I\u2019m based in Atlantic Canada. Originally from New Brunswick and currently living in Halifax, Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I operate Forward Music Group<\/a>, a management company and label collective that works with a variety of artists and provides resources and support to foster sustainable careers through composition, exhibition, and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our office is in the North End of Halifax, kitty-corner to the Marquee and Seahorse venues and dangerously close to a French bakery. We share the space with our longtime Canadian publicists, Pigeon Row<\/a>, and try to maintain an open-door policy for the community if anyone wants to come in and pick our brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My main job, i.e. what actually pays me, is working as a session player and sideperson to a number of musicians, while also performing in bands like The Olympic Symphonium<\/a> and Force Fields<\/a> where I co-write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Occasionally I\u2019ll also do various work as a photographer<\/a>, which is what I went to post-secondary school for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently listening to a lot of unreleased music from friends and collaborators as we plan things out for the 2nd half of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the office I\u2019m usually listening to ambient or piano-based music so as to not interfere with work and keep a calm vibe. Favourites are Nils Frahm, Ahmad Jamal, willamette, Sarah Davachi, Oscar Peterson, etc…<\/p>\n\n\n\n At home I can\u2019t get enough of Aldous Harding\u2019s new album Designer, Makaya McCraven<\/a>\u2019s Universal Beings<\/a>, the new Lost Wisdom album<\/a> from Mount Eerie and Julie Doiron, and Sandro Perri\u2019s Soft Landing.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n I actually need some new ways to discover music. Relying on the algorithms is predictable and boring these days. I haven\u2019t found anything through that method that\u2019s excited me in quite a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully Bandcamp is good for discovery. Especially their year-end list of things you may have missed. That\u2019s how I first heard of Noname\u2019s Telefone<\/a> and RJ Miller\u2019s album Ronald\u2019s Rhythm.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Radio is also a great way to hear new things. At home in the kitchen we\u2019re often tuned to the local campus\/community radio station CKDU<\/a> or our national broadcaster CBC but online I\u2019ll listen to Danish online station The Lake<\/a>, BBC 6 Music, WNYC, etc\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the go I listen on my phone, usually via streaming services (downloaded though, we don\u2019t have great data plans here in Canada), and at the office via desktop files or streaming on bluetooth speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At home I listen to LPs the most but still use cassettes, CDs, and even MiniDisc<\/a> sometimes. Collecting vinyl is fun and even though I\u2019m trying not to add too much to my collection at the moment, one of my favourite pastimes is browsing through the stacks at record stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since I\u2019m usually listening to podcasts while walking around, most of my music listening is done either at the office or at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have a Pro-Ject turntable, an Aiwa cassette player (which I found on the side of the road in a garbage pile), and a Yamaha 6-CD changer (which was given to me as junk to play around with in High School and just broke last week) all going through a Yamaha tube amplifier into Signet speakers. Nothing fancy but they sound good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully I have a lot of friends and collaborators that trust me with unreleased music so I don\u2019t have to go searching too hard for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I know someone has a new record coming out, I\u2019ll drop a hint and see if they send me a pre-release link. That usually does the trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was actually thinking about this recently. Unreleased music is sent via so many platforms – Dropbox (which I absolutely despise), Soundcloud streams (preferred, though not downloadable – see \u201cdata woes\u201d above), random files that usually aren\u2019t properly meta-tagged (a pain, but somehow less annoying than Dropbox), etc\u2026 There are advantages and disadvantages to all except Dropbox which is always a disadvantage. Did I mention I dislike Dropbox?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We get a lot of demos, which I try to at least listen to even though don\u2019t have the capacity to respond, and they are in every format you can imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we\u2019re sending out advance copies to industry, we\u2019ll usually just create a Soundcloud playlist so the music is listenable but can\u2019t easily be ripped. I\u2019ve recently heard about this service called Byta<\/a> that I need to check out though \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n In streaming, I\u2019ll add stuff I like to some of our various playlists like Currently Listening, Sick Beats, Chill the Fuck Out, Perfect Country Songs, etc\u2026 so I can go back and remember things I\u2019ll inevitably forget about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At home my vinyl is organized alphabetically and in different genres (Pop, Hip Hop, Country\/Bluegrass, Jazz, Ambient\/Contemporary, Soundtracks) but the CDs and cassettes are a bit of a mess unfortunately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know the inevitable \u201cwhat\u2019s new?\u201d question that you get when running into casual acquaintances? That\u2019s when I try my best to slide in recommendations on new music in lieu of the weather or whatever the heck else people talk about. Try it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Atlantic Canada punches above its weight in my opinion and I\u2019d love for more people to be aware of all the great musicians and songwriters that are out here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our camp, we just announced Jennah Barry<\/a>\u2019s upcoming sophomore album, Holiday<\/a>, which is really exciting and comes out in late March 2020. She has a few singles out now and there\u2019ll also be a video in the early new year. Sarah Pag\u00e9<\/a>\u2019s debut, Dose Curves<\/a>, was a recent release and helped us reach a lot of milestones this year. Extremely proud to have worked on that record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"template":"","tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat are you listening to?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do you discover new music?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services and why?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Where do you do most of your music listening?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do find and listen to pre-release music?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Do you tip other people off to new music? How?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Anything you want to \u201cpromote\u201d?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n