On Saturday night, Halifax will be treated to one of Chicago’s most interesting film composers and jazz multi-instrumentalists. Joshua Abrams makes music that is challenging, accessible and it rings in tune with the body. For over 15 years, Abrams has been creating worlds within worlds. Since 2010, he performs with a rotating ensemble called the […]
Music Festivals
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Techno with DJ Kaz_Kandy
“The music I tend to play is usually techno and acid house,” says DJ Kaz_Kandy (AKA Kelly Zwicker). “Sometimes I like playing EDM and minimal-wave, but techno is a really transcendent type of music for me. I love how repetitive and hard-hitting it can be, while still having so much depth. Plus, it’s just super-fun […]
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Brave Radar’s minimalist pop
Playing soft and intricate pop, Brave Radar began as the solo project of Sydney, Australia’s Conor Prendergast. After moving to Montreal, he was joined by Halifax’s Tessa Smith of Fixture Records. The band has since grown to be a four-piece, full-fledged member of Montreal’s independent scene, with Smith’s label at the centre. If he could […]
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The EverySeeker Symposium debuts
OBEY Convention is more than just a weekend of seeing wicked, life-changing bands. For its ninth and most robust year, OBEY has prepared its very first music lecture series, the EverySeeker Symposium, running in tandem with the rest of the festival. Organized by former Halifax musician and current music theory student Dave Ewenson, who is […]
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Marie Davidson, electro poet
“I find inspiration in my everyday life,” says Montreal composer, poet and synth-artist Marie Davidson. “I often take notes of thoughts I’ve had or things that people say to me. If you come close to me, you might end up in a song.” Since the release of her debut LP Perte d’identité in 2014, Davidson […]
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Gridlock Festival to offer free, all-ages programming
Gridlock Festival is the new kid on the festival block and it’s already making friends with the neighbourhood youngsters–this morning the festival organizers announced two free, all-ages shows for the 19-and-under crowd. On Saturday, July 9 the Spatz Theatre will host Postdata, Owen and Waxahatchee for an afternoon show open to 300 minors and 400 […]
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All Dressed Up
In the dead of last winter, living alone for the first time and unemployed, Dark for Dark’s Rebecca Zolkower spent a lot of time just playing guitar and writing songs. “I like watching winter from the window,” she says. Even though she wasn’t feeling inspired about the writing, when the spring arrived Zolkower took her bandmates—singers […]
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Getting intimate with Steven Lambke
“I definitely excluded rock as much as I could,” says Canadian folk singer Steven Lambke over the phone in his Toronto home. “I have too much of that in my past and musical background.” That background includes being the guitarist for Canadian indie rock band The Constantines, and fronting his own band Baby Eagle and […]
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Quiet Parade breaks out the fog rock
Members of Halifax’s Quiet Parade have difficulty defining their sound—and that’s how they like it. “Often, the term that I give our band is ‘fog rock,’” says frontperson and lyricist Trevor Murphy in a phone interview ahead of Thursday’s IDOW show. The group mixes sad and hopeful lyrics with airy instrumentals to create a sound […]
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Catherine MacLellan’s island muse
“Whenever I’m home, I’m always writing something,” says PEI songbird Catherine MacLellan, who performs Friday. “I sit and look outside the window and inspiration comes through osmosis, through the experience of being here.” Although MacLellan says travelling—as she’ll do on tour later this year—can also spark creativity, “PEI is definitely my muse.” For almost 15 […]
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Fortunate Ones kind of homecoming
“Are we working on anything lately? Well, we just put a shelf together,” jokes Andrew O’Brien, one half of St. John’s folk-pop duo Fortunate Ones. “We’ve actually been on the road so much, it can be tough to find time to write, but we’ve been rehearsing some new stuff that we’ll try out in Halifax.” […]
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The road to Burning Hell
Back in 2008, In the Dead of Winter was the first festival that Mathias Kom played under his Burning Hell moniker. “In those first three or four years, The Burning Hell was primarily an outlet for songwriting,” he says. “I didn’t really expect that it was going to go anywhere in terms of touring.” Now, […]
