Halifax fosters new creativity. At least that’s how Ria Mae sees it. Recently the songwriter quit her construction-management day job to take on music full-time, a bold but necessary risk. “Deep down, I know that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” says Mae. “I’ve had to downsize and am living very differently, but […]
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Granelli’s children: Panos Gianoullis and Denma Peisinger
Denma Peisinger is living with master jazz percussionist and composer Jerry Granelli, doing an “old-fashioned apprenticeship.” Peisinger, who plays bass, and guitarist Panos Gianoullis met while studying with Granelli in a program teaching free jazz to young musicians at the Atlantic Jazz Festival. They have been collaborating recently, as well as playing in Granelli’s ensemble […]
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Krasnogorsk and the Moscow Country Club get around
The Krasnogorsk is a Soviet movie camera and a suburb of Moscow, but Halifax’s Krasnogorsk can be found playing on the number seven bus, in trees, on the Common or on tall ships. Violinist Jacques Mindreau interrupted baritone ukulele player Corey Hinchey’s interview with a potential roommate last fall; he “started playing music with him, […]
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Gianna Lauren fits in swell
“I didn’t have a job, I wasn’t coming for school, I just got in my car and drove here,” says Gianna Lauren. The Edmonton native arrived via Ottawa in January, with an EP (Fist in a Heart) and a plan: to become part of the local music scene. “I found the scene really insular,” she […]
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Electro Chiac Therapie: brutal acadian punk
“We thought, ‘Let’s do all sex lyrics, but we’ll do them in French so nobody knows what we’re talking about,’” says Lindsay of ECT. Two-thirds Acadian, the threesome (by stage names Lindsay Sue, Mimi Ostie and Fritzi LeBaron) sing in chiac, known as an English-tinged “brutalization” of Acadian French. They get audiences dancing by playing […]
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OWL under pop’s quiet wings
OWL came into existence last summer when Matthew MacDonald made a few tracks on his computer and convinced girlfriend Vanessa Murnaghan to write lyrics for them. After an initial bout of nerves, the pair had a song and sent it around to friends. “They liked it,” says Murnaghan, “so we just kept making more.” Murnaghan […]
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Paper Beat Scissors make abstract sounds
Remember playing rock, paper, scissors during recess in elementary school? Well, Tim Crabtree’s project Paper Beat Scissors has little to do with childish games, but there is something youthful about his approach to music. Instead of locking himself in the ivory tower of song, he begins by tinkering around on guitar and making sounds reminiscent […]
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The Pushers keep pushing it
Because you’ve become an old and boring punk, doesn’t mean the music you make has to be the same. The Pushers, who have about a million years of collective experience playing in bands, are one of the more exciting acts playing punk rock in Halifax. The reason stems from the fact that this band is […]
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Road Rash: worship the skateboard
There hasn’t been a band in the Maritime punk scene since FYM that worships skateboarding as much as Road Rash. Their demo, released earlier this year and sold out of an old pizza box, could and should be the soundtrack to the movie Thrashin’. Made up of Dartmouth inhabitants Bobby Swagger, C-Wilk, Peter Van Shmansen […]
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Kelly Sloan gets used to centre stage
Kelly Sloan calls her debut LP, Always Changes, an accident. Released in March, the alt-country indie-pop collection was inspired by her roommates, Dale and Brian Murray, who encouraged the Ottawa Valley transplant to write a song for them to produce. “They kept coming and they sounded good and then I had nine or 10,” says […]
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Three Sheet not limited to hip hop
“If you owed me $2.50 I’d say you owed me a 2.50-sheet,” says Matt Kliffer, lyricist and beatboxer. “It’s something that has yet to exist, it’s not printed by the government. We’re our own kind of currency.” Three Sheet—Kliffer (AKA Expedyte), bassist Kevin Tilley, beatboxer EMC (Eric McIntyre), guitarist Ryan O’Quinn and vocalist Vanessa Furlong—have […]
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York Redoubt don’t waste time
Made up of Mike Wright (bass, vocals), Caleb Langille (guitar, vocals), Brad Lahead (guitar, vocals) and Noah Dalton (on drums; Dalton replaced his older brother Seamus after he left Halifax for school), York Redoubt may play with clock radios on stage, but no one can accuse them of wasting time. Currently touring across Canada and […]
