Artist Bio:

Toronto-based singer-songwriter Matthew Barber returns with his fourth studio album on Feb. 23rd 2010. True Believer is the follow-up to the internationally acclaimed and Juno-nominated record Ghost Notes (2008, Outside Music); Barber enlisted producer Howie Beck (Hayden, Jason Collett) to man the helm. The result has been an artistic alchemy that takes Barber’s trademark melodies to new heights.

True Believer is an uplifting record, continuing the trajectory that began with Ghost Notes. Of course there are pensive moments; Barber after all made his name crafting beautiful but heartbreaking “sad” songs on earlier records like Means and Ends (2003, Paper Bag) and Sweet Nothing (2005, Warner), where his single “Soft One” went Top 5 on the Canadian Hot AC chart. But the overarching themes of love, hope and wonderment ultimately carry the day on this new album.

Radio Strategy:
First single “I Think You’re Gonna Feel My Love” going to AC, Hot AC, and AAA radio nationally.

Press Quotes:
“The Toronto singer/songwriter knows how to knock out classic-sounding tunes that are hummable and familiar, and that’s no easy feat.” — NOW Magazine

“…[he] has made an assured record, one with varying tempos and heartfelt moods that is smartly ordered and marked by the sharp marriage of melody and word.” — The Globe and Mail

“His supple and sweetly melodic voice is in top shape, his writing is versatile and accomplished, and the choice of underrated peer Howie Beck (Hayden, Jason Collett) as producer was a wise one.” — Exclaim!

Artist Website • Myspace

Artist Bio:

Maurice began in Victoria, British Columbia in parent’s basements, community halls, and the bars of Vancouver Island. The young members crafted memorable pop songs mixed with humor, heartbreak, and references to their Western Canadian landscape. These songs caught the ear of David Foster, who was so taken with their sincerity and level of songwriting, that he signed the group to his Warner Brothers imprint, 143 Records.

The years that followed were a period of growth for the band; they spent several months writing and recording what would become Young People With Faceswith Producer Matt Hyde. Recording nearly 25 tracks for the album in Silverlake, Hollywood and Van Nuys, Maurice had a large catalogue to contribute to their first offering.

Young People With Faces presents a young band that has honed its songwriting and live show into a captivating performance, caught on tape for the world to hear. The fluid piano melodies of Simon Margetts allow Jean Paul Maurice’s voice to punctuate each verse with energy and ghostly allure. Connor Waddell and Mark Lavoie set a foundation that shies away from flashiness and brings a musical maturity to serve the songs instead of trampling them.

Maurice have created an album that embraces their influences, asserts a new voice and blends the two into something striking and original.

Radio Strategy:
First single “Love Is Love” going to Modern Rock/Rock/Alternative radio nationally plus looking for opportunities around their upcoming cross-Canada tour dates.

Artist Website • Myspace

Artist Bio:

She may have started last year under the music radar, but by the end of 2009 chances are you heard something, somewhere, about Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Hannah Georgas.

Perhaps you read one of the overwhelmingly positive reviews of The Beat Stuff EP, caught her summer performance for the Prime Minister (and several thousand others) on Parliament Hill, or heard her co-written TV jingle that brought Taylor Swift to tears – and to Twitter to say so.  Hannah also racked up a CBC bequeathed Bucky Award proclaiming her to be the “Best New Artist” of 2009.  eTalk included her in their ‘Ones To Watch’ music picks for 2010 and Starbucks licensed The Beat Stuff to play in its stores across North America.

On April 27, 2010, Hannah Georgas will release her much anticipated, full-length album, This Is Good (Hidden Pony/EMI).

This Is Good is a warm collection of pop-roots songs, highlighted by Hannah’s unmistakable voice – one that is bittersweet and as cool and collected as an indie film heroine. Produced by Howard Redekopp (Mother Mother, Said The Whale, Tegan and Sara) and Ryan Guldemond (Mother Mother), This Is Good reveals Hannah’s range as a songwriter, guitarist and vocalist, and also offers a hint of her secret life as a dancefloor diva.

“I love to dance and I just wanted to write a song that would inspire people to rip it up on the dancefloor,” she says. Come On The Dancefloor is her electro-punk inspired track that fits the bill.

Chit Chat and The Deep End, previously released on a split 7” are both included on This Is Good’s full 11 track listing and endure in the themes of love, language and awkward situations revealed by the album. Others include, Lovers Breakdown, lead single, Bang Bang You’re Dead and Your Ghost. There is the dark, piano driven Thick Skin and a celestial missive inShine, replete with Hannah’s shining vocals taking centre stage.

Hannah will undoubtedly find herself centre stage this year as tours and promotional events line up to celebrate the launch of This Is Good. Full details will be unveiled shortly.

Radio Strategy:
First single “Bang Bang You’re Dead” going to Alternative Radio and full album “This Is Good” going to CBC and Campus radio.

Artist Website • Myspace

Artist Bio:

Toronto indie label Sparks Music have signed Chin Injeti, known as CHIN, to a worldwide distribution deal with the Canadian release of his solo album D’tach set for April 6, 2010.

CHIN is a talented multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter. He is a co-founder of the Juno award winning and groundbreaking group Bass is Base. CHIN has been bouncing between his home base in Vancouver and the studios of L.A. where he has been working with fellow west coaster and L.A. based producer, DJ Khalil (Aftermath Productions). Together the two have been producing and working with everyone from Dr. Dre, Nas, Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes, Clipse, and 50 Cent to Esthero, Kinnie Starr, Bedouin Soundclash and Zaki Ibrahim just to name a few.

In December 2009 The Clipse released their newest CD ‘Til The Casket Drops” which featured two tracks, “Kinda Like A Big Deal” [featuring Kanye West] and “There Was A Murder” from the CHIN / Khalil production team. A number of weeks earlier CHIN had received credits on a track called “Could’ve Been You” [featuring R Kelly] from 50 Cent’s new album as well as credits on a song called “Fear” from fellow Canadian sensation Drake that would appear on his breakthrough EP!

As if that wasn’t enough CHIN along with DJ Khalil, Erik Alcock and Liz Rodrigues also formed a group called The New Royales, a genre bending band that is creating sounds from the past, the present and future!

As a singer-songwriter CHIN is creating a new beginning for himself. Within his heavy production and work schedule CHIN has found time to complete a solo album called “D’tach” in a genre he calls “Urban Folk.” Sonically, “D’tach” is quite a departure from the music that CHIN’s name is currently attached to. However the one constant that remains is a focus on crafting quality music and songs.

With a stripped down sound on this new album CHIN explains, “I detached from everything, separated myself, cut off the strings …for the first time ever I have found the courage to put my life on display. Who I was, who I am, who I’m going to be, where I’ve been, where I’m going, all that I know, and all that I don’t.”

Radio Strategy
Targeting CHR, Urban and Hot AC radio with his song “Mask On My Face” featuring K’Naan. Full album going to CBC and Campus radio

Artist Website • Myspace

Artist Bio:

Toronto based act BIRDS OF WALES along with Sparks Music recently announced a worldwide licensing deal. The band which was originally conceived by singer/songwriter MORGAN CAMERON ROSS in his hometown of Vancouver has now settled in Toronto. The debut album entitled ‘Belgravia Hotel’ [a hotel in London where Morgan penned some of the songs] will be released in Canada on APRIL 13 through Sparks/EMI. The project was produced by Jeff Dawson [Daniel Powter] at Mushroom Studios in Vancouver and mixed by Jeff Dawson, Mike Fraser [Aerosmith, Franz Ferdinand] and Mike Gilles [Bryan Adams, Metallica].

Over the last five years the band, through their own self marketing, have already made inroads in Canada, Europe and the U.K. They have toured with Marianas Trench, The Sadies, Lights, Xavier Rudd, The Beautiful South and Mishka. Morgan Cameron Ross was featured on the MUCHMUSIC produced show ‘Hotties Next Door’ and scored a photo feature in the U.K.’s largest teen magazine ‘TV HITS’.

Birds of Wales current line-up also includes Mike Caputo from Windsor Ontario on guitar, British drummer Ben Standage and Toronto’s Dan Taylor on bass. They are represented by Ralph James, president of The Agency Group and managed by Christi Thompson, who also manages international artists Xavier Rudd and Mishka.

Radio Strategy
The first single off their upcoming album “Belgravia Hotel” out April 13th, is the song “Uninteresting.”  We will be targeting AC and Hot AC stations at Canadian commercial radio.

Artist Website • Myspace

Artist Bio:

Said The Whale formed in 2007 as a collaboration between songwriters Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft. The pair’s debut EP, Taking Abalonia, featured sunny west coast indie pop, with breezy harmonies, shimmering guitars, and lyrical tributes to their home city of Vancouver. In 2008, the album was rereleased as Howe Sounds/Talking Abalonia, featuring seven additional tracks that stretched the band’s stylistic palate to include bubblegum folk (“The Light Is You”), thundering hard rock (“Last Tree Standing”) and gentle ukulele ballads (“The Real of It”). After several personnel changes, the group settled upon a five-piece lineup that included bassist Peter Carruthers, drummer Spencer Schoening, and keyboardist Jaycelyn Brown. The quintet embarked upon a rigorous touring schedule, crossing Canada numerous times and landing high profile gigs at V-Fest 2008 in Calgary and the nationally televised Canada Day celebration on Parliament Hill.

The group is now poised to take the next step with their sophomore album “Islands Disappear” out via Hidden Pony/EMI. Produced by Howard Redekopp (Tegan and Sara, The New Pornographers, Mother Mother) and Tom Dobrzanski (Hey Ocean!, The Zolas). Unlike the west coast focus of previous releases, the new album draws on the experience of driving across Canada, from the van breaking down in Manitoba (“Dear Elkhorn”) to camping in Alberta (“Emerald Lake, AB”).  With stylistic forays that include backwoods folk (“False Creek Change”) and danceable ukulele/glockenspiel rave-ups (“Goodnight Moon”), it’s the sound of a band coming into its own, delivering on the promise of its early recordings.

Radio Strategy:
First single “Camilo (The Magician)” to the targets of Modern Rock/Alternative radio nationally. Focus will be on achieving maximum spins at stations while also looking for opportunities around their Canadian tour to partner with stations through interviews, contesting, and performances.

Second Single “Emerald Lake, AB” – following up on the fantastic response to “Camilo” – we will continue to pursue Modern Rock and Alternative radio nationally and continue to look for unique opportunities to continue the relationship with radio.

Achievements:
First single “Camilo (The Magician)” – Reached #20 on the Mediabase Canada Alternative Chart and went up to #26 on the BDS Modern Rock Chart!! Both firsts for this hardworking band from Vancouver!

Artist Website • Myspace

Artist Bio:

What makes a band truly remarkable? Insightful lyrics? Memorable melodies? Blow-your-mind live performances? The truth is that it takes all of those things along with a boundless enthusiasm, an infectious energy and a supreme devotion to the fans. With this rare combination, a band may ascend past good,  or even the record industry’s Holy Grail, marketable, and reach sublime. Drawing on the hardships and joys of their own lives and a musical history ranging from old world Celtic to modern day punk rock, the seven members of Flogging Molly do just that, and they do it with a charm and an ease that makes them one of the most accessible bands performing today.

We’re not a traditional band, explains Dublin born singer/songwriter, Dave King. We are influenced by traditional music and inspired by it, and we put our own little twist on it.

Founded in Los Angeles in 1997 by the expatriate King, Flogging Molly got its start and its name from a local bar called Molly Malone’s where the band played and grew and laid down the blueprint for its eventual success. As every member of Flogging Molly will emphatically explain, there were no predetermined expectations for the band’s sound. From night to night playing to a packed house at Molly Malone’s, the sound evolved organically. Traditional Celtic instruments like violin, mandolin and accordion blended seamlessly with grinding guitars and pounding drums. Without consciously attempting it, Flogging Molly merged the music of King’s childhood in Dublin with the music of his adulthood in L.A.

If it didn’t have mandolin, accordion, fiddle and whistle, it would be punk rock, and if it didn’t have guitar, bass and drums, it would be traditional Irish music, King admits.

With a sound anchored in such diverse influences and with band members ranging in age from their 20s to their 40s a decidedly non-MTV-friendly demographical mix, Flogging Molly was not embraced by the mainstream music industry. The band simply didn’t fit any preconceived notions of what a successful band was. Not deterred in the least, Flogging Molly embraced a DIY philosophy. Their amazing work ethic and rapidly growing fan base led them to DIY-style record label, Side One Dummy, and the two fit hand in glove.

Flogging Molly’s latest album, Float, recorded in King’s native Ireland, delivers still another iteration of the band’s sonic evolution. More mature yet retaining the immediacy that marks all of their work, Float may find the widest audience acceptance of any Flogging Molly album. Hard charging tunes Paddy’s Lament and You Won’t Make a Fool Out of Me give way, as listeners have come to expect, to more sober ruminations on tracks like Float. The overall effect is a symphonic layering of sound that possesses a unique rhythmic flow from boisterous to bereaved and back again. Long time fans and new discoverers will be equally astounded.

Flogging Molly isn’t a mere band, they’re a seven member nuclear family. They are as devoted to one another as they are to the music they create. It’s no wonder their extended family the legion of loyal Flogging Molly fans  keeps growing every day.

Radio Strategy:
Take their single “Float” to the targets of Modern Rock/Rock/Alternative radio nationally. Focus will be on achieving maximum spins at stations while also looking for opportunities around their upcoming Canadian tours to partner with stations through interviews, contesting, and performances.

Artist Website • Myspace

Artist Bio:
MeatDraw’s second release “Fin Du Monophone” was birthed in the early spring of 2008, the temperature just above freezing point, in a one-room barn on an old Vancouver Island commune. Recorded by Colin Stuart (Black Mountain, Veda Hille), this sophomore undertaking is a catchy, hand-clapping hallelujah, a worthy follow up to MeatDraw’s 2006 self-titled debut heralded as a “flamboyant expression of the musically bizarre”.

With any project the band has its dirty hands in, be it a new video or its infectious, barely keeping it on the rails live show, an underlying theme ties the whole experience together. MeatDraw’s lean, mean pop-alyptic “Fin du Monophone” is no exception. Thematically, lyricist Marco Bozenich draws from Russel Hoban’s 1980 novel “Riddley Walker,” a story set in a post-Apocalyptic world and told through the broken language of a young boy. “The whole language is drawn from all these random books that the author decided to integrate into the story, so the language is so bizarre,” Bozenich describes. “There are little bits from the Bible and little bits from random novels that together create their own version of history.”

The record’s sense of urgency and impending attack imbues tracks with the coercive rhythm section driving “Are We Gonna Die”, “A Very Evil Villain” and the adorably infectious “Old World”. With offerings “Like A Wounded Animal”, “Voodoo Don’t Work” and “Black License Plates” the band exorcises its ghosts with spirited keys and significant vocal harmonies. Clear-cut ukulele, guitars and united melodies drive tracks “Crazy”, “In The Afterlife”, and “Roy (Bomb Shelter Romance)”. The last track emphatically answers the first with a united “We Are Not All Gonna Die” fading out with the arrestingly ominous horn section field call. All in a shit-hot album that clocks in at under 35 minutes. “Fin du Monophone’s” MeatDraw is the Brothers Bozenich Marco and Stefan, Lily Fawn, Megan Boddy, Will Koltai, Grayson Walker and Marek Tyler with contributions from The Lusty Man-Boy Choir of Thomas Shields, Matt Skilling, Lindy Gerrard and Michael Collinge. In the spring of 2008 on an old hippy commune on a West Coast island, dogs barked, neighbours visited, drinks were poured and the stove religiously stoked. Adorned in scarves and toques and surrounded by a romanticized setting, MeatDraw and Colin Stuart warmed their hands, stood tall and recorded a blazing self-help audio book about the end of the world.

Radio Strategy:
Take their album “Fin Du Monophone” to campus radio, setting up interviews / performances at stations during their tour.

Artist Website • Myspace

We’re excited to announce that With A Bullet owner, Cara Heath, will be speaking at this year’s CMW conference on the “Radio Or Not…Here We Come” panel, with other Canadian independent radio promoters, doing what she loves best: helping up-and-coming artists and giving them career advice.

Here are the details on the panel:

Radio Or Not…Here We Come! (Song Evaluation And Secure Digital Delivery)
Bring us your song (finished masters only) and let the experts listen. Find out if your song is “radio friendly”. Hosted BY DMDS/RDR find out what this country’s best RADIO TRACKERS have to say about your music. We’ll show you how we can send your song to radio (coast to coast) in 12 seconds! (Some lucky song artist will win a free upload to radio!)

Friday March 13, 2009
10:10 AM – 11:10 AM
Room: Salon A (Royal York Hotel – Toronto ON)

Moderator
Joe Wood – President, RDR Music, Toronto

Panelists
Cara Heath – President, With A Bullet, Toronto, CANADA
Andrea Morris – Director, Media Marketing, AM to FM Promotions, Toronto, CANADA
Yvonne Valnea – , Last Tango Productions, Toronto, CANADA
Lauren Tutty – , Lauren Tutty Promotions, Liverpool, CANADA
Linda Dawe – , Music Solutions Inc.,
Oscar Furtado – Promotions Director, Tandemtracks Promotions, Vancouver, CANADA
Anya Wilson – Publicist, Anya Wilson Promotion & Publicity, Toronto, CANADA
Dulce Barbosa – President, dB Promotions & Publicity Inc., Toronto, CANADA
Demetrius Nath – General Manager, Dale Speaking Ltd.,

Sponsored by: DMDS – Digital Media Distribution System

After 3 short weeks on the Canadian charts, The Gaslight Anthem’s “The ‘59 Sound” is #10 on the BDS Canada Modern Rock Chart this week!

Adds: 102.1 The Edge in Toronto just added The ‘59 Sound last week to a Medium rotation and joined FM 96 London, X92.9 Calgary, Sonic Edmonton, CFOX Vancouver, and Live 88.5 Ottawa who all added the song over the last 4 weeks!