The New Album 'Birds That Flew and Ships That Sailed' - Out Now

As the frontman of The Strumbellas, Simon Ward can attest that balancing work and family life ain’t easy. Over the past few years, the musician spent a great deal of time touring with the indie rock sextet, traversing the globe and delivering standout performances at festivals including Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. The other side of the coin, for Ward, is a bustling home in small town Canada with his wife and three young children.  His constantly juxtaposed life is the thread that weaves its way through the fourth studio album, with Rattlesnake, a collection of sleek, bright songs that elevate their sound to frenzied new heights.   

“This album is about one main character: this guy, me, who’s out there following his dream to have his music heard, but at the same time, he’s just trying to get home,” says Ward. “The reason it’s called Rattlesnake is because it’s about him facing his fears head on.  Shedding his skin, evolving, and realizing he’s got these three kids that he’s responsible for.  Little humans, they’re more important than anything.  They have a way of really anchoring you.” 

Rattlesnake, releasing March 29 via Glassnote, is a testament to Ward’s personal growth and evolution as told through nine emboldened tracks. The album, recorded on the band’s home turf in Kingston and Toronto, Ontario, is a musical step forward from the to-the-rafters scrappy folk aesthetic of their earlier work. For the album, The Strumbellas, made up of Ward (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), David Ritter (keys), Jeremy Drury (drums/percussion), Isabel Ritchie (strings), Jon Hembrey (electric guitar) and Darryl James (bass), teamed up with producer Tim Pagnotta (Walk the Moon, Elle King) and co-producer Brian Phillips, with the goal to capture the electricity of their live show with a decidedly more stylistic upbeat bent. 

“This is even more of an exploration of those types of sounds,” says Ritter. “We really connected musically with Tim.  We knew immediately that he could help us find out how big we could push our sound—how upbeat, fast, exciting, heart racing a Strumbellas record could get. It felt like pushing ourselves to the limit of that possibility.” Adds Ward, “Tim understood how to take folky, roots songs, keep them centered around the acoustic guitar, but work with us to deliver them with a nice wallop of white hot lightning.” 

Lead single “Salvation” crackles with an aerobic gallop, and is already gaining traction on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart. Elsewhere on Rattlesnake, they keep the energy sustained with the breezy dust up “Running Scared (Desert Song),” which Ritter describes as “desert folk,” while the chugging “We Were Young” is a love letter from Ward to his wife. But The Strumbellas also have a more melancholy meditative side, too, scaling back the swelling theatrics for the wistful acoustic guitar-strummed “The Party” and heart-eyed closer jam “All My Life.” 

The Strumbellas, coming off of a banner few years, show no sign of their stride shortening. The group released Hope in 2016, which spawned the massive hit “Spirits,”.  The single hit No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and made sizable dents in Germany, Canada, Italy and France. Amid touring the world, they won the iHeartRadio Music award for Best New Alternative Rock Artist of the Year in 2017, and collected the JUNO Award for Single of the Year ahead of Drake, The Weeknd and Shawn Mendes. 

For The Strumbellas, though, accolades are secondary to the connection that their music has with their fans. “I think it’s important that people feel something when they listen to music,” says Ward. “That’s my favorite thing: When I put my headphones on and it triggers something in me.  It’s my hope that this music makes people feel something they may not have otherwise felt that day.”

Toronto-based alternative rock outfit Birds of Bellwoods have wasted little time making an indelible mark on Canada’s musical landscape, having amassed an impressive pile of achievements and accolades in a few short years on the back of their boisterous blend of anthemic alternative, folk, and pop music.

Birds of Bellwoods released their highly anticipated debut LP Victoria in late 2018. The project was nominated for several awards including a CFMA, built on honest, emotive songwriting and laced with sweet, sticky hooks.

Much of the attention to come their way thus far has stemmed from the band’s energetic and engaging live performances. In late 2019 the band completed a 28 show national arena tour supporting olympians Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue in their farewell performances. They have played at acclaimed festivals including Canada’s Osheaga and Festival D’ete, and dipped into the US for several performances as well.

2021 will bring their newest offering, a five song EP entitled Album B. This project serves as a return to their folk roots, recalling their first release The Fifth which held the number one spot on Spotify’s Canada Viral 50 Chart for over five weeks. It is their first self produced work, created over the pandemic, and places songwriting and earnest connection at the fore.

In 2022 the band will release their sophomore LP, produced by rock mainstay Dave Schiffman (PUP, The Strumbellas, Red Hot Chilli Peppers).

They are currently signed to Monarch Music Group (formerly eOne music Canada).

Andrew Phelan and Keenan Lawlor had both only lived in Vancouver a few months before they met and began recording a full-length album together, self-titled The River and The Road, on a shoestring budget. The release of that album in the Spring of 2012, and the addition of drummer Cole George and bassist John Hayes confirmed the final lineup of The River and The Road, and its place in the Vancouver music scene. The three years following have been a journey of growth and discovery for both the band and their growing fanbase. The quartet has relentlessly toured across Canada and spent a summer touring the Australian east coast. The band’s members may hail from multiple countries, upbringings and musical backgrounds, but their identities come together to form a cohesive sound that is resoundingly Americana—a convergence of folk, country, and rock. Their second full-length LP, Headlights, out May 12, is at times a bold step away from the acoustic songwriting that initially drove them, a change that can be likened to the evolution of their live performances. What has become clear is that The River and The Road is a band that defies definition and is willing to take chances. 2015 will see the band’s sights set firmly on the road, including cross-Canada touring in support of Headlights, a slew of shows supporting Canadian icons such as Sam Roberts Band (whom they recently supported on back-to-back sold-out nights at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom), and a summer festival schedule including Squamish Valley Music Festival and RiverFest in Elora, ON. 

Explore art, culture and nature with the Royal Ontario Museum.

Following the philosophy “Write what you know,” Luke Nicholson’s new single,“All Your Dresses”  fully displays his gifts for melody and poignant storytelling. The first single from the Toronto singer/songwriter’s forthcoming album, Shape and Sound, pays tribute to two significant relationships for Nicholson. Through the metaphor of clothes, the special moments shared between a husband and wife are beautifully illustrated, while the ideals his father instilled in him, to be a good man and father, are captured through the simple image of a tie.

This album’s journey not only inspired Luke to “find his sound” true artistic identity, but encouraged him to take the reins of the creative process. “Marty Skrzypczyk and I played every instrument and co-produced it from the beds up. Howie Beck did an amazing job mixing and Joao Carvalho did his usual excellent mastering work. I look at this track as my artistic fingerprint, instead of outsourcing parts or players it truly is one voice speaking and it’s really made making music exciting again.”

Nicholson points to his first trip to Nashville in the fall of 2015 as the catalyst to this intrepid approach. Although he had songwriting sessions lined up, his mission became to hit Music City with everything he had by playing every open stage and introducing himself to as many people as possible. “I was a complete stranger with only my guitar as a companion, it was so exciting and inspiring to start fresh in such a historic music city”. The results were instantaneous; he received invites to writer rounds and  was soon spending time with Canadian songwriting legend Eddie Schwartz who committed to championing “All Your Dresses” leading him to Bluewater Publishing President Brownlee Ferguson; who has since taken Luke under his wing, arranging co-writes with some of Nashville’s biggest songwriters further nurturing his songwriting  talents.

Originally from Lakefield, Ontario, Luke Nicholson had his first major breakthrough in 2008, when the track “Breathe” from the film Poor Boys Game earned a Genie nomination for Best Original Song. Nicholson’s debut album Mad Love, debuted on 2012, which spawned three CBC Radio 2 Top 20 singles and earned glowing reviews in Europe, most notably from Rolling Stone Germany who described Nicholson as a “young Elton John or Billy Joel.”

Shape and Sound is proof that pop music still has the capacity to be intelligent yet catchy, mature but fun, and above all, talk about experiences to which we can all relate.

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