A few days after the release of her second album, Heart of My Own, Basia Bulat has just one day of downtime at home in Toronto between shows in New York and Europe and her Canadian tour. It’s a lifestyle she’s accustomed to now: “I wrote most of the songs while travelling,” she says. “I’ve […]
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Falling for The Balconies
When I was young, my mom always tried pushing me into music lessons. I’m guessing the mothers of Liam Jaeger and siblings Jacquie and Steve Neville of The Balconies did too—with great success. “We were all studying at University of Ottawa in the classical music program,” says Jaeger, calling from Kingston, ON. There, the band’s […]
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Juvenilia’s beat kids
While teaching youth the musical ropes a few years ago, Malachy Kazi noticed a hole in Halifax’s music scene. “There’s no real strong support network for young artists; it’s very frustrating,” he says. So he started to patch it up. With help from a former student, Kazi built a studio in the Shambhala School. “I […]
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Live like Common people
“The consultation process is a joke,” says Katie, a 24-year-old student, lips quivering, eyes on the brink of tears. She announces that she is going to leave Halifax because the city doesn’t care about the desires of its populace. Halifax Regional Municipality makes her feel agentless. Peter Bigelow, manager of real property planning for HRM […]
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At the heart of Tegan and Sara
Sometimes relationships inspire us to be saint-like, martyrs even. Tegan and Sara’s sixth release, Sainthood, explores the tension between who we are and how we long to be. They bring their piety to the Metro Centre on January 27. “In relationships we act with blind faith,” says Sara Quin, calling from Vancouver. “We can really […]
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Spend the weekend with Just Friends
All the best-of-decade lists have come and gone. It’s time to just get on with it, the now sound. What that is, of course, is always up for debate. At Just Friends Records, hosting a weekend of music releases, getting on with it means going back to a degree. Even looking at their releases reveals […]
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Monotonix mania
The last time you saw Ami Shalev, he was probably dumping a garbage can on his drummer’s head. Or shoving a microphone up his ass. Or leaping off of a telephone pole in front of Gus’ Pub. Or crowd surfing atop a bass drum. Shalev’s band Monotonix had quite the year in 2008, mowing down […]
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Corbett’s in good company
“My tunes are my way of processing,” says Kev Corbett. “I write audio songs. I work out the world by talking in my head. Music is my first language.” As a natural storyteller, Corbett brings listeners on quite the journey with his narrative-driven songs. Despite having a soft release at the Lunenburg Folk Festival, he’s […]
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Lukas Pearse goes on the record
It’s a contemporary question with deep historical roots. Is technology “better for music or does it take the soul out of the music?” asks vocalist Janice Jackson on the phone before a rehearsal of Vonda De Ville in Temporal Follies—An Electropera, a piece created for her by Lukas Pearse. The hour-long work will be performed […]
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Kelly McGuire’s midweek collaborators
Hump day is usually the day that gets you closer to the weekend, but the last Wednesday of 2009 began a new mid-week tradition—Halifax Music Club at the Paragon. The Club brings musicians and artists from different genres together to collaborate, with local blues musician Garrett Mason, Cape Breton darling Carmen Townsend and actor/dancer/jack-of-all-trades Cory […]
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Andrea Somers’ Brave heart
Patience is a virtue, especially when it takes almost half a decade to finish what you’ve started. Andrea Somers kicks off the New Year with a bold statement: Brave, her debut solo album, is being released at The Seahorse Tavern on January 2. While the album artwork (photographed by Karen Baer) portrays the artist draped […]
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Decade in review: music scene, not a machine
Ten years is an awfully long period of time to cover, at least in the life of the average Halifax musician. Because of our diverse scene, turnover is high—Halifax could be named the call centre of Canadian music scenes. From the end of the 1990s’ “new Seattle” to a new mecca for weird punk, local […]
