Author: Andre Gagne

Andre R. Gagne is an indigenous species generally found in Ottawa, ON, though he has been spotted by some in Paris, Tokyo, New York, Vegas, Vancouver, Ireland, London and various stops in between. Camouflaged within the local music scene, he is sometimes pounding pinball to punk, wedged between vinyl new releases, boppin' to the beats, contorting himself around bar speakers or crunched against the steel at a local festival. He is a Faces nominee for journalist of the year. He is always firmly attached to his camera, except that one time he dropped it in a fountain at the Louvre. Oops! More on this strange creature at: argagne.wix.com/argagnephotography.

Erin, Amelia and Sweet Marie

12 East Coast Music Award nominations with wins for Solo Recording of the Year, R&B Recording of the Year and the first woman to receive Producer of the Year. With such acclaim showered on Maritime singer-songwriter Erin Costelo’s 4th album Down Below, the Status Quo, nobody would question her if she opted to keep on […]

Q&Autogramm

Autogramm n (genitive Autogramms, plural Autogramme) 1. (signature of a celebrity given to a fan) autograph Jiffy Marx, C.C. Voltage and The Silo n 1. (rejected names for members of the band Poison) No…wait…Poison had a C.C. Nix that and pencil on in “accepted names for members of Vancouver’s Autogramm”. Now, I don’t know how […]

From A(laddin) to Z(iggy), Serious Moonlight Sure to Delight Bowie Fans

Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane and The Goblin King, with so many iconic looks and eras defining one musician however does a David Bowie impersonator choose what exactly to impersonate? If you’re Jeremy Wright, the man behind the microphone in Serious Moonlight – A Tribute to David Bowie, you just try to […]

Beers, Beards and Making Music: Q & A with Rory Taillon

Photos by Natalie Austin Nicknames being slapped onto a musician are nothing new. We’ve got Kings and Killers, the Chairman of the Board, a Pope of Mope and even a Prince of Darkness. However, only one dude can lay claim to being named after one of the most popular characters from a galaxy far, far […]

Q&A with Ottawa’s Audrey Saparno

Feature photo by Salam Basalamah Born and raised in Ottawa, Audrey Saparno has been strumming her acoustic guitar and weaving warm tunes since as long as she can remember. No, seriously, she’s been singing since before she could even talk. Citing influences from Joni Mitchell, Dawud Wharnsby and her hometown’s own Lynn Miles, her music rolls […]

A Funkified Trance Trip with Herbie Hancock

The sweat rolled down my back like a rainstorm on a window pane. Hot town, summer in the city alright and this heat wave was only getting hotter with a two hour jazz funk fusion trip lead by the legendary Herbie Hancock. This is how you want to close out your TD Ottawa Jazz Fest, […]

Alison Krauss Brings Breezy Night of Bluegrass to Jazz Fest

Photos by Renee Doiron What an easy, breezy, beautiful night of bluegrass at the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival and well, welly, well, well, well wasn’t that a contrast from the country pop flood inside the Canadian Tire Centre the night before. On the country music spectrum, jazz fest headliner Alison Krauss is so far removed […]

Musicability Making Music Accessible to All

Angèle Jodouin and Melodie Grealy-Fredette were tired of working in a field where they constantly watched the system fail people. Music shouldn’t have walls around it, blocking barricades and people saying “no, you just can’t do it”. Music needed to be accessible to anybody regardless of the challenges of what others might consider artistic impairments. […]