Vancouver-based Curtis ClearSky, a long-time musician and frontman for his own band Curtis Clear Sky and the Constellationz, is the newly appointed executive director of the brand new national Indigenous Music Office (IMO). A National Indigenous Music Impact Study, conducted in 2019, revealed that Indigenous music contributed almost $78 million to the Canadian economy.
When Toronto cinematic indie rock “collective” New West played their very first show at The Axis Club on June 16, 2022, the 600-capacity marquee club — the very same one The Weeknd debuted live, was rammed. The crowd was enraptured; they screamed; they sang; they took photos and videos.
The Ottawa native, who lives in Toronto with his bandmates, just released his debut album, Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees, on Doogood/Range Music/Capitol/UMG, which includes his platinum-selling first-ever single, “Run Away To Mars” which was on his 2021 Talk to Me EP.
A Canadian, Hussain Yoosuf, better known as Spek, has made a significant difference in the music scene of United Arab Emirates (UAE). The one-time member of seminal Canadian hip hop group Dream Warriors got his start on the other side of the business working for music publisher olé, before launching his own publishing company and label PopArabia in Abu Dhabi.
He’s been Chief ever since he started working in the Vancouver clubs in the early 90s, through tour managing and front of house for a-then unsigned Nickelback to a quarter-of-a-century later managing the rock band with catalogue sales of 50 million albums as they prepared to put out a new album, Get Rollin’, and find out if the world still cares.
Founded by transplanted Canadians Anne McKinnon and Roman Rappak, gaming platform Ristband offers a new revenue stream option for the music industry, in addition to simply being a cool way for artists to engage with fans by performing virtual concerts and offering digital assets, such as art, merch and unreleased tracks.
If you search Sound Royalties, it pops up with this tagline: Don’t Sell Your Music Royalties & Copyrights. That goes a long way — in a short way — to explain what the Florida-based finance firm, founded in 2014, offers artists, songwriters, producers and other music creatives. If you earn more than $5000 (USD) a year from music royalties, Sound Royalties offers advances of $3000 to more than $10 million.
“My job is all about them, not about me,” says Toronto’s Dan Kanter, the 42-year-old musical director, who got his major break with Justin Bieber, with whom he worked for eight years. You might have seen him accompanying the pop singer on guitar with his shoulder-length hair, trademark hat and big smile. He went on be hired as musical director for such talent as Alessia Cara, Shawn Mendes, Ariana Grande and Julia Michaels.
Edmonton’s pop band FKB was declared the 2023 Jim Beam National Talent Search winner during Canadian Music Week in Toronto, the bourbon brand has long been trying to help young talent get from A to B with regional competitions across the country and exposure to industry professionals and new audiences.
Co-founded by Vivian Barclay, managing director, Warner Chappell Music Canada; Craig Mannix, vice-president, Black music, Universal Music Canada; and Miro Oballa, partner, Taylor Oballa Murray Leyland LLP, Advance is helmed by executive director Keziah Myers, who oversees the implementation of its education and networking programs, ongoing advocacy, as well as the online resources and job board. The three founders sit on the board.
Montreal’s John Sicard once wished he had pursed a music career, but instead the Bachelor of Computer Science graduate joined a rising IT company in 1988 called Fastman Inc. in Ottawa, remaining there for five years before starting as a software engineer with Enterprise Planning Systems,
Like the cover art of Jonathan Roy’s new 8-song album, Life Distortions, it’s been a long road to that giant colourful sunburst, over some rocky terrain and up some mountains – literally. An avid outdoorsman, the Quebec-born alt-soul singer does rock climb, figuratively and metaphorically.