New Music Issue 2016

“Our biggest problem is that I’m too funny, it’s hard for everyone to concentrate,” says Daniel Crowther, songwriter and singer of Halifax four-piece No Problem, which just finished a tour to Ontario, played Flourish Festival and put out a first full-length, The Honestly Hour. “My biggest problem is listening to other people chew,” says Mitchell […]

“I do write a lot about myself, but I love writing story songs,” says folk songwriter Laurenn Marchand, a graduate of music from St. FX and music therapy at Acadia. “Working as a music therapist outside of performance, I have the opportunity to engage with a lot of older people and I love writing songs […]

“It’s groovy, wacky and noisy in the right places,” says Brett Jarret, vocalist and guitarist of lazy pop indie-rock band Strongboy. Along with Seamus O’Neill, Alex Sheppard and Tyler Popwell, the four best friends from Cape Breton are anything but traditional Island fare, with their modern indie-pop flourishes and jizz-jazzy reverbs. Strongboy is currently working […]

After playing bass as a hired gun with almost every gigging jazz musician in the Maritimes, St. FX jazz graduate Willem Paynter released City Grit, his debut record of original music (and one jazz standard), in December. “It can be considered hard-bop, a direct descendent of bebop, but there’s a lot of funk, groove, blues […]

Meeting at jazz master Jerry Granelli’s Creative Music Workshop five years ago, saxophonists Nick Dourado (Eddy, Special Costello) and Andrew MacKelvie released six spontaneous tracks on an album titled oo last year. “Everything you hear is improvised, and I think it highlights the connection that Nick and I have,” explains MacKelvie. “We love songs and […]

This is what inspires Dana Beeler, the vocalist and guitarist of new rock-based outfit Hello Delaware: “Shitty dudes, shitty breakups and t-shirts with fun sayings on them. I was sick of being pigeonholed as a sad-sack songwriter,” she says of her days performing as Dana Beeler, onstage with a guitar. “But I’m not sad, I’m […]

“Me and Steve wanted to start something poppy but still have it be punk and fast,” says guitarist Cody Googoo (Alienation, Unreal Thought) of his collaborator Steve Earle. Joined by Bloodhouse’s Alex Mitchell (vocals), Justin Crowe (drums) and Adam LeDrew (bass, formerly Walrus), Booji Boys released an energetic post-punk demo of six songs last month. […]

As a member of the Halifax Music Co-op, Wesley Smith approached fellow member and vocalist Julia Cunningham once he launched his electronic music project, Cabot, with electronic producer Brant Hunter, also known as Feels (a member of the Murmurs arts and music collective). “I knew I wanted to work with a female singer, so I […]

Over coffee and snacks in the room where they recorded their debut EP Mountain God, the four members of Mandarin-pop indie-rock band Century Egg show me how to eat a Tim Tam Slam. Just take the chocolate-coated biscuit, make a straw by biting both ends, slurp your coffee through it and eat it all at once. Like […]

Some people don’t just make music, they make movements. For 19-year-old Alex “Cunny” Ross, R&B helps him take positive steps in his world. “I’m from Uniacke Square, born and raised,” he says. Last year, Ross sold all 50 copies of his first mixtape Young Coming Up in less than 48 hours. Encouraged, he started Family […]

Last fall, Fleet-Foxy folk singer Devarrow (Graham Ereaux) moved to Halifax from Vancouver after a six-month tour. Originally from Moncton, he says the Halifax community is one of the main reasons he came back east, and it’s been an inspiration to his music ever since. While he was away, he chronicled his adventures on a […]

“It was like, why don’t we just get two drum kits and beat the shit out of them?” says Nick Dourado (XXVII, Century Egg) on the formation of EDDY. With drummer Nathan Doucet (Heaven for Real), EDDY is an experimental drum duo that pummels listeners with continuous, spontaneous and completely uninhibited music. In December, the […]