Canadian Musician Podcast

This week, we're joined by Brandon Wolfe Scott, best known as the guitarist of Yukon Blonde. With a recently released solo effort, Scott has been trying out new, different things, and discovering more about his own musicianship in the process.

Here, Scott talks about finding a balance between his work with Yukon Blonde and his solo endeavours, as well as some of his prized and coveted musical istruments and accessories.

Just ahead of the 2023 Juno Awards, we caught up with MusiCounts Music Teacher of the Year Award nominees Stephen Richardson and Heidi Wood, as well as MusiCounts' Nick Godsoe to talk what makes effective music education, and why it's important to have access to.

Richardson is the music teacher for École St.Joseph School in Yellowknife, NWT, while Wood teaches at Joane Cardinal-Schubert High School in Calgary, AB. Godsoe is Senior Manager, Programs & Education for MusiCounts. The three each bring a unique perspective to this roundtable discussion.

PEI’s Sommo Festival boasts a massive line up for a first-year festival. With hopes to make it an annual event, Ben Murphy and his team at Whitecap Entertainment (the group behind the award-winning Cavendish Beach Music Festival) put a lot of work into the launch, and the festival will be taking place this July.

Before starting on the panning, the team did a deep dive into what the community enjoyed about live music events and how they could make it the most enjoyable for all. Of course, everyone said the only thing they like better than live music is delicious food, so Sommo was born.

This week, we’re joined by Ernesto Cervini, one of Canada’s premiere jazz artists, who also runs Orange Grove Publicity. The drummer, composer, and bandleader chats about making a life and a living in the music business, and the literary inspirations behind his latest offering, 2022’s Joy.

The Juno-nominated Joy was inspired by a series of book’s Cervini loves: Louise Penny’s Three Pines series. The album is a musical journey through the soul and heart of the series and the characters who inhabit it, guided by an adoring fan. Cervini’s music and personality beam with unbridled joy and this album is a true reflection of that.

This week, we're joined by Tim Chaisson and Jake Charron of Canadian pop-folk band The East Pointers, who recently received a JUNO Award nomination for Contemporary Roots Album of The Year for their EP, House of Dreams.

In January 2022, the band suffered an unimaginable loss with the sudden passing of member Koady Chaisson, but Tim Chaisson and Jake Charron have continued to carry on and keep Koady’s spirit alive with the release of their recent album and more new music to come.

This week we are joined by Luc Lemay, lead vocalist and guitarist of the Canadian death metal band Gorguts.

Originally from Sherbrooke, Quebec, Gorguts has been around since 1989, with Lemay as its only constant member. The band was in a years-long period of inactivity since 2016, but they've recently gotten back together are laying out plans for a new album, with some new shows announced coming up this spring.

It's obvious that online teaching saw a huge rise during the pandemic, and for some, it proved to be a more efficient model. This week, Teach Music Online's Carly Walton joins us to talk about what it takes to pivot to a new teaching and learning model, and explores the benefits of being an online teacher, but also the results students can see from learning at home.

This week, we're joined by Ottawa blues artist and Juno nominee Angelique Francis, whose latest album, Long River, is up for Blues Album of the Year at the 2023 Juno Awards. Francis delves into her writing process, shares her tips for keeping a neat schedule, and explores the themes of her music, as well as what it's like to be a true multi-instrumentalist and major award nominee.

Francis is known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres including blues, soul, folk, jazz, gospel, and rock. She has shared the stage with or opened for a roster of well-known musicians such as Gary Clark Jr, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Gales, Keb’ Mo’, Jimmy Vivino, Beth Hart, Tom Cochran, Burton Cummings, Sugar Ray, and more.

William Carn is one of Canada’s leading contemporary jazz trombonists and composers. His latest release, Choices, is the culmination of over two years of work during the pandemic, and a major stylistic departure. With the help of Toronto producer HiFiLo (aka Todd Pentney), this recording was augmented, edited, and mixed remotely as well. The compositions on Choices were all inspired by various major events from the past two and a half years: the fear of the unknown, BLM and HK protests, the war in Ukraine, the passing of their beloved eldest cat, as well as general feelings of gratitude and love. The two central themes of this recording are reaction and reflection.

We delve behind the scenes on the making of many of the lyric videos we’ve all seen for some of our favourite songs, but probably haven’t thought too much about, as far as who made them goes.

Lyric Vids is one of the music industry's leading lyric video production companies, with quite the portfolio under its belt. The 100% Canadian company has garnered more than 250 million YouTube viewsto date; and produced videos for some of the biggest names in music.