Riding the Rock and Roll Roller Coaster into the 21st century
with Brendan Canning, Broken Social Scene
June 29th at 10am MT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST
After accessing radio discovery tips with Huw Stephens, followed by deep digital insights with guest Jenny Kaufman, we are incredibly excited to talk about creativity and career sustainability with our next guest – artist, musician and composer Brendan Canning. Perhaps best known as the co-founder of the Toronto supergroup Broken Social Scene, Brendan has also worked on a number of film and TV soundtracks and has been DJing internationally since 1998. You may have also seen him performing with his band on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Conan.
Partnering with Byta.com on this month’s event will be a long-time friend to Brendan, Byta and artists from around the globe, Calgary’s Sled Island Music & Arts Festival. We’re also very proud to partner with Arts & Crafts, one of Canada’s most important record labels which is home to Broken Social Scene and Brendan’s solo albums.
This is a new monthly online event that will be presented in two parts:
- A Workshop: tips, advice and insights for tomorrow’s artists & music industry leaders
- An In-depth interview with an artist and composer with a career spanning many years and creative avenues
About the Event
This series is designed to deliver the knowledge to enable tomorrow’s artists and industry leaders to better manoeuvre their way through the music ecosystem. Providing fun and insightful Q&A along the way!
#HowWeListen Live: In Conversation will be hosted by Byta’s founder, Marc Brown, whose deep music business background and digital audio knowledge have helped him deliver unique insights to audiences from Tallinn to Toronto. Marc is a former label owner, A&R, manager and radio plugger.
Key takeaways:
- Connect the dots of the music industry from the artist’s perspective, fuelling and putting out fires
- What you can do to make an impact & develop a long-term music career
- Insights into the collaborative process and working with an ever-evolving and outsized band
- Tips, advice and insights into finding that next gig, even if it’s not live on stage
Event Format
#HowWeListen Live (part 1):
The workshop will introduce industry insights that Marc has picked up from his work in A&R departments, running his own radio promotion company, plus years of experience managing artists and significant large scale projects. Some of the topics he will touch on include artists’ teams, timelines and connecting the web of the music industry. Plus, most importantly, tips on what you can do yourself to better increase the chances of your success.
#HowWeListen In Conversation (part 2):
Each event will feature an in-depth one-to-one conversation. This time we talk creativity and ensuring there is always a next ‘gig’ on the horizon with veteran musician Brendan Canning. Never having been one to sit back, even if Brendan wants to give you that impression, he remains incredibly active as a musician and composer. Marc will talk about the fickle nature of the music business and extract a few insights from Brendan on how best to survive that roller coaster ride and come out on top.
Brendan Canning has been touring, writing music and surviving as a successful working musician for three decades. Insights and stories – he has a few. Brendan will offer up a few grains of wisdom when it comes to success, staying grounded and keeping focused on what is actually important to remaining a creative person in a weird business. Here you can also learn how to pursue other avenues as an artist, such as film & TV soundtrack writing to keep the music flowing.
About Byta
Byta (“Bee-tah”: the Swedish word for exchange) is unrivalled in taking advantage of the unique properties found in audio files – reading and writing file metadata, converting file formats and delivering fast yet secure streaming. Enabling everyone to send & receive digital audio in a clean, simple and secure way. Byta has also launched #HowWeListen, their not-for-profit, dedicated to providing musicians and their teams with the knowledge required to move their careers forward.
About Brendan Canning
Brendan Canning is the co-founder of the Toronto supergroup Broken Social Scene which includes members of Metric, Do Make Say Think and Stars, as well as Grammy-nominated Feist. One of the most enduring and influential alternative bands of the 00s. Their record ‘You Forgot It In People’ defined the “indie rock” era and paved the way for Canadian acts like Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade to break out. Canning’s third solo album, ‘Home Wrecking Years’, was his first release with a full band since Broken Social Scene’s 2010 release ‘Forgiveness Rock Record’.
During his career, Brendan has worked on a number of film and TV soundtracks. Providing score and music work for Scott Pilgrim, appearing in The Time Traveler’s Wife, composer for Netflix Original series Spinning Out, starring January Jones, and composer for the feature film The Canyons, among other commercial work.
His soccer juggling (keep-ups) record is 515.
About Marc Brown
Marc is the founder of Byta / byta.com. Run as a distributed team across 3 continents, Byta enables everyone to send & receive digital audio in a clean, simple and secure way. Built for everyone working with music today.
He has an extensive music business background and considerable digital audio knowledge which have helped him deliver unique insights to audiences from Tallinn to Toronto.
Marc got his start at murderecords, Canada’s premier artist-owned label during the mid-90s. After working in A&R at the legendary London indie Creation Records, then at Alan McGee’s Poptones, Marc started his own boutique UK radio promotion company off the back of his success with The Hives. For over 10 years Marc worked with an impressive list of indie rock luminaries including Wilco, Bloc Party, Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes, Spoon and Refused as well as legends such as Tom Waits, Yoko Ono, Booker T and Mavis Staples.
Marc currently lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.