Category Archives: Interviews

We caught up with with Halifax naive Ria Mae as part of Juno Week. Ria is nominated for Pop Album of the Year at the 2018 Junos and we were lucky enough to chat with her about her success this past year.

What do you get when you spend ten days at Vancouver’ Warehouse Studio with talent like Alan Doyle? Well, when you ask him, he will tell you all about his appropriately named album A Week at the Warehouse. With an old school way of making this record, he had his whole band, (affectionately named “the Beautiful, Beautiful Band”), set up within the studio to do full recordings together. This created a fun environment for the musicians to record in, and an interesting space for the album to grow from.

We recently had the opportunity to chat with Calgary based recording artist and songwriter Sykamore (aka Jordan Ostrom). Sykamore is poised to be one of Canada’s breakout country music stars of 2018 and was recently featured in our 2017 Country Music Year in Review as one to watch for 2018.

Vancouver musician JP Maurice is excited to announce the release of the video for his latest single ‘GO’. The uplifting and playful video was filmed this summer on the streets of East Vancouver under the direction of Johnny Jansen. The premiere of the new video comes on the heels of the announcement that JP Maurice will be a featured artist on the inaugural season of CTV’s new series The Launch which premieres tonight.

Roll the clock back to 2016 to 2006, Canada got “Weak in the Knees” for young, Toronto-based, newcomer Serena Ryder. Since her breakthrough album If Your Memory Serves You Well Serena has gone on to win six JUNO Awards, a Muchmusic Video Award and a Canadian Film Award. This past May Serena released her sixth, and highest charting, studio album Utopia. 

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking to Lauren Alaina mere days before her Canadian debut as part of Dallas Smith’s Side Effects tour. Over the course of the interview Lauren opened up about personal struggles after American Idol as well as the tragic events of Route 91 Harvest Festival. This was one of my favourite interviews and easily one of the most personal interviews I’ve ever done. 

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sit down and have a no-holds-barred telephone conversation with Against Me! Front-woman Laura Jane Grace, who had been touring North America with arena-rock band Green Day, but still found time to chat while filling time before a show in Arkansas. For those unfamiliar with Laura, she is an openly transgender singer/songwriter, social activist, punk rocker, and author. She has appeared on such programs as The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and taken some very direct stands against the Trump administration (including some choice Twitter comments just last week about the Tweeter-In-Chief’s activity since the mass flooding in Puerto Rico).

A Tradition Continues with The Posse

After a day spent outside at The Loyalist Days in Prescott, it was nice to sit back and be part of a continuation of a family tradition. The Loyalist days has been around since 1977 at the Fort Wellington. Brent Coville’s father used to play the festival with his band, before the festival took an interlude for many years. It was like a continuation of the event though the music.

The Tea Party are in the midst of a big tour celebrating 20 years since the release of their album Transmission. Jeff Martin is making a few solo stops which includes a stop tonight at the John St. Pub in Arnprior.