Canadian Music Week 2012 EHHHH

Canadian Music Week 2012 was a blast! I had a chance to meet some great Canadian bands and artists and run into many familiar faces. As you know, I had a chance to interview Justin Nozuka, which of course you can check out in an earlier post. In addition, I attended Chum Fan Fest where I saw some awesome performances which included; B.C band Marianas Trench. I love lead singer’s Joshua Ramsay’s voice! I had a chance to actually tell him that as he was sippin’ on his white wine and playing with his tongue ring. I also told him about a special I did chatting about the band’s infamous Much Music Video Award performances and one of the highlights was when Joshua imitated Lady Gaga’s electrifying bra performance. The band’s current album is called, “Ever After” which the single with the same name also got nominated for a Juno. Joshua was sad he couldn’t catch the rest of Canadian Music Week because he had to catch a flight to Vancouver that night. However, he told me band members bassist Mike Ayley and Matt Webb who is the lead guitarist and pianist were gonna be at the Indie Awards. I did see them both at the Indie awards and congrats to Marianas Trench for winning Favourite Video of the Year for ‘Haven’t Had Enough.’ Keep hustlin’ boys. When I was speaking to bassist Mike Ayley, he was jus chilling and mingling and I noticed he had his ear plugs still in his ears. I was like, “ummm.. why do you still have your ear plugs in your ears?” He totally blushed because he forgot to take them out. LOL I also hope to see more collaborations in the future with other Canadian artists. Joshua recently teamed up with Danny Fernandes and Belly for the sick hit ‘Hit Me Up.”

Hedley was supposed to be on the bill but due to illness, they could not make it. Fefe Dobson covered for them singing tracks from her latest album, “Joy” including “Stuttering”, “Ghost” and my fave “Can’t Breath.” She teased everyone about wanting to sing “Bye Bye Boyfriend” but she didn’t. Hey, I actually like that song. I ran into Scarborough girl later as we sat watching Marianas Trench.

I also spotted Suzy McNeil who made it as the only female left in the final four during the reality show, Rock Star: INXS. Suzy has an album out now called, “Dear Love”. Now, Suzy is a judge on YTV’s, The Next Star! Suzy watched as the show’s top 6 finalist Victoria Duffield performed. At only 17, the British Columbia native who holds a comparison to early Britney Spears has a couple of tracks “Shut Up and Dance” and “Feel” blowing up on Canadian radio.

Another anticipated performer was Carly Rae Jepson who recently blew up after being signed to Justin Beiber’s label. Bieber and girlfriend Selena Gomez kept tweeting about Carly and even shot a video with their friends to Jepson’s single ‘Call Me Maybe’. The video went viral! I first met Carly 3 years ago at Canadian Music Week. She was very shy and sitting at the table all alone. I really didn’t know much about her. Only that she had a single called ‘Tug of War’ on the radio. Once again, Josh Ramsay knows everyone because him and Carly sang a duet together on the track ‘Sour Candy’ on Carly’s debut album ‘Tug of War’. Josh also produced and co-wrote alongside Jepson on her first smash hit single ‘Call Me Maybe’ off her second album titled ‘Curiosity’. Carly had some technical difficulties on stage and didn’t wanna lip sync so she waited until the problem got fixed and started with her performance again. I was watching Carly with lead vocalist David Brown from Montreal based rockers ‘The New Cities’. David is a totally down to earth dude. We met a few years ago at Canadian Music week when the band did an interview for Crazy Mofoz Show. I also ran into the dudes when I was on my second round of auditions to be a Much Music VJ. The boys have their sophomore album called ‘Lost in the Lights’ and have toured with big names such as, The Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry and of course Canadian friends….take a guess…I talked about them a lot in this post….Marianas Trench! TNC also had their songs featured on the teen shows Degrassi and Gossip Girl! We had a fun time chilling and catching up. When I was speaking to David about how Carly blew up he told me that they toured together so that is how they know each other and that she is still humble. 

I had a chance to save Victoria from chatting it up with 2 old men who were probably hitting on her when I grabbed her for an interview shot in an empty MTV office. I apologize in advance for the bad lighting. Victoria is such a sweet girl and talked to me about how she got started dancing, acting and singing at a very age. Victoria brought her mom as her date to the show. My interview with Victoria Duffield will be up soon so stay tuned. So, since we talked about Marianas Trench what is the 6 degrees between Marianas Trench and Miss V Duffy? Well, Josh worked on the same season when VD was on The Next Star and helped work with her on her track ‘Fever’.

The big hype was to see the Grammy award winning band Train perform. I watched Train perform on an episode of the teen show 90210 a few weeks ago and thought to myself, “I would like to see them perform live” and than when I actually got the opportunity, I was excited! Train knew how to put on a show! Everyone was anticipating for them to perform their smash hit Soul Sister, which of course they did! The highlight of their performance was when they brought up 2 fans to sing with them in a friendly competition a cover tune to Journey’s “Small Town Girl”. They also sang “Drops of Jupiter” and their latest from their album California 37 “Drive By”. Train brought Chum FM’s Fan Fest to a great finish.Thanks to the CHUM FM team!

I always like listening to new music and what better place to go meet some emerging musicians and artists than the Indie Awards! I was hoping much talked about R & B singer and fellow Scarborough native The Weeknd would be there since he was nominated for an award but sadly he was not. Nevertheless, he did win for Favorite Urban Artist or Group of the Year. I didn’t know many of the bands who were there but I was hoping to get to know them. A much talked about group for their music was The Sheepdogs. They were seated at the table in front of me and won a few awards including; Favorite Rock Artist or Group of the Year, Favorite Single of the Year for ‘I Don’t Know’, Favorite Live Artist/Group of the Year, Group of the Year! WOW! Very impressive. I also got a chance to briefly meet Indie folk rocker Dan Mangan who won Favorite Solo Artist of the Year. He is a sweet down to earth guy who also took home the 2012 Juno Awards for New Artist of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year for his latest album, ‘Oh Fortune’. Living in a house where instruments were always available to him, Dan obviously began playing those instruments as a past time. Interestingly, Dan started playing as teen with his band at the time at local community centres. I ran into Indie rock band Stuck on Planet Earth better known to their fans as SOPE. I first met this trio when my friend suggested them to perform for our work community event. They are really nice and fun guys. I would say we had a little too much fun when drummer Andrew Testa found a “gift box” and decided to be so ever kind and share. lol Singer and guitarist Adam Bianchi saw a guy in a beanie walk by and asked me, “who is guy was?” I looked close and I saw that it was Ryan Malcolm the winner of the first Canadian Idol reality series. I went up to him to say hi and he told me how he is in a band now called Low Level Flight. I had a chance to interview the boys. The interview will be up soon so stayed tuned.

I noticed that the SOPE boys who are from Vaughn are really passionate about their music and are well connected to their fans. The boys have a show coming up on May 18^th at the El Mocambo so make sure to go check them out. Some of the members from SOPE also presented awards during Canadian music week including the 2012 Hall of Fame Inductees to a former Indie Band who went Pop Punk and recently reunited, Treble Charger. Treble Charger was hitting the ‘Canadian airways in the 90’s and early 2000 with singles like ‘Friend of Mine’, ‘Red’, ‘American Psycho’ and ‘Hundred Million’. Treble Charger split ways in 2006. Lead vocalist and guitarist Greig Nori also managed his protégé Sum 41 and late became a music guru on a Canadian reality show on Much Music formerly called, disband. Nevertheless, the band created a twitter account in the New Year of 2012 and gave hints to a possible reunion. Finally, the band announced that they will be performing at the Indie Awards for Canadian Music Week minus 2 of the former band members Trevor MacGregor and Rosie Martin. It was cool to watch them perform again! Trebles Chargers management told me they plan to go on tour again.

Later on that night I went to the Horseshoe Tavern for a bit and spotted Rob James former Canadian Idol contestant and member of group former pop duo group McMaster and James originally from Winnipeg Manitoba. Rob James is a music write who has even written singles for former Juno nominated and as I mentioned earlier Canadian Idol winner and Low Level Flight front man, Ryan Malcolm. Rob James told me that there was a point in his life where he tried to escape from the music industry and head towards other professions. Nonetheless, music always seemed to be part of his life and he could not escape his natural talent. Rob currently lives in Toronto and is working on his own music. I ended my night at the Bovine and thought I spotted former Sum 41 band member Baksh. However, my buddy corrected me and told me it was Billy talent lead guitarist Ian D’Sa. What? It was a long night!

Canadian Music was great this year. I hope to see more hip hop acts and diversity. However, I had an amazing time meeting great new bands, meeting great new people and watching awesome shows.