CANADA’S MUSIC INDUSTRY RALLIES TO CREATE MUSICTOGETHER

ONLINE PERFORMANCE INITIATIVE WILL PROVIDE $300,000 OF RELIEF TO ONTARIO MUSICIANS

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April 2, 2020 (Toronto, ON) - In an effort to provide a cash injection to Ontario musicians impacted by the effects of COVID-19, members of the Canadian music community with support from the Ontario Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries have come together to create an emergency relief fund totalling $300,000. Launching today, MusicTogether.ca will facilitate live concert streams by at least 300 Ontario-based artists, each of whom will receive a one-time performance fee of $1,000. 

The initial fund has been committed thanks to $150,000 from music community funders (full list below), with $150,000 in matching funds coming from the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries as a component of the Ontario Live initiative. Arts & Crafts and Shopify Inc. collectively donated resources to together create and develop MusicTogether.ca – a web platform where artists can apply for the funding, and where audiences can find information on upcoming live-streamed performances from Ontario musicians. Musicians will also use the platform to sell merchandise and take donations, receiving the tools and specialized content to help them create their own online store supported by Shopify. Musicians will also receive $100 in Facebook Ad credits.

"This is happening to all of us," says Ontario musician and Arts & Crafts co-founder Kevin Drew. "MusicTogether is our effort to bring much-needed financial support to musicians throughout the province and keep a light shining on the glorious experience that is live music.” 

MusicTogether was founded by Raja Khanna, Gary Slaight, Jeffrey Remedios, Oliver Johnson, Arts & Crafts and Daniel Debow (partners in Toronto’s The Root Down Studio). 

MusicTogether has been supported financially by the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries as a component of the Ontario Live initiative. Ontario Live will serve as a customer-friendly marketplace that makes it easy for consumers to buy from, do business with, or otherwise support Ontario artists, attractions, festivals and other cultural industries.

“Ontario remains open for artists, and open for musicians, and open for online business during these unprecedented times,” said Lisa MacLeod, Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries. “We’re proud to match MusicTogether with a $150,000 investment to grow the new Ontario Live virtual marketplace to provide our creative industries a platform to engage audiences remotely to help stop the spread of COVID-19.”

Other title sponsors include Slaight Music and Arts & Crafts, as well as industry contributors listed below. Music fans are encouraged to support MusicTogether.ca with direct donations. MusicTogether is run by volunteers with 100% of funds going to working musicians affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

In addition to curated performers selected by the programmers listed below, Ontario artists can apply to be a part of the MusicTogether series. Applications will be assessed by a juried panel of established members of the music community. Applicants must be Canadian citizens over age 18 residing in Ontario in order to be eligible. Music lovers can find information on upcoming performances via the MusicTogether.ca hub. All performances will be hosted via the artist’s own social media channels and shared via MusicTogether.ca.

The goal of MusicTogether is to highlight diverse artists in this province, providing a platform inclusive of all walks of life regardless of genre or style. Please visit MusicTogether.ca for more information and full eligibility requirements. MusicTogether.ca provides a hub to facilitate live music experiences to be enjoyed from the comfort and safety of our homes, while supporting the local music community that is so essential to who we are and that will provide the soundtrack for the bright future we dream of.

Financial support for MusicTogether.ca comes from:

Matching Partner:
Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries

Title Promoters:
Slaight Music 
Arts & Crafts 

Crew:
Jeffrey Remedios 
Steve Kane 
Shane Carter 
Daniel Debow 
Raja Khanna
Bedtracks / Oliver Johnson
Metalworks Studios

Roadies:
Gary Slaight
Randy Lennox 
Derrick Ross
Signal Creative Community
Proscenium Services (Blanche Israël)
Michael Girgis

Curators:
APCM (Association des professionnels de la chanson et de la musique)
Darkspark
Zneud
Manifesto
Wavelength
Nagamo Publishing 
Yes Yes Y’all

Corporate Sponsors: 
Shopify Inc.
Facebook 

 … and you, the fans!  Click here to donate now.  

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SCOTT HARDWARE REVEALS NEW VIDEO FOR “MILLIONAIRE”, NEW LP OUT FRIDAY

WATCH AND SHARE “MILLIONAIRE” HERE

ENGEL OUT APRIL 3 VIA TELEPHONE EXPLOSION

“...an eclectic and uncategorizable piano-and-strings-speckled meditation on queerness, shame, death and the afterlife.” - NOW Toronto

Photo Credit : Shelby Fenlon // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

This Friday, Scott Hardware is set to release his latest LP, Engel, via Telephone Explosion. Today, he shares the new video for “Millionaire” which follows Scott through a decades-long fixation on a very memorable one-night-stand.

We trail him through the years while ruminations of the encounter both bright and melancholic play in his memory on loop. Cyclical thoughts of power and pleasure aren’t the only things that repeat, however, and both Scott and his lover will eventually find their own way to relieve the encounter.

By Millionaire’s end we’re looking two ways: forward towards a potential (or parallel?) future, and behind us to a past this is rooted in something stronger than the passing of time - an archetype."

WATCH AND SHARE “MILLIONAIRE” HERE

Engel marks the end of a three-year process of writing, recording and letting down his guard (for better or worse.) His last album, Mutate, Repeat, Infinity, was the culmination of a years-long obsession with the HIV/AIDS crisis and how it was shaped by capitalism. Hardware’s early years after coming out were shaped by the courage of people close to him who were dealing with difficult diagnoses. 

“Looking at these situations from a macro/societal lens must have been the only way I could process and share those years of my life and my loved ones’ lives with an audience” Hardware recalls. “From a writing and production standpoint, I was trying to re-imagine various eras of dance music and sound as urgent and vital as they would have in their heyday of the ‘80s and ‘90s.” 

LISTEN AND SHARE “ENGEL” YOUTUBE / SPOTIFY

Within a year of moving back (to Toronto) from Berlin, Scott watched Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire and was immediately filled with its inherent curiosity. The film, in short, follows angels around pre-unification Berlin as they listen to the thoughts of the mortals they are surrounded by. 

“I sought with this album to capture the film’s velvety feeling – in turns funny, depressing, dark and mundane – in LP form” Hardware says. “These songs imagine Wenders’ angels buzzing around my friends, my family and I. Writing from their point of view allowed me unfettered access to my own thoughts about them and myself.” 

LISTEN AND SHARE “JOY” BANDCAMP / SPOTIFY

“Millionaire” swoops in on a courtship doomed from the beginning: “He’s a Millionaire, and what a Millionaire says goes”. A sense of inferiority follows the protagonist in his efforts date a richer man than himself – the romance being cut short because of the poorer man’s insecurities. He decides: better to be alone than to feel beneath. 

“Millionaire” is the most delicate song on Engel. Sullen guitars glide over a rolling plain of harps, drones and underwater motifs with Deidre Nox’s beautiful vocals bringing an almost camp level of melodrama to its crescendo as Hardware and Nox sing together: “you can feel him like he’s always been there.” 

The song ends on a sour note, in a swamp of drones and fallen electrical wire buzzes – and back where the protagonist began. 

“Survivor’s Guilt” ties Engel to Hardware’s previous work with its premeditation on illness and the grief left in its wake. A digitized voice reads a sister’s eulogy to her brother lost to suicide after years of losing his friends around him to “a disease.” The six-minute instrumental takes respective production cues from both Boyz II Men and vaporwave. A chopped voice asks sadly, ‘How can I survive surviving?’ before Nox appears once again, singing the song (and album) to sleep. 

LISTEN AND SHARE “BLU AGAIN” SOUNDCLOUD / SPOTIFY

Engel’s cover art is adorned by an image by artist Chris Curreri called the Insomniac. Curreri’s work winks and nods to queer sex, emotionality and darkness, and this piece is no different. This is work that reaches back to queer artists such as Francis Bacon and brings back with it a timeless everyday horror faced by queers: shame. 

These are artists who visualize monsters and demons hiding in plain sight. Like singing to dead queer ancestors on Mutate, Repeat, Infinity, Hardware is trying to make sense of another queer cross-to-bear, this time coming from within. The image is gory and difficult, not unlike the process of digging shame from one’s spirit. Engel, in its preoccupation with angels, the afterlife and private thoughts holds hands with the image. 

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ENGEL TRACKLIST
1. Intro
2. Millionaire
3. Blu Again
4. Joy
5. Engel
6. Left Hand
7. Bound Together
8. Survivor’s Guilt

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SLOW LEAVES REVEALS VIDEO FOR “SENTIMENTAL TEARDROPS”, NEW LP OUT FRIDAY

WATCH AND SHARE “SENTIMENTAL TEARDROPS” HERE

ALBUM RELEASE LIVE STREAM ON MONDAY APRIL 6 VIA NAC’S #CANADAPERFORMS

SHELF LIFE OUT APRIL 3 VIA BIRTHDAY CAKE

PRE-ORDER SHELF LIFE HERE

Photo Credit : Grant Davidson  // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

This Friday, Winnipeg’s Slow Leaves - singer-songwriter, Grant Davidson – will release his sixth studio album, Shelf Life, out via Birthday Cake. Today, the JUNO Master Class alumnus is announcing the album release live stream performance to take place Monday, April 6 at 8pm ET as part of the NAC’s #CanadaPerforms.

Fans can find the live stream on Slow Leaves’ Facebook Page and Instagram.

Today, he is also sharing the new video for album cut “Sentimental Teardrops”. “This song is a defence of my fears, conceits, and contradictions,” says Davidson. “Some of us were born with broken hearts and find comfort in slipping into sentimentality as though into an old pair of slippers. The video intends to be as transparent as the song.”

WATCH AND SHARE “SENTIMENTAL TEARDROPS” HERE

Known for his ability to breathe poetry into the ordinary, Slow Leaves continues his deep exploration of the self with Shelf Life. The 10-track LP leans into themes of romantic memory, domestic duty, artistic ambition, and dreams unfulfilled, underpinning the belief that there is indeed great strength in vulnerability. 

Rooted in reflections on time, Shelf Life is a record about growing up to realize you are not the person you thought you would be. It is a collection of songs that wades between tides of past and present, success and failure, things lost and things found. The result is a collection of musical vignettes, woven together by the loose threads of a tangled life.

WATCH AND SHARE “SINK FULL OF DISHES” HERE

BUY / STREAM “SINK FULL OF DISHES” HERE

Recorded mostly live off the floor, Davidson teamed up with Rusty Matyas (Weakerthans), Damon Mitchell (New Meanies), and Rejean Ricard (Telepathic Butterflies) to bring the album to life.

The release of Shelf Life follows Davidson’s critically acclaimed works Enough About Me (2017) and Beauty Is So Common (2014), both garnering heavy rotation on CBC Radio 2. The Winnipeg Free Press described Enough About Me as “a gentle breeze of exquisite playing and keen observations that will reward listeners again and again and again.” The album also garnered Davidson a nomination for a Western Canadian Music Award.

WATCH AND SHARE “MISS YOU” HERE

BUY / STREAM “MISS YOU” HERE

Every song is an invitation to step inside Davidson’s inner world—a space of beauty and wisdom, coloured outside the lines. With warm voice and guitar, Davidson uncovers a humanity that shines in even the darkest corners. 

PRE-ORDER SHELF LIFE HERE

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

SHELF LIFE TRACKLIST
01 Looking Out My Window
02 Miss You
03 Sink Full Of Dishes
04 Time Was On Your Side
05 Autumn Rain
06 Wishes
07 Half Of The Bed
08 Try Again In The Morning
09 Without A Care
10 Sentimental Teardrops

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