dead of winter update....

Wow, it's been such a brutal freezing winter that I'm always grateful to be indoors working up a warm sweat playing drums. It's  been great to have been busy during the normally 'dead' early months of the year. Some highlights include playing drums in Kira Isabella's new music video for 'Shake it' which aired on CMT last week for the first time and is now up on youtube.  Also recorded drums at Dream House Studios on a full album for an up and coming singer songwriter. Played a CD release show for Celia Palli's new album, went to Ottawa twice in the past few weeks for some corporate gigs and a show with Kira Isabella and Dallas Smith. Also headlined a show at Brock University with Kira, and did gigs with friends around the Oshawa area. 

Excited for next week, as I'll be recording some drum tracks at Metalworks Studios for a freshly signed Universal Artists upcoming album. Amazing songs, in a "Soul Pop" style.  Then later on I'll be playing JunoFest in Hamilton as well as local corporate shows around town.  

Remo and other fun stuff....

Last week was a really special week, as I signed an endorsement deal with Remo drumheads! I've been playing and loving these heads since I was 9 years old, so it feels really great to now be a part of the Remo family! 

This week I have a bunch of cool things I'm looking forward to. Tomorrow I'll be on set at 6am for Kira Isabella's music video shoot for her song 'Shake It'  Looking forward to doing my first music video with her!

Then Wednesday and Thursday I will be in the studio recording drums on 7 songs for a girl named Lauren Mandel. Her songs are fantastic and It will be great to work with Ben Nudds, Mike Cohen and Geoff Willingham. Always a fun team to be around! Then Friday I'll be rehearsing with the badass punk band The Corbins, Friday night playing at the Horseshoe Tavern with Electro Rock band Most Non heinous, Saturday afternoon rehearsing with Spanish/Indie artist Celia Palli and Sat night playing a corporate gig in Richmond Hill.   

Busy week ahead and looking forward to all of it!

2015!

Happy 2015 Everyone! Excited to jump right into the year head on with 3 shows later this week With Kira Isabella in Ottawa and surrounding areas.  Stay tuned for more exciting info coming up too!

The last few months of 2014 were a total blast! An album I recorded drums on for Spanish/Canadian Indie artist Celia Palli was released nationally in Spain and is getting a lot of traction.

In October and November, I did a full Canadian tour called "The Shake it Tour" that was drawn out over six weeks. It was very interesting in the sense that I was playing for both Kira Isabella and the opening band Autumn Hill. Two soundchecks and two shows everyday, which was great, as it was drum drums drums all day long! It reminded me of 2011 when I did another full Canadian tour called the Joint Venture Tour, playing for Rebel Emergency, Ko and Daniel Wesley. Bass player Mike Cohen and I backed up all three acts, so it was just absoloutely insane. Non Stop!  

Anyway, this recent "shake it" tour, combined with other shows such as a radio hosting special with Lindsay Broughton, showcase with Nefe, gigs with Maddy Rodriguez, Hot fiyah (feat Divine Brown), Rebel Emergency, corporate gigs in Long Island New York and elsewhere with bands such as Electric Blonde made for a very busy closing to 2014. 

The Setlists for Kira Isabella and Autumn Hill on the Shake It Tour

End of summer update

The crowd rolling in at the new Winnipeg Blue Bombers stadium

Haven't written Since early July as this summer has been crazy. I feel really lucky to have been doing a lot of cool stuff with so many artists....playing awesome music and doing a lot of travelling. 

Highlights include playing the new Winnipeg Blue Bombers stadium, opening up for The Zac Brown band with Kira Isabella, as part of our short BC and Alberta tour as well as other shows opening for the likes of Miranda Lambert, Eli Young Band, Thompson Square, Tim Hicks and at the end of this month we will be opening for Keith Urban!

Playing for the Final 6 contestants on YTV's show The Next Star

Tv stuff included  doing a fair ammount of work for YTV, such as drumming on an episode of their Next Star show, as well as Playing their Summer Beach Bash Show, which Nick Cannon came out to host. Also filmed a live taping for Country Music Television with Kira Isabella called Live At The Edison. That should air quite soon actually.

Orange Lounge Studios 

Was in the studio a fair bit too this month, working with Spanish folk indie artist Celia Palli, where we did drums and Bass at Orange Lounge, which is Probably my favourite room to record drums in Toronto. Also recorded with St Catherines artist Wesley James at One Ink Studios out in St Catherines. 

Shot A music video with this awesome new punk band that i'm a part of called The Corbins. We did it over two days in an upstairs loft on Geary street in toronto. Had flower petals all over and in my drums by the time the shoot was done!

Music Video Shoot with The Corbins

Also got to do one of my favourite yearly things, which is to play the Bollywood Mash in celebration square in Mississauga. It's insane. 6000 indian people come out and just go crazy, and its always such a challenge learning and playing these bollywood tunes. I sample instruments like Dohl and Tabla into my Roland Spdsx pad and it sounds super authentic! The band sounded amazing and I got goose bumps as soon as we started playing!

Played a really cool show at the Sound Academy for the Edge Next Big Thing for this Alternative Rock artist called Gray. She got down to the final 6 of the competition so was asked to play the show. She rocked it super hard and I haven't sweated that much after just playing 5 songs since my speed punk days!

On August 14th I performed as part of the House band for HoneyJam Canada, backing up a slew of female artists. All were fantastic! I had worked with NEFE (Sarah Felker) playing drums on her upcoming record, so it was cool to play with her live. She absoloutely Killed it! 

With Sarah Felker

Other shows, included Ride The Tiger at the Orbit room, Country Artist Lindsay Broughton, Corporate, resort and other gigs with Electric Blonde, Parkside Drive, Kate Todd, Rebelljo, Little Rock, and more....

July

It's been a great July so far! Played Ciderfest with Autumn Hill (pic above). Was a privilege as Im a huge fan of them as people let alone the great country songs they've written. This past week has been action packed. This morning I was rehearsing for the YTV show The Next Star. There are some really talented kids in this years episode. Yesterday I was in the studio recording some songs for them in the morning, and then I raced downtown to perform in a Fringe Play that I've been playing in for the past week called A simple Twist of Faith. It's about a young jewish soldier in WW1. After that I raced to a corporate gig in Corktown commons, a fantastic new flood friendly park in the east end of Toronto. 

Earlier in the week was an unfortunate incident. I flew out with Kira and the crew to PEI to play the massive Cavendish Festival, only to have it cancelled on us due to awful storm weather. WE made the most of it however, by showing up to a bar to play a surprise acoustic set. The place went wild and it felt good to give people some music, since they were starved of it all day due to the repercussions of Hurricane Arthur.

Also was involved in Scenefest last week, where I played with a cool St Catherine's artist named Wesley James, who I met when I was playing a lot with KO. After his set I raced down the street to play with Electro Rock act Most Non Heinous. This month also involved me playing a bunch of other shows with bands like Ride The Tiger, Electric Blonde, Little Rock and in a big band For the TD jazz festival at The Rex! That was a little nerve racking as I don't play jazz very often at all, so I had to brush up on mu sensitivity chops and swing feel for that one. It went well though, and it was really cool to play in such a different setting than Im used to.