets into the hip hop groove with his cover of Dr. Dre and Eminem’s “Forgot About Dre” on a meld of an instrument – the Ganjo.
He says, “One more experiment where I convert a hip hop song into a guitar arrangement. Well, actually this time it’s an arrangement for Ganjo (Guitar-Banjo), which still has 6 strings by the way. Dr. Dre is one of the most influential artists in the hip-hop scene, and in “Forgot About Dre” he collaborated with Eminem himself. Of course, the result could only be a really cool song, which gave me quite some motivation in a particular period of my life. I know rap songs can sound quite strange when performed on a Ganjo, but what can I say…I had so much fun doing this!”
AlexisonfireAlexisonfireAlexisonfireAlexisonfireAlexisonfireAlexisonfireAlexisonfireAlexisonfireAlexisonfireBilly TalentBilly TalentBilly TalentBilly TalentBilly TalentBilly TalentHot Water MusicHot Water MusicHot Water MusicHot Water MusicNorbroNorbro
Chicago’s acclaimed award-winning DIY artist Sarantos channels his signature upbeat songwriting style to tell a melancholic story about pushing through life’s physical and mental pain with the evocative new single, “Looking UP At The World.”
Sarantos’s latest emotional single, “Looking UP At The World,” conveys the crippling feeling of being helpless as everyone else moves on in life. As Sarantos says, “being on the floor because that’s the only position that doesn’t hurt, and there I feel alone and like the world is passing me by.”
The song’s inspiration came about as Sarantos captures the story of a character who’s a workaholic and is embattled with disease. The crippling nature of physical and emotional pain, particularly in the wake of COVID, is fully explored in Sarantos’s latest musical effort. “Being in pain is like drowning because you’re so desperate to grab onto anyone or anything. You won’t even care if you take them down with you.”
An eclectic musical foundation sets the tone for juxtaposed lyrics that showcase the depth of perspective commonly found in Sarantos’s songwriting style. In contrast to the major key in which the music is written, Sarantos doesn’t shy away from exposing himself to reach and connect with listeners worldwide.
“Every yellow brick’s going down the wrong road
I’m upset the world threw me away
No one looks down at me
They don’t know how much I’m missing
Looking UP at the world.”
Adopting a DIY method to music creation, Sarantos has been the hardest working self-sustainable artist on the scene. With two songs up for GRAMMY considerations in 2017 to the litany of international music and entertainment awards, Sarantos is a self-managed force of sonic nature. His music has graced radio stations and charted across many markets in Europe and the U.S, all without the backing of a studio or record label.
Sarantos is a renaissance artist with songwriting and producer credits on top of his work as an author of poetry and literature that accompanies the extensive collection of music he’s released.
Armed with an enormous social media presence and thousands of written songs under his belt, Sarantos has been demonstrating a work ethic like no other. He continues his mission to spread honesty and compassion with his art with no signs of stopping.
Sarantos draws on his own experiences to connect to his listeners genuinely through the universal language of music to make the world a better place.
The best brass music is full of sass, funky rhythms, and snappy melodies and Canada’s Heavyweights Brass Band has all that, and more! Down and deeply in the groove with their new sax- and soul-powered new single, “Fake It” is available from Slammin Media, and distributed worldwide by Believe.
The latest single release from the Toronto-based brass band draws inspiration from drummer Gregory C. Coleman and his famous “Amen Break” solo first performed in 1969. Coleman originated it in the recording for funk and soul band The Winston Brothers’ b-side track, “Amen Brother.” It’s a rhythm pattern that is an enduring favourite in funk, hip-hop, and drum and bass music.
“The song ‘Fake It’ originates from the phrase ‘Fake It Til You Make It,’” says Paul Metcalfe, one of HBB’s founding members. “It’s a popular phrase amongst the band as we often get thrown into new situations that take learning on the job.
“We’re always in the process of finding better ideas in the midst of recording or even performance.”
Funky and soulful with snappy horn parts reminiscent of James Brown and Maceo Parker, “Fake It” is the first original composition from The Heavyweights’ newest member, trombonist RJ Satchithananthan. Paul Metcalfe on Tenor Saxophone, John Pittman on Trumpet, Tom Richards on Sousaphone, and Lowell Whitty on drums round out the full five.
“They say ‘model the masters’ and we brought that home on this jazz-funk track.”
Two years of pandemic slow down hadn’t completely stalled HBB musically. They released their fourth full-length album, Stir Crazy, in November 2021, and spent two hot summers busking outdoors in Toronto’s west end. Then, as the music scene began to stir and wake up again, so did the group’s creative drive, leading to renewed energy, fresh collaborations, and what they refer to as The Marigold Sessions. A collaboration with a new friend and videographer, Nick Appleton, at Toronto’s Marigold Label Studios produced a trio of live performance videos and recordings that includes “Fake It.” The group also gave their takes on Duke Ellington’s sultry “Creole Love Call” and the fiery, hard-grooving “Get Along,” written by HBB trumpet player John Pittman.
The Heavyweights Brass Band has been a New Orleans-inspired, Canadian brass institution bringing audiences from clubs to theatres to their feet with their exciting mash-up of original songs and unexpected covers. Their music has made it into film, commercials, radio, and television, and they’ve recorded and performed with some of the greats — including legendary percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo, Roger Lewis of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Joe Lastie of New Orleans’ Preservation Hall fame.
Through extensive touring, the band has had the opportunity to share the stage with the likes of Trombone Shorty, The Roots, and The Soul Rebels among many others.
When is The Heavyweights Brass Band next gonna blow into town? Alongside the new release, the virtuoso instrumental quintet has been gearing up to hit the road again, and they’re all set to brassify your June, July, and beyond with their 2022 Canadian Summer Tour; the first 16 dates have rolled out into early July, with more to be announced soon!
The ocean is always an apt metaphor for our internal swells, ebbs, and tides, and that’s likely why it transfixes us so much. Charlottetown, PEI-based alt-folk artist Maureen Trainor found herself particularly taken with the sea during the early days of the pandemic, resulting in her nautical-themed interior soundscape of a single “Adrift.”
“Adrift” begins with a mellow, acoustic strum and somber introspection as Trainor narrates, “I’ve been staring at the ocean/ While it sets its sights on me/ My heart adrift without direction/ Salt spray rapture on the sea.” The song takes us over rocking waves of mood and emotion, and on a gliding journey of self-reflection.
“Like most people, I became very introspective during the pandemic — most likely caused by sudden isolation,” Trainor shares. “During those strange, new times, I took almost daily trips to the shore where the water has always centered me.
“It was there that the song was born,” she continues. “I imagined my heart afloat, at the mercy of the tides and weather conditions, rolling gently on the soft waves and tossed about in violent squall.”
The song really came to life, however, during the recording process, via a collaborative effort between Trainor and her producer Erin Costelo. “A trombone evoking the nautical feeling, a cello keeping things flowing with the additional colorful elements that could be whales or wind or gulls,” Trainor says of the various decisions made during the process. “The bass and percussion accentuating the relentless rhythm of the ocean’s pull. And the deliberate choice to have the vocals front and center accentuates the storytelling in an authentic and unadorned way.”
Trainor provided the guitar and lead vocals, Jordi Comstock the drums and percussion, Tom Easley the bass, Andrew Jackson the trombone, Natalie Williams Calhoun on the cello, and Erin Costelo the background vocals.
Maureen Trainor has been writing songs for close to three decades. Her writing style most closely aligns with folk, although she enjoys listening to a variety of genres and has an eclectic music collection from which she draws influence. Garnering a national semi-final result in CBC Music’s 2017 Searchlight Competition with her song “Goodbye”, Trainor decided to embark on a journey to record more of her music, and her debut CD Nothing But The Stars was nominated for two Music PEI Awards in 2020. A lover of the arts in general, Maureen enjoys taking in live shows from other exceptionally talented and vibrant members of the Island music scene.
Canadian multi-instrumentalist Martin Schiller takes a musical idea for an internet sketch comedy series and turns it into a psychedelic jam session, transporting listeners to a time of carpeted walls and smoke-filled rooms with the bodacious new single, “Future Prints.”
The song sees Schiller whisk listeners on a sonic journey through space and time as part of his groovy new LP, Dreams vol. 1 (2022). An instrumental post-jazz-rock opus with equal parts Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Ali Shaheed Muhammed, and something entirely new, the eight-song album also features cover art designed and created by his wife, artist Amanda Brierty.
The textured sounds of “Future Prints” is best described by Schiller himself as “somewhere between Chicago Post-Rock (Tortoise), Ethiopian Jazz (Mulatu Astatke), and 1970s Japanese surf-rock (Takeshi Terauchi).” Across the song, Schiller’s visceral percussion and guitar work are seamlessly interwoven with heart-pumping saxophone riffs provided by the only guest instrumentalist on the album, collaborator Theodore Hogan.
As Schiller says, the thematic nature of “Future Prints” was initially conceived to serve another purpose. “Back in 2019, I contributed some musical ideas to an internet sketch comedy series my brother Eric was working on, and this idea was used as the theme music,” he shares.
With the world still reeling from the Covid-19, Dreams Vol. 1 is meant to act as a soundtrack to Schiller’s emotional experiences during the first year and a half of the pandemic — also, incidentally, when Brierty first inked the cover art concept. “It begins with a foreboding sound with doom and worry, then a feeling of urgency, giving way to a feeling of appreciation of some positivity, eventually being able to live in the moment,” says Schiller of the release.
The recording process initially started with a series of drum sessions that would provide the rhythmic foundation for the album. With the exception of the sensational saxophone track on “Future Prints,” the entirety of the album was recorded in Schiller’s basement and bedroom studio.
Dreams Vol. 1 was also mixed by Schiller, who employed sound engineer Matt Rideout to master the album and elevate the production.
Hailing from Windsor, Ontario, Martin Schiller has been on the Canadian post-rock scene for some time. Graduating from the University of Windsor with a BA in Music, Schiller has performed throughout Canada and abroad as the bassist of post-rock bands such as What Seas, What Shores, and multimedia performance group Noiseborder Ensemble. With film and television credits already under his belt, Schiller also leads instrumental post-rock outfit The Greedy Echoes.
City and ColourCity and ColourCity and ColourCity and ColourCity and ColourCity and ColourCity and ColourCity and ColourBroken Social SceneBroken Social SceneBroken Social SceneBroken Social SceneBroken Social SceneBroken Social SceneMoneenMoneenMoneenMoneenMoneenDooms ChildrenDooms ChildrenDooms Children
Paul Sexton has written the fully authorized and official biography of legendary Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, one of the world’s most revered and celebrated musicians of the last half century. It gets released on October 11, 2022 and includes forwards from Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.
Charlie Watts was one of the most decorated musicians in the world, having joined the Rolling Stones, a few months after their formation, early in 1963.
A student of jazz drumming, he was headhunted by the band after bumping into them regularly in London’s rhythm and blues clubs. Once installed at the drum seat, he didn’t miss a gig, album or tour in his 60 years in the band. He was there throughout the swinging sixties, the early shot at superstardom and the Stones’ world conquest; and throughout the debauchery of the 1970s, typified by 1972’s Exile on Main St., considered one of the great albums of the century. By the 1980s, Charlie was battling his own demons, but emerged unscathed to enhance his unparalleled reputation even further over the ensuing decades.
Watts went through band bust-ups, bereavements and changes in personnel, managers, guitarists and rhythm sections, but remained the rock at the heart of the Rolling Stones for nearly 60 years—the thoughtful, intellectual but no less compelling counterpoint to the raucousness of his bandmates Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood. And this is his story.
2022 CBC Searchlight winner Chad Price draws on the battles with inner demons to manifest his introspective journey of self-healing into an uplifting tale of resilience in a new single, “Broken Open.”
Recorded with producer Matthew Johnston, “Broken Open” is anthemic with its gospel-tinged choral background vocals, brutally honest and intimate with its heart-breaking and confessional lyrics, and — ultimately — optimistic, unifying, and healing with its message of acknowledgment and collective vulnerability.
“‘Broken Open’ allows me to get pretty deep and dark in terms of the things I wanted to express”, Price shares. “I’m vulnerable about emotional trauma, deteriorating mental health, and some negative self-image/self-acceptance issues in the song… But being open about these things, and admitting that I’m just trying to stay above water like everyone else, hopefully makes people know they’re not alone in their suffering and constant efforts.
“Everyone is dealing with something and this song, to me, ultimately feels like a warm, tearful embrace and encouragement to keep going,” he continues. “Sometimes being ‘Broken Open’ is necessary to open up and evolve into the best versions of ourselves.”
Fearlessly vibrant, Price’s impassioned new song arrives ahead of his forthcoming album set to arrive this Summer. With the complexities of self-actualization and overcoming internal struggles potently captured and conveyed, the Ontario-based artist’s soothing vocal harmonies are enhanced by the heartwarming message embedded within the lyrics.
“Love surrounds but I don’t notice
Call me out and say I’m hopeless
But I still got some fight left in me
And now I’m beginning to see
Maybe heaven’s under my feet and over our head
Wait for the disconnect”
Chad Price has been steadily on the road less traveled from the beginning of his career. Representing himself in both the creative and business aspects of the music industry, Price has found much success as an independent artist charting his own path.
Securing multiple national and international television deals across various networks as well as the millions of streams he’s accumulated, Price is a creative force to be reckoned with. He’s already been invited to share the stage or collaborate with notable acts like Ben Harper, The National, Loud Luxury, Walk Off The Earth, Lights, JP Saxe, and Donovan Woods, to name a few.
With tour stops in North America, Asia, and Europe on top of being a featured artist on CTV’s hit TV show “The Launch,” Chad Price has been on an upward trajectory with no signs of stopping any time soon.
