“Freedom.”
“Independence.”
“No more compromises.”

These are promises made every day by artists leaving bands, by artists embarking on solo careers, and by artists abandoning the major label way of life. These were promises made by William Beckett upon the disbanding of The Academy Is… in 2011. These were promises emphasized, emboldened and renewed as he parted ways with Atlantic Records shortly thereafter. These were promises made to his fans, his family, and himself.

He could have been boring. He could have fallen back on TAI’s devoted fan-base. He could have taken the easy path. Instead, he chose to climb the mountain. William did it his way, just as he promised, by releasing three EPs (twelve songs total) over seven months in 2012 on his very own YIKE Records label.

Chronicling the rise and fall of an epic relationship (a story that, as recent history shows, William is all too familiar with) the trilogy of EPs— Walk the Talk, Winds Will Change, and the forthcoming What Will Be (Out Oct 30th 2012)— jettison the old TAI pop-punk sound. Retaining only Beckett’s signature vocals and crafty, tattooable lyrics over electro-pop and jaunty beats. As Alternative Press describes it: “Beckett’s new music cuts a swath through contemporary pop trends, retro-rock party anthems and thoughtful balladry. Fortunately, he stamps his persona on all of these idioms with aplomb, resulting in his comfort zone growing a few more acres.” (altpress.com, Walk the Talk EP review, April 17th 2012)

Sticking to his oaths of freedom, independence, and refusing to compromise has served William well. His first single, “Compromising Me”, rocketed to the top of the iTunes charts, cracking the top 20 and leading all independently released tracks. In the following months, the EPs Walk the Talk and Winds Will Change followed the same meteoric rise.

Bolstered by the success of his vision, rest was never an option. In between perpetually writing and recording new tracks, William took an unconventional approach to touring. First, he embarked on a solo headlining tour across the U.S. taking with him only his trusty acoustic guitar (an instrument that is now as much a part of him as his voice) and a few digitally- stored studio tracks (his "band in a box"). Following completion of the Spring 2012 tour, he crossed the Pacific as support on a tour of Asia and returned to continue performing almost weekly at different colleges around the U.S. Add to that a packed schedule of private parties as well as dozens of groundbreaking StageIt.com live streaming performances and hardly three days pass when William isn’t playing live.

William has embraced modern connectivity like the StageIt.com performances, an active blog, a YouTube page and Twitter feed, and combined it with traditional, real-world bonding experiences like countless live, intimate performances and a burgeoning fan community (The William Beckett Society). Constant contact keeps him grounded, approachable and personally invested in his fans. This personal relationship continues to fuel William’s promise to never compromise his vision or his dedication. His fans keep him honest and he loves them for that.

William Beckett has already walked the talk. He’s revealed the changing winds. Now, with more domestic and international tours planned through 2013, and preliminary work already begun on a full-length album, William Beckett is ready to show us What Will Be.

Written by Nathan Wrann


I Killed Sara V. EP out now on iTunes!

Canada: http://tinyurl.com/ly3fkyf

USA: http://tinyurl.com/k2t5

UK: http://tinyurl.com/lhaslbx

“This Canadian singer's soaring sound recalls the creepy glee of Lykke Li” - The Guardian

Literally and figuratively, Lowell is a wolf. Her very name stems from the French origin of the word, but her approach to music, creating, and the way she’s embraced both are a testament to both she and her namesake: fearless, determined, and a natural pack leader.
Born in Calgary, she eventually migrated to the Yukon where she lived with her father in Carcross, near a mountain that once offered passage to gold hunters. Appropriately, the area was also once a preying haven for wolves; so Lowell drew strength from desolate beachside cabin she and her father called home before finding her way to Massachusetts, Ottawa, Georgia, then back to Calgary before basing herself in Toronto and London. Since, she’s played to crowds across Europe, worked with the industry’s finest writers, producers, and musicians, and compromised nothing to create the stirring, commanding -- yet joyous songs that have found a home under her lone namesake.
After earning the attention of Martin Terefe (KT Tunstall, James Blunt, Jason Mraz), Sacha Skarbek (Lana Del Rey, Adele, Miley Cyrus), James Bryan (Nelly Furtado, The Philosopher Kings), and Paul Herman (Dido), Lowell was invited to Kensaltown Studios in London to write with all of them. However, what they worked on wasn’t in sync with her own vision – so, supported in her decision to stay true to herself, she and the pack scrapped what they had and started all over again. Soon, they saw the completion of her EP, I Killed Sara V., and the beginnings of her full-length record, We Loved Her Dearly – her debut album on Arts & Crafts. 
As expressed in the album’s first single, “Cloud 69,” Lowell is like dynamite: ferocious, unrelenting, and determined – but not only when it comes to her music. Writing each song to empower not only herself, but also her listeners -- to challenge gender conventions and inspire freedom from social limitations, rules, and misogynists’ abuse of power; to celebrate and uphold individuality, and to “take away your pain” as sung in “88,” the EP’s sing-a-long-friendly liberation anthem. 
By writing openly about topics like sexual abuse, rape, abortion, and women’s rights, Lowell’s album is a platform for much-needed discourse in our patriarchal society – and to further articulate the necessity of conversation, she uses herself and her experiences as examples. In addition to feminism, she also boldly addresses the lack of LGBTQ rights in our society, as well the ignorance about (and simultaneous obsession with) homosexuality. However, there’s no grandstanding – far from it. Lowell’s brand of pop may convey the urgency of her subject matter, but her melodies keep songs accessible and fun. Turns out you can still dance while confronting social norms; you can still have fun while defending equality. And Lowell’s stream of musical optimism makes it possible. 
In fact, it was this positivity and lack of falsities that allowed Lowell to stay friends with Terefe and friends at Kensaltown, which led to her working with Terefe once again – but as part of his band, Apparatjik. This creative endeavor turned into the Lowell’s mini-album, If You Can Solve This Jumble, as well as four-days of writing and recording with Magne Furuholmen (A-ha), Guy Berryman (Coldplay), Jonas Bjerre (Mew), and Terefe, whom she joined onstage to headline the 2012 Roskilde Festival in front of 60,000 attendees. This also marked Lowell’s first live performance.
Lowell returned to Kensaltown in the summer of 2012, where she began recording this album. However, in addition to working with Terefe, Herman, and Bryan, she took up residency in her own studio space where she also began writing for other artists. There, she secretly slept and worked at writing, producing, and practicing her craft – as well as guitar and piano (of which she is classically trained) – so that come February 2013, she was ready for her self-financed tour of the UK, where she was backed by only a drummer.
Since, she’s played showcases at The Great Escape Festival, CMW, CMJ, and Sled Island, performed at David Lynch’s Club Silencio in Paris, headlined in Oslo and Copenhagen, opened for Chad Valley in Berlin, Padova, and London, and opened for The Raveonettes in Barcelona, Bilbao, and Madrid.
Lowell’s hands-on approach to her album and to her performances has allowed for a creative and professional identity rich with individuality, braveness, and imagination. Whether through her lyrics, performance, video and visual artistry, merchandise design, fashion ideas, music video treatment, writing and co-directing, photo shoot conceptualizing, or her activism (whew), Lowell is in charge. She’s unsurprisingly, leading the pack. 

By Anne T. Donahue


Crop Circles, Dean Brody says, is an album he hopes will take listeners away from the cares of daily life for a while. “When we listen to music, we don’t necessarily want to think about what’s going on in the here and now, we want to go on a journey, and I hope that’s what happens for my fans with this record.”

Job done – On songs like ‘The Old Sandbar’ and ‘Mountain Man,’ the Jaffray, BC born, Nova Scotia-based singer/songwriter celebrates his love of the East Coast and his childhood home at the foot of the Rockies and, with his Civil War era love story, ‘Kansas Cried,’ transports listeners through time and space without missing a beat.

Crop Circles covers a lot of miles and nowhere more so than on Brody’s lead single, ‘Bounty,’ a fiery, turn of the century, murder ballad that finds Brody’s characters running from the law on a late night train to Mexico and features a standout performance by fellow Canadian country singer, Lindi Ortega. In it’s first week of release, ‘Bounty’ held the #1 Most Added song overall and #1 Most Added spot at Country radio for two consecutive weeks and displays Brody’s growth as a writer, lyricist and storyteller in equal measure with a story that has both substantial emotional weight and a certain amount of levity. ‘Bounty’ recently reached #1 on the Canadian Country singles chart!

Regardless of the topic or whether a song is purely observational or drawn from his personal experience, Brody’s music has a cinematic quality that makes it easy for listeners to put themselves into his songs and to feel as if they’re traveling along with his characters. “I see the world in pictures and I love stories and creating worlds, either using my own background, or by putting myself in other people’s shoes, because I’m fascinated by other people’s perspectives on life.”

Although Crop Circles finds Brody adopting a darker, rock-fuelled tone, it also showcases his ample sense of humour and his unique ability to weave a fine yarn, regardless of where or when a song takes place. Nowhere is that more evident than on the album’s title track, which offers up a plausible and hilarious solution to the longstanding mystery of how crop circles are actually created and the fact that they might have more to do with country boys taking their dates on a joy ride through a farmer’s fields than with aliens visiting Earth. “I am trying to have more fun on this record,” Brody says, “and ‘Crop Circles’ is a perfect example. It’s a crazy song that just got crazier when we went into the studio, and when we do it live it goes up a notch again.”

“I love shaking things up musically and lyrically,” he continues. “I wasn’t just influenced by George Jones and Merle Haggard, but by bands like AC/DC, Aerosmith, The Kentucky Headhunters and all kinds of artists, so those influences play a role in what I do and I’m lucky to have fans who’ll let me explore them.”

Truth to tell, Brody shakes it up right from the album’s opener, ‘Four Wheel Drive,’ a song that sets the record straight for anyone who might be tempted to turn their nose up at someone because of what they look like or where they call home. “What’s most important is being good to other people and ‘Four Wheel Drive’ is about the idea that you don’t have to rub elbows with high society to be popular with the ladies. You just have to romantic and be a good guy.”

That belief is heavily informed by Brody’s life experience and specifically his childhood growing up in Jaffray, BC, where he worked in the local sawmill prior to and during his pursuit of a career as a singer/songwriter. But it’s also a product of the fact that, in Brody’s experience, in order to find your true place in the world, often, you may need to cover a fair number of miles yourself.

That was certainly the case when Brody was chasing his own musical dreams. Shortly after moving to Nashville in 2004, Brody found himself unable to work in the US legally and seriously considered giving up on music entirely. Owing to the intervention of producer, Matt Rovey, (with whom Brody has worked with on all of his albums to date), Brody got the chance to record his self-titled debut. The album’s lead single ‘Brothers’ was a hit in the US and Canada and garnered Brody multiple CCMA Award nominations as well as the 2009 CCMA Award for Single of the Year.

Later that year Brody relocated to Nova Scotia’s south shore and signed a deal with Canada’s Open Road Recordings, on which he released his sophomore record, Trail In Life (2010), and his hugely successful 2012 follow up, Dirt, both of which won the CCMA Award for Album of the Year in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Additionally, Dirt’s lead single, ‘Canadian Girls,’ became the first track by a Canadian artist to hit #1 on the Canadian Country Chart since 2008. Dirt also yielded two #1 videos on CMT, two certified Gold singles (for ‘Canadian Girls’ and ‘It’s Friday’ – featuring Great Big Sea), and earned Brody the title of most played Canadian Artist on country radio in 2011 and 2012. Both records were also nominated for JUNO Awards in the category of Country Album of the Year. In all, Brody has been nominated for twenty-six CCMA Awards and recently took home the 2013 CCMA Award for Male Artist of the Year for the second consecutive year.

While Brody, like any songwriter, spends a great deal of time getting his songs just so, on record they sound so honest and immediate, it seems like he’s singing them for the first time. It’s a unique talent and one that’s been a hallmark of his songwriting from day one. But regardless of how far Brody takes listeners on Crop Circles, he takes care to bring them back home again on tracks like ‘Back To The Front Porch’ and ‘Little Things About Us,’ songs that find Brody giving thanks for the joys of home and family and reminding listeners where his own heart lives. “It’s the little things that are special when you’re in love. The things that make you feel nostalgic are usually small and, as time goes on in a relationship, they’re what you appreciate and remember.” Also, he adds: “It’s the little things you often draw on for support when you have to work out larger issues in love and life.”

On Crop Circles, whether a song is specifically about Dean Brody’s own life or not, he displays a singular talent for crafting stories so well lived in they sound like he’s experienced every second of every line, which makes it that that much easier for his audience to see themselves and their own lives and loves reflected in his music.

THE WORLD’S SOURCE FOR ANTI-SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Sick and Wrong is your hearing aid into the dark, depraved, and dripping abscess that is contemporary existence. An enchanting mélange of social criticism, pointed observation, and well-deserved derision; Sick and Wrong is the pepto-bismol for society’s indigestion. In their critically acclaimed weekly podcast, award-winning broadcasters Dee Simon and Lance Wackerle discuss the most vile, disquieting, and oddly amusing news items for your listening pleasure.

“The most foul thing I have ever heard. I can’t believe people listen to this shit.” — Katy Perry

“Sick and Wrong is my new favorite podcast.” — Drew Barrymore

“My mom told me about this podcast.” — Neil Patrick Harris

“These guys have seen Brokeback Mountain one too many times.” — Bruce Campbell

Sachal Jazz Orchestra
Drawing on influences from Lahore to New York, the Ensemble presents innovative jazz and bossa nova standards from their recent album that has captured musical imaginations with a flood of internet hits. Their fresh re-working of Dave Brubeck’s iconic Take Five prompted the jazz legend to exclaim that “this is the most interesting and different recording of Take Five that I have ever heard.”
Other innovative interpretations include Antonio Carlos Jobim’s ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ and Dave Grusin’s ‘Mountain Dance’, the latter highlighting some incredible sitar playing. In the reworked ‘Misty’, composed by Erroll Garner, the sitar and tabla supply the melody lines layered on a lush rhythmic foundation provided by the traditional clay pot, ghungroos (ankle-bells), triangle, and tambourine. Blended with these south Asian instruments are sweeping classical violins and bursts of western drum, guitar and bass to create a scintillating hybrid, a reminder that the boundaries of jazz remain hard to define.
The inspiration behind the Sachal Jazz Ensemble and a wider Sachal project is London- based businessman-turned-studio boss Izzat Majeed. Working with consultants from London’s Abbey Road studios, he set up state-of-the-art studios in Lahore, rescued Pakistani musicians from poverty and brought them together to make music. The revival has prompted comparisons with the Buena Vista Social Club’s rediscovery of a lost generation of Cuban musicians.
Majeed’s wider goal is to rub fresh magic into Lahore’s musical traditions, once a sub- continental cultural hub. Majeed says Pakistan’s classical music scene was decimated in the 1980s when the dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, following an austere Islamic line, crushed the local film industry. Hundreds of musicians, employed to record film scores, lost their jobs and went on to ply less lyrical trades: a cellist ran a tea stall; a violinist sold vegetables from his bicycle; others sold clothes or electrical parts. Under a cloud of growing conservatism, some Sachal musicians said they dared not practise at home, fearing they could offend pious neighbours. “There was a cultural impasse in Pakistan,” says Majeed. “After the coup of Zia-ul Haq, our society and culture was transformed into something dark. The film industry died, television was taken over by primitive authoritarian entities, and our great musicians were left without patronage. Zia’s version of culture raped us of the rich musical history that we had.” Majeed, who grew up listening to jazz greats like Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong in Lahore, says there are similarities between the improvisational aspects of classical music from the sub-continent and Jazz. “Take Five’s rhythmic structure and time scale is pretty close to our kind of music,” Majeed says. “The concept of free period — remaining within the melody structure and time scale — is something our musicians love. Take Five has done so well because it was something new and well-played.”

Discography

Single: Take Five - sm005
Single: Desafinado - sm012
Album: Sachal Jazz - Interpretations of Jazz Standards and Bossa Nova - sm019

A consummate performer and stellar guitar player / multi-instrumentalist, Karl’s singular presence on stage is surprisingly engaging and always entertaining. He is truly a class act who breaks every expectation of a typical solo acoustic singer-songwriter. Between original works and his own take on existing songs, his style blurs genres, ultimately focused on the traditional mountain music of Appalachia.

Spring-boarding from the Allegheny Echoes Workshops, he has studied with and performed alongside some of the modern-day greats of Appalachian music including Robin Kessinger, Robert Shafer, Bobby Taylor, The Bing Brothers Band, The Whitetop Mountaineers, and The Poor Taters (to name a few). Some notable performances include Oyster Ridge Music Festival, The Tamarack, Richmond Folk Music Society, Shady Grove Coffeehouse, The Charleston Culture Center during Vandalia Gathering, and The Catan World Championship.

Incorporating the feeling and story-telling of Appalachian music community in his own music, which has been compared to Gordon Lightfoot, Gram Parsons, Tim O’Brien, and Gillian Welch, Karl is a true and modern reflection of the melodies passed down through generations. His songs weave complex emotion through metaphor in a subtle dance around the stories they tell, and his voice fits perfectly between his masterful rhythmic chord stylings and his powerful and expressive flat-picking. He is truly one of the best undiscovered modern folk performers today.

Hippy Trippy Music
Can you please stand up and listen?
Can you please open your mind? 
Do you want to try a new word? 
Embarquez, levez les blancs mouchoirs, le voyage pour l'esprit est sans retour.

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