What was it like growing up as an aspiring musician in Oshawa?
There wasn’t a lot of support in Oshawa. All of us that played in bands supported each other. That was about it.

We Are The City features three young musicians, Cayne McKenzie on vocals and keys, David Menzel on guitar, and Andy Huculiak on the drums.
The Kelowna trio spent seven weeks in Vancouver recording their first album. In A Quiet World was recorded with emerging producer Tom Dobrzanski at Vertical Studios.

I always look forward to the diverse and exciting exhibits at Modern Fuel. The non-profit centre never fails to support innovation and experimentation in contemporary art. Their latest offering, Chronotopic Village, is a testament to the artist-run gallery’s mandate of showcasing provocative work by Canadian artists from diverse cultural backgrounds and communities.

Black Hat Brigade’s guitar, key, bass and percussion man Bryan David Ward is speaking to me from a cell phone in the lobby of the CBC building in Toronto. He’s not taking a tour of the place or finding shelter from those harsh Toronto streets, he’s instead taking a break from work.

Who are you?
Anita Majumdar
What’s your profession?
Actor/Dancer/Choreographer/Writer/Producer

Fresh from a summer of cross-Canada music festivals and gearing up for their winter roundabouts to promote their sophomore album, Wave North, Sunparlour Players’ frontman, Andrew Penner , discusses rural imagery, musical friends and some Kingston thievery.
Sunparlour Players, despite the plurality of their name, began with one member.

Theatre Kingston’s latest show deals with a subject more controversial than sex and death: faith.
The theatrical adaptation of Canadian writer Diane Schoemperlen’s book of short stories, Forms of Devotion, explores how we adapt our conceptions of faith to the constraints of the modern world.

I should’ve known with members named Ash Boo-Schultz and Human Kebab that I was about to interview an endearingly bizarre and original band. When Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (USS) vocal and guitar man Boo-Schultz—née Ashley Bucholz—opened our conversation by asking me about ninjas in Kingston, I knew I was in for quite a treat.

You may have heard this already, but Margaret Atwood is coming to town. Her upcoming event at Kingston’s Grand Theatre is sold out, but the story of how she got to the Kingston WritersFest is the result of the work done by a core group of dedicated and hardworking volunteers under the auspices of Kingston Frontenac Public Library and Kingston Literacy.

For a storyteller, Newfoundland-based author and Queen’s alumnus Michael Crummey is pretty satisfied with the truth.
“I’m actually a Queen’s dropout,” he confessed with a good-natured laugh a few minutes into our phone interview.

When Chris Connelly, vocalist of Edmonton garage-pop band Hot Panda, says that “nobody wants to be the only person dancing at a show,” it’s hard to picture him as that person. His frenetic energy is infectious both in conversation and onstage with bandmates Heath Parsons, Maghan Campbell and Keith Olsen. Fresh off a European tour with the Von Bondies, Hot Panda is back to play their February release, Vol

What’s your band name and why did you choose it?
Agpak Mum. The naming of the band was not really up to us. One day it just magically appeared and we knew it was perfect.

Over the phone, Pamela Brennan has the kind of sincerity that you think must be reflected back in her music. It is.
Dorval-born Brennan might be a new songwriter, but she writes with the knowledge and sophistication that comes from being involved in the music world for some time. When Hennessey—her last musical project—disbanded in 2003, she took over a role she wanted to try for a while.

Spiral Beach doesn’t want to sell you their latest record. They’re smarter than that.
In fact, don’t expect drummer Daniel Woodhead to try to push anything on to you—except the pretty wrapping.

It might be the telephone connection, his surprisingly thick East Coast accent, or that he’s almost 1,500 km away in Charlottetown, but it’s hard to hear Two Hours Traffic guitarist Alec O’Hanley.
After several hang-ups and redials, O’Hanley slowly becomes audible. As the best thing to come out Prince Edward Island since Anne of Green Gables, fuzzy phone conversations are one of the many disadvantages the band has when they live so far East.

The name Basia Bulat evokes thoughts of adventurous arrangements, snapping rhythm and a warm and rich vocal accompaniment that wraps and weaves through each song complementing every melody.
Don’t feel sheepish if you haven’t heard of Bulat.

An impressive list of venues played, 11 studio albums and a huge fan base are statistics countless musicians would give anything to have attributed to them. Waterloo-born singer-songwriter Craig Cardiff, on the other hand, just wants your ears.

A recent trip to the zoo left me unexpectedly distraught. I had expected a light and tumble journey, hanging out with the lions and bears, but instead felt a pang of heartbreak the whole time I was there. Watching the exotic creatures make do in their small, faux-habitats so the civilized could gawk at them seemed perverse.

Oh Fall! Here’s to the Queen’s season synonymous with front porch chill seshes, remembering how to navigate Mac-Corry and repeated and less-than-musical renditions of the Oil Thigh on loop well into the night. Back in the Big Smoke the autumnal air signals the beginning of one of Toronto’s most anticipated and high-brow fiestas: yes folks, the Toronto International Film Festival is upon us! Reels of flicks, boatloads of celebs, and—naturally—babbles of scandals are scheduled to hit the downtown core this September in what has traditionally been one of the most exciting times of the year to be in the T-dot.