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 […]
Music Festivals
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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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Peerless avant-garde music from Zs
“Zs has no peers really,” says Sam Hillmer, founder and tenor saxophonist of his Brooklyn-based experimental avant-garde ensemble (pronounced the American way, “zees”). “But there are really engaged audiences.” With Patrick Higgins and Greg Fox, Zs is a sonic experience that exceeds expectation, even though “expectation is the death of experience,” Hillmer says. With swelling […]
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Fall in—your complete guide to OBEY Convention is here
In this, its ninth year, OBEY is bigger and more inclusive than ever. Along with the standard tightly curated collection of boundary pushing music shows and the Khyber’s Art In Fest running all weekend—Thursday, May 26 through Sunday, May 29—the festival features a new lecture series, the EverySeeker Symposium, plus a mandate to make more […]
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James Ehnes wants to play for you
James Ehnes’ virtuosic talent feels like a force of nature. Making sounds that are sometimes bombastic and often impressively nuanced, he plays the violin with a confidence and an elegance that are nearly unparalleled. Now, on the occasion of his 40th birthday—celebrated in January—Ehnes has been hitting the road to play compositions both new and […]
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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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Daniel Walker talks the folk
How often does Owen Meany’s Batting Stance’s Daniel Walker have to explain his band’s name? “Ninety percent of the time,” he estimates. “People either aren’t familiar with the book”—John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany—”or recognize the name but don’t know why.” While his band will be playing Friday at In the Dead of Winter […]
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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.” […]