David Simard:
David spent his first 13 years on the Northern coast of British Columbia. He now lives in a small rainforest in Saint-Henri, Montreal… .. Described as an avant-garde folk singer, David has been getting some due attention. His name recently appeared on the Montreal Mirror’s list for “Best Country/Folk Act” 2009.
After performing solo and as a duo for a few years and cross-country tours, he can now be found in full band formation with Damon Hankoff on vocals and double-bass, Daniel Gelinas on vocals and percussion, Brie Neilson on backing vocals, and varied guests on brass and woodwinds.
With a small bundle of EP’s under his belt, David’s debut full-length is due out this Fall.
Jenny Berkel:
Jenny Berkel’s deep, resonant voice and truly poetic lyrics have been garnering fans ever since she started performing with her guitar three years ago. In that time, she has played with bands The Wandering Goose and Lady o’Lakes, toured across Canada, busked on the streets of Paris and Belfast, and been nominated for two music awards. This summer she released her first solo recording, Gather Your Bones. Jenny’s songs are both haunting and starkly honest, drawing their substance from personal experience and collective history, free of the all-too-easy cliché of folk lyrics. Her voice is also unique—deep and smoky, broad as the Manitoba prairie where she now lives. Born in the heart of Southwestern Ontario, surrounded by disappearing forests and spreading cities, Jenny has always had a deep awareness of changing landscapes and the tenuous thread by which we live and love. Gather Your Bones is as much about the land as it is about leaving it – as much about love as it is about losing it. While most of these songs are arranged with a tasteful simplicity, songs such as “Gather Your Bones” beautifully blend multiple voices and instruments, hinting at a full-band arrangement. Alone or with accompaniment, Jenny’s music has an unforgettable quality – timeless and familiar – sprouting from the very landscape, with the scope of the endless road. ..
Clay Breiland:
I grew up shouting at far away landmasses in hopes to hear my voice returned. This practice improved my understanding of reflection in wave physics. Combined with running, I also diciphered the doplar effect, and recorded it on several occasions for study, eventually learning to discern it with the naked ear in the voices of retreating confidences and suspicious peers. Sometimes I was also quiet. It was during these meditations that I discovered my ability to turn myself into water, moss, nitrogen gas molecules, and compost. The latter of these was my favorite, as I had a decompositional-eye-view of death, and from this learned the valuable lesson of separating spirituality from religion. One day, a conversation with another of my selves prompted me to believe that I was likely an authentic being talking to thin air. I then took up my first instrument. By 13 years old I was perfectly capable of blowing my own horn with force and precision, but I have since lost the desire to do so; and with it, the belief that noone is listening when I choose not to speak. What did you expect? A life story?