new music

“I would say my biggest influences are the Foo Fighters and Jet,” says Brad Long, the lead guitarist and singer of his first rock project, James Bradley Band. “I listen to a lot of different styles, but rock bands like those, The Sheepdogs, The Trews and Sam Roberts Band are definitely my favourites.” A student […]

What does Nightbummerz like about playing loud? “It drowns out the booing,” says Grace Stratton, one-third of the gloomy post-punk band Nightbummerz. With lifelong friends Cameron Evans (guitar/vocals) and Alex Seminick (drums), both of whom Stratton met at a Freak Heat Waves show last year, Nightbummerz released a self-titled debut in April with tracks titled […]

“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 […]