wtfest - june 13th to 14th, 2015

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Finding his nirvanaBig Wreck frontman Ian Thornley gets lost in the music

COLLEEN TOMS | BRANT NEWS

Big Wreck frontman Ian Thornley still hasn’t found his Stairway to

Heaven.“I’m always writing, I just

kind of keep stockpiling ideas (for songs) and I keep put-ting them all away and then I bring them out and sort of flush them out,” Thornley said. “I haven’t written the one yet. I still haven’t written my Stairway to Heaven … I’m still looking for the one.”

That’s not to say Thornley hasn’t had his share of hits.

For Thornley, writing songs and music is a never-ending process. Like visual artists, his drawers are filled with incom-plete material. Some might one day make it into a song, or end up in the trash.

“I certainly have a lot of ma-terial to write about after do-ing this for 20 years,” he said with a laugh. “Some have a few of the elements done (to fit into a new song). Some I’ll revisit again later and maybe change a few of the elements. And some of it is crap and I think to myself, ‘I can’t believe I wrote that.’

“There are certain pieces, or what I think might be a chorus or a verse, that have been laying around for 15 years because I never found that it worked for me and then, all of a sudden, I find something that works with it.”

When a song comes to-gether it comes together as

one solid piece.“To me it’s all one, the

melody and the lyrics and the music. It’s all one thing that has to work in concert together,” Thornley said.

WTFest concertgoers will find a good mix of music from Thornley’s past and pres-ent when Big Wreck hits the stage on June 13. Big Wreck headlines the Saturday night entertainment, coming on after I Mother Earth and The Trews.

Formed in 1993 Big Wreck won acclaim with songs like The Oaf and That Song but split up in 2002. Thornley went on to form a self-named band but reunited with Big Wreck in 2012.

That year Big Wreck put out its third album – Albatross.

The album debuted in fifth place on the Top 200 Sound-Scan chart in Canada and was No. 25 on the U.S. Billboard HeatSeekers chart. The lead single Albatross, made Big Wreck the first Canadian band to top the Canadian rock radio chart in over a year.

The band followed that up with the release of Ghosts in June, 2014, debuting once again in fifth place on the Ca-nadian Albums Chart and hit-ting fourth place – the highest yet for the band – on Billboard HeatSeekers Chart.

With over two decades of airplay, Big Wreck draws a large following, often hitting a chord with several age

groups.“I’m delighted by the fact

that I can look out in the audi-ence and see people who are older, people who are my age and people who are younger than me,” Thornley said. “Certainly that we have never been a fad or trendy in one way is kind of a drag, but in another we were always able to keep everything real and authentic and that appeals to people regardless of age.”

With maturity comes the ability to put aside the need to create music strictly for merchandising purposes and instead to feel good in the making of it, Thornley added.

“I think it just sort of rides on raw passion, energy, enthusiasm and adrenalin and certainly beer sometimes,” he said. “Now it’s a lot more fo-cused. I think it’s better work and it speaks more to what I was going for initially, sort of this raw inspiration.”

On stage, Thornley still searches for his Nirvana – a feel good place that tran-scends everything else.

“That’s the kind of juice that keeps all musicians coming back for more,” Thornley said. “It’s that buzz that you are looking for, it’s that bolt of lightening. That’s what you are chasing and that’s why you are doing this.

“When it all works the audience is as much a part of it, it’s all part of the whole experience.”

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EST‘The music is bigger than us’

Connection with fans motivates Hedley to keep momentumVICTORIA GRAY | BRANT NEWS

Hedley plans to rock fans with old favourites and some surprises

when they roll into Brantford for the inaugural WTFest.

The Juno Award-winning West Coast band will be at the two-day festival at Lions Park – headlining on Sunday, June 14.

Lead guitarist Dave Rosin said the band is excited to be back in Brantford.

“We’re looking forward to coming and playing for you guys,” he said. “It should be a fun weekend with some great

shows.”Although Rosin said the

group hasn’t sorted out their set list, they always try to do something different and sometimes the things they do even surprises them.

“We will probably play some favourites and we might try to pull a couple we don’t play often and something special,” Rosin said. “We always pull something out of our sleeve. After 10 years of us being together I don’t know who’s sleeve it’s up, even if its mine. It’s going to be a good night.”

Rosin said the band is cur-rently working on new mate-

rial, but didn’t know when fans could expect to see a new album.

“A very important part of the process is constant momentum,” Rosin said. “We know how fortunate we are to do this and travel and play hundreds of shows and you don’t ever want it to stop.”

The Canadian sensation will play alongside other major acts, including USS and Lights.

Rosin said he’s looking forward to hearing everyone sing, have a great time and leave all their troubles behind.

“Bring your singing voices

because the thing I love most about shows is watching them sing along,” he said. “There’s nothing better than that and just belt it out at the top of your lungs. We’ve got a nice long set for everybody.”

He said they are excited to play because fans make the music bigger than the band ever anticipated. Rosin said if people didn’t come, enjoy the music and make it theirs it would be band practice and that’s not nearly as much fun.

“It’s so special that people are taking a night off work, we want to make sure they are forgetting about their daily

troubles and getting to close their eyes and enjoy the mo-ment with us,” he said.

The group’s latest album, Wild Life, was released in Canada in November 2013 with singles Anything and Crazy for You.

Crazy for You debuted at No. 19 on the Canadian Top 40 and stayed on the chart for 58 weeks. Anything de-buted at No. 20 and stayed on the chart for 77 weeks.

“We just constantly keep our momentum,” Rosin said. “We enjoy playing and writ-ing together, so I think we’ve never really ever stopped in

the last 10 years.”Rosin loves hearing about

how the band’s music has touched other people be-cause it keeps him down to earth and motivates him and the rest of the band to keep going.

“A girl told me she used one of our songs for her wedding and that really touched me. The music is bigger than us,” he said.

Hedley formed in 2004 and released its self-titled debut album in 2005.

Since then, the group had nabbed two Juno Awards along with 22 nominations, performed at the 2015 Juno Awards and frontman Jacob Hoggard pulled double duty and also hosted the awards.

They have also had three consecutive double-platinum certificates and, as of 2013, more than one million down-loads.

Pollstar, a leading concert publication, named Hedley one of the top-touring artists in the world in 2010 and the band’s success continued when they performed at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

“If we’re not in the studio we’re out touring somewhere,” Rosin said. “It’s all about keep-ing that momentum.”

Hedley headlined the 2013 Grey Cup halftime show in Regina.

In addition to Rosin, other members of the band include vocalist Jacob Hoggard, bass-ist Tommy Mac and drummer Chris Crippin.

Prior to releasing Wild Life, the group released Storms in 2011, The Show Must Go On in 2009, Famous Last Words in 2007 and their self-titled debut album in 2005.

“We know how fortunate we are to do this and travel and play hundreds of shows and you don’t ever want it to stop,” Rosin said.

The band is also involved with the Canadian charity Free the Children, which seeks to end poverty internationally.

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Lights to bring classic electronic sound to WTFest

Triple Juno winner will showcase latest albumYVONNE VAN DE WIELE-COOPER

FOR BRANT NEWS

She was born Valerie Poxleitner in Timmins 28 years ago, but she’d

been given the nickname Lights and it stuck.

“It just felt like it was hap-pening for me. It was my name. I legally made it my first name in 2007. So it’s on all my credentials. It’s on my passport. I get funny looks at the airport,” she said.

Lights is part of the star studded lineup for Brantford’s upcoming WTFest, where she will perform songs from her Juno award-winning pop album of the year, Little Machines.

The singer’s music has been classified under a number of genres including electro pop, post rock, indie pop, pop rock and alternative rock, but Lights herself refers to the style as classic electronic.

“I went for the new wave, tech synth that I know and love from all my favourite bands from the 70s and 80s, like Electric Light Orchestra and The Cars. It’s kind of got this throwback feel, but it’s re-

ally just songs that sound like Lights songs. So it’s become this kind of classic electronic thing,” she said.

Some of her more popular titles include Drive My Soul, Ice, Toes and Up We Go.

Despite the accolades, Little Machines almost didn’t happen. Lights, who writes all of her own music, had suffered from a debilitating case of writer’s block due to the pressures of the music business.

“It kind of gets harder every time you want to make a record. You kind of want to one-up yourself each time. You want to evolve as an art-ist, but you want to maintain what you think people know and love about you. You never want to take a step back, so there’s a lot of pressure to make something bigger and better than ever before. It’s very crippling actually. Especially you know when you start to learn a little too much about the industry and the requirements of success and what it takes to make a hit song” she said.

She eventually dealt with the problem by branching out

into other creative endea-vours including poetry and painting. She also listened to the music of other artists including the entire discogra-phy of Neil Young.

The result was a nostalgic album about youth and the past including the song, Running with the Boys. Lights says acoustic renditions of some of the songs on Little Machines are in the works and will likely come out on an EP (extended play) album.

Meantime, Lights and her musician husband Beau Bo-kan are new parents following the birth of daughter Rocket Wild, who goes along on tour with them to places like Paris and Amsterdam. Lights is looking forward to play-ing festivals and concerts in Ontario this summer including WTFest in Brantford.

“It’s going to be a nice one-off summer where you get to kind of fly around and see a lot of different places and there’s different vibes all over the place. It’s not like a head-lining tour where it’s consis-tent every night. There’s a lot of variety. I’m looking forward to that,” she said.

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Each year, Men in Heels - Standing Tall Against Domestic Violence is a huge success due to the amazing men in our community who understand the importance of raising awareness about domestic violence, men like you.

We are asking for your support once again this year as we come together on Saturday June 20th, 2015 at Harmony Square to show you care about the 212 women and children who called Nova Vita home last year. At Nova Vita we see the devastating impact of abuse on the faces of the women and children who seek our help. Domestic violence knows no boundaries; it could be your mother, your sister, your daughter, your friend or your neighbour.

As the old saying goes...”You can’t really understand someone’s experiences unless you walk in their shoes”. So we are asking you... Will you walk in red high heels (honestly they are not that high!) and help us raise awareness and necessary funds needed for your local shelter for women and children?

Registration starts at 10:00AM - enjoy music from local bands, the kids zone and the MIH photo booth

Opening Ceremony begins at 11:15AM followed by our walk in downtown Brantford

Enjoy our post walk festivities - a free BBQ for all our walkers sponsored by Strodes BBQ & Deli

This is an event you won’t want to miss!

Saturday June 20th, 2015 - We need you!

Help us ensure abused women & their children will always have a safe place to go.

Enclosed you will find a registration form, pledge form and a tips form for the Men in Heels event. Walker registration forms must be submitted prior to the event in order to guarantee shoes size. Pledge monies can be dropped off before the event at Nova Vita or at registration on Saturday June 20th, 2015. For online information please visit www.novavita.org.

Your support truly makes a difference. Thank you for your support in making Brantford and the County of Brant a safe community for everyone.

Events Coordinator 519-752-1005 ext. [email protected]

Each year, Men in Heels - Standing Tall Against Domestic Violence is a huge success due to the amazing men in our community who understand the importance of raising awareness about domestic violence, men like you.

We are asking for your support once again this year as we come together on Saturday June 20th, 2015 at Harmony Square to show you care about the 212 women and children who called Nova Vita home last year. At Nova Vita we see the devastating impact of abuse on the faces of the women and children who seek our help. Domestic violence knows no boundaries; it could be your mother, your sister, your daughter, your friend or your neighbour.

As the old saying goes...”You can’t really understand someone’s experiences unless you walk in their shoes”. So we are asking you... Will you walk in red high heels (honestly they are not that high!) and help us raise awareness and necessary funds needed for your local shelter for women and children?

Registration starts at 10:00AM - enjoy music from local bands, the kids zone and the MIH photo booth

Opening Ceremony begins at 11:15AM followed by our walk in downtown Brantford

Enjoy our post walk festivities - a free BBQ for all our walkers sponsored by Strodes BBQ & Deli

This is an event you won’t want to miss!


Help us ensure abused women & their children will always have a safe place to go.

Enclosed you will find a registration form, pledge form and a tips form for the Men in Heels event. Walker registration forms must be submitted prior to the event in order to guarantee shoes size. Pledge monies can be dropped off before the event at Nova Vita or at registration on Saturday June 20th, 2015. For online information please visit www.novavita.org.

Your support truly makes a difference. Thank you for your support in making Brantford and the County of Brant a safe community for everyone.

Events Coordinator 519-752-1005 ext. [email protected]

Each year, Men in Heels - Standing Tall Against Domestic Violence is a huge success due to the amazing men in our community who understand the importance of raising awareness about domestic violence, men like you.We are asking for your support once again this year as we come together on Saturday June 20th, 2015 at Harmony Square to show you care about the 212 women and children who called Nova Vita home last year. At Nova Vita we see the devastating impact of abuse on the faces of the women and children who seek our help. Domestic violence knows no boundaries; it could be your mother, your sister, your daughter, your friend or your neighbour.As the old saying goes...”You can’t really understand someone’s experiences unless you walk in their shoes”. So we are asking you... Will you walk in red high heels (honestly they are not that high!) and help us raise awareness and necessary funds needed for your local shelter for women and children? Registration starts at 10:00AM - enjoy music from local bands, the kids zone and the MIH photo booth Opening Ceremony begins at 11:15AM followed by our walk in downtown Brantford Enjoy our post walk festivities - a free BBQ for all our walkers sponsored by Strodes BBQ & Deli

THiS iS an evenT you won’T wanT To miSS!

Help us ensure abused women & their children will always have a safe place to go. Enclosed you will find a registration form, pledge form and a tips form for the Men in Heels event. Walker registration forms must be submitted prior to the event in order to guarantee shoes size. Pledge monies can be dropped off before the event at Nova Vita or at registration on Saturday June 20th, 2015. For online information please visit www.novavita.org.

Your support truly makes a difference.

Thank you for your support in making Brantford and the County of Brant a safe community for everyone.


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The Trews make their return to BrantfordGuitarist says fans help keep the band alive


John-Angus MacDonald hopes WTFest attendees will forget all about their

cell phones when The Trews hit the stage.

“The main objective is to get people to forget they’ve got a phone in their pocket,” The Trews guitarist said. “To me, that’s like a failure if people are more interested in Googling something instead of checking out what they have going on in front of them.

“There’s no doubt that it is a little socially corrosive to have that phone being dragged out so if we can create special moments for people that mean even more that would be our objective, just to make it something special for them.”

The Trews make their ap-pearance on the festival stage between performances by I Mother Earth and headliners Big Wreck on Saturday night. It will be one of several visits to Brantford the band has made over its past 12-plus years of touring.

Playing in clubs versus festivals are two very different things, MacDonald said.

“The biggest thing when you’re on a club bill is that it is your own, you get to plan the show whereas with a festival, it’s a little tighter on the time scheme,” he said. “But you do get to reach a lot more people at a festival. They’re not always there to see you, they’re there to see their favourite bands, but they also get to check you out so you can play to your fans and grab some new ones too.”

With hits like Hold Me in Your Arms, Paranoid Freak, Highway of Heroes, Hope and

Ruin, What’s Fair is Fair and Rise in the Wake, the multi-award winning band is sure to

gain some new fans for their legion of loyal followers.

For MacDonald, his twin brother and lead vocalist Colin MacDonald, bassist Jack Syperek and drummer Sean Dalton, the fans are what make being in the music industry truly spectacular.

“We feel really lucky, ap-preciative and humbled that we have such great fans that have kept us here for over a decade,” MacDonald said. “I didn’t imagine at 15 that I would be 35 and making a career of music.”

The Trews entered the mu-sic scene as One I’d Trouser while the band members were still in high school in their hometown of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Their big break came after winning a HTZ-FM radio Rocksearch contest in St. Catharines.

“When you first start get-ting big and hearing your songs on the radio you can get bigheaded and think it is all about you, but it is really about (the fans),” MacDonald said. “That keeps you where you are, the fact that people appreciate what we do and they want to hear us live – we feel very lucky.”

Admittedly, being on the road for months at a time can get mind numbing.

“Some days when you are sitting at the airport or the gas station and eating crappy food, those are the parts that can feel tedious sometimes,” MacDonald said. “But when we get there and get to perform, that’s what makes it so great.”

Still, a vacation is required now and then to rejuvenate and recharge their batter-ies. That’s when the creative juices start flowing and new songs come into being.

“We don’t really sit down with a subject in mind, usually it just comes. Sometimes the well is dry and sometimes it is flowing, it just starts gushing out,” MacDonald said.

Today the band makes its home in Toronto, a far cry from the crashing waves and rustic splendor of Nova Sco-tia. But east is still the place they call home.

“Our mom is still there and we have a sister there who has a family,” MacDonald said. “So it is a home base of sorts.”

Although the bright lights and hectic paces of city living have a draw, going back to Antigonish to visit gives Mac-Donald time to breathe.

“Antigonish is such a pretty countryside and it’s on the ocean as well and those things I do miss about living there – breathing easier and being by the ocean and trees,” MacDonald said. “Coming to Toronto, the physical size is so different. But I didn’t realize until going backwards just how much different the pace is.”

THE TREWS

WT

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WTFest a great kickstart to USS summer campaign

Human Kebab talks about band’s latest successesCOLLEEN TOMS | BRANT NEWS

Jay “Human Kebab” Parsons of USS has vi-sions of sending Walter

Gretzky crowd surfing into the WTFest audience.

When cautioned that might not be the best idea, the USS turntablist and hypeman settled for bringing the iconic hockey dad up on stage to do a little head scratch.

“I’d show him how to do a little scratch for the show,” Parsons said.

What he would really like

though, is to get a tour of the Gretzky home to see first-hand where The Great One got his start in hockey.

Whether or not he gets his wish it is very clear that Par-sons’ infectious good humour and enthusiasm will bring some great karma to WT-Fest when he and Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker band mate Ashley Buchholz – aka Ash Boo-Schultz – hit the stage.

“It’s going to be such a kickstart to our summer campaign,” Parsons said. “I

can already picture what it’s going to be like – non-stop music and a lot of jumping and dancing.”

That non-stop action is true to form for USS, which recently signed its first Ameri-can recording contract with Bad Mascot Records.

“It feels like it’s been from my parent’s basement in the making for 10 years,” Parsons said. “It’s par for the course that all of the peaks and val-leys and plateaus all sort of led to this moment, it’s exactly

USS

the right time.”Before creating their own

label – Smashing World Records – in 2008, Parsons and Buchholz were wooed by major Canadian labels in much the same way.

“People believed in USS and the music,” Parsons said. “They saw how we evolved in our country and they really liked us and couldn’t help but want to be involved in what we were doing. It seems fit-ting that the Americans got caught on to us in the same

way as Canadians initially. It was really grass roots.”

Following the release of their latest album Advanced Basics in February 2014, the dynamic duo joined up with Hedley for a cross-Canada tour in March and April 2014. Hedley requested USS join them and Classfied for the tour.

“Hedley picked us because they liked us,” Parsons said. “It was very moving because it was one of those experiences that when you are just coming up and you start in your small town in your parents’ base-ment, you think to yourself ‘imagine if one day we were asked to open for the Killers, what that would be like?’

“That literally happened and we were humbled. You sit back and think, ‘wow, my band made it.’ Those guys (Hedley) are in a different echelon, they’re like Canadian rock royalty.”

USS and their close friend Lights will open for Hedley once again, only this time it will be on the WTFest stage right here in Brantford on Sunday, June 14.

“We’re really the oddballs because we are just so over the top,” Parsons joked.

Speaking with Parsons it quickly becomes clear he and Buchholz are living their dreams. They’ve toured

Europe, were nominated for the 2015 Juno Awards breakthrough group of the year, signed a U.S. label, have played alongside major bands and all the while, have made great friends along the way.

“All of these firsts were hap-pening for us in the world,” Parsons said of the duo’s recent successes. “It becomes so addictive for us when we are in a new town because these people are here to see you, they want to hear you and we are feeding off their energy for the moment.

“After the show we meet a lot of new people and think, ‘hey, you guys are really down to earth.’ There’s that chill that you get when you’ve made friends for life.”

While enjoying some down-time before WTFest, USS will work on a new record.

“We can actually take our time and craft our sounds and lyrics moving forward with a new palate with the courage we sort of have always moved forward with,” Parsons said.

Following that Parsons hopes to knock off one of his bucket list to-dos.

“My goal is to see how many countries we can go to perform,” he said. “We’ve played in 10 so far.”

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They’ve got the loveI Mother Earth doing music to beat of their own drum

SEAN ALLEN | BRANT NEWS

It’s not every band that can step away from the music scene for almost a decade

and step back in without missing a beat.

But Canadian alternative rockers I Mother Earth have managed to find a way to exist and succeed in two completely different manifes-tations of the music industry.

“We promised ourselves when we got back into doing this that we wouldn’t tour in the traditional manner,” drum-mer Christian Tanna said. “We play when we want and when we get asked to play, we look at our schedule to see if it works.”

Brantford’s WTFest – on June 13 and June 14 at Lions Park – works for their schedule.

with Byrne was perfect for the group, as Byrne was able to bring a new element to the previous songs, while contributing to the writing of new music.

They released two more traditional albums with Byrne – 1999’s Blue Green Orange and 2003’s The Quicksilver Meat Dream.

It was following the tour for their last album that I Mother Earth’s story schisms from that of most other ’90s rock groups.

The band went on hiatus in late 2003.

“The idea was to take a cou-ple of months and regroup, but underneath us the ground was shifting in the industry,” Christian said. “We had to ask ourselves if we really wanted to get back into that (album and tour) cycle again.

“Everyone kind of got busy with other projects or family life. The unspoken answer was ‘no,’ we had no desire to jump back into that cycle.”

The Tannas and Byrne remained friends and stayed in touch with each other. Eventually, the bug to create new music started to become too much to ignore.

In 2012, I Mother Earth decided to step back into the game, but on their own terms.

“No touring and no albums,” Christian said. “We saw how the industry works now and we saw a way, perhaps, to kind of do things our own way.”

The band left in the midst of an industry where album sales at record stores drove commercial success. They returned to a music indus-try where a single on iTunes allows musicians to promote their live shows.

But not every band has found a way to escape the grind.

“A lot of our contemporary bands that were out there back when we were ... ask us how we are doing it like this,” Christian said. “I just say the

answer is ‘no albums and no tours.’

“They have those tired looks on their faces because they got back into the fray and kept doing what they did be-fore. It’s that (album and tour) cycle that kills everyone.”

By not playing into the grind of a regular tour sched-ule, I Mother Earth is able to bring more energy to their live shows.

“So it’s kind of like this explosion that comes out,” Christian said.

Playing intermittently also means the band puts more effort into preparing for every performance.

“We are kind of all-in,” Christian said. “There is no sit-ting back and relaxing.”

Known for performing for more than three hours at a time at recent shows, Chris-tian said the confines of a one-hour set at a festival can be a bit frustrating.

“Our songs tend to be a bit jammy,” he said with a laugh. “We try to narrow it down to some things people will want to hear and we do stuff that makes us happy. We always find a nice blend.”

When they made their return, the group released the song We’ve Got the Love online in 2012 and toured behind it extensively. Things kind of slowed down again by 2014, but Christian said they decided to ramp up their schedule for the coming year by releasing another song in February – The Devil’s Engine.

There is another single planned for release next month.

“We are writing more than ever,” Christian said. “We have so much music in the pipeline. I think it’s partly because we aren’t stuck doing things we don’t want to do.

“If we were back in the grind of album cycles and touring, it wouldn’t be as much fun.”

I MOTHER EARTH

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I Mother Earth is playing a late-afternoon set on Satur-day, June 13, before the Trews and Big Wreck take the stage.

I Mother Earth was part of the alternative wave in the 1990s, experiencing peak commercial success by going double platinum in Canada with their 1996 album Scenery and Fish.

The group got its start in

1993 with the album Dig and exploded on to the Canadian rock scene with Scenery and Fish in 1996. Founded by brothers Jagori and Christian Tanna, the band recorded its first two albums with lead vocalist Edwin.

Edwin and the Tanna broth-ers split in 1997 and the band found vocalist Brian Byrne as a replacement. The chemistry


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Whatever life has thrown at people to get them down,

Steven Ryan hopes WTFest attendees can forget about it, at least for a little while.

“My whole purpose as a musician is trying to make other people feel like they’re not alone in whatever struggle they’re going through,” Ryan said. “Whether it’s cheering them up when they’re sad, or just making them not feel like they’re the only person in the world going through that.

“Or sometimes if you’re sad you need a sad song, you don’t always need cheering up. Sometimes you need to just let it go and let it hap-pen.”

At 23-years-old Ryan can relate to many issues faced by young people today. Often times an issue will find its way

into one of his original songs.“A lot of stuff is from life

experience, just like anything creative you get inspired by something that happens or has happened,” he said. “Sometimes I just write a song because I feel like writing and I don’t actually know what it’s about until I’m done. Then it always ends up being very relevant to what I’m going through.

“It’s almost like the voice inside your head and you’re trying to explain to yourself what to do in tough situations or stuff like that.”

Since releasing his new full-length album Take My Hand in March 2014, Ryan has written many new songs. Fans will get to hear some of them when he performs at WTFest on Sunday, June 14.

“Half of my set will be from the album that I released last March and the other half

STEVEN RYAN

will be new material that I’m working on now,” Ryan said. “I’m trying to venture more into just the original music because that’s the route that I want to take.”

Ryan’s songs have been played at several weddings over the past year – some were played by Ryan as the bride walked down the aisle and others as a chosen song for the couple’s first dance.

“That was really cool to have people be like, ‘man that song really describes our re-lationship’ or things like that,” he said.

Having people in the WTFest audience connect in some way to his songs is key for Ryan, who will perform with band members DJ Hussey on drums, Quentin Carter on bass and George Androutsopoulos on backup guitar and backup vocals.

“As long as the crowd is into what you are doing and they’re accepting the mes-sage, that’s all that matters,” Ryan said. “The best part for me is during the songs and you just get lost in the music, everything disappears.

“It’s that same type of feel-ing a lot of people feel maybe the first time you spend time alone with the person you fell in love with and you feel like there’s no problems in the world and nothing bad could ever happen.”

Ryan is excited to be per-forming at the festival with many musicians from Brant-ford and Brant. WTFest will help showcase some of the strong talent from the area.

“There’s too many people that think our city doesn’t have a lot to offer in the way of music or the arts when re-ally, if you take a look around it’s quite disgusting how many talented people there are in the area,” he said. “Hopefully this festival will open people’s eyes.”

WTFest a great showcase for local talent

Steven Ryan hopes to connect to audience through his music


Sons of Revelry will showcase new tunes


Brantford’s Sons of Revelry are back in full swing after a brief

hiatus from performing. The break proved to be produc-tive for the band members, who spent their time churning out about 30 new songs.

“This is the most writing we’ve done as a band,” front-man Toby Black, said. “It was an unofficial recoup where we thought, ‘let’s just write and assess where we want to be as a band, where we want to be as musicians. And it’s worked out really, really well because now we come back with such a rejuvenated pas-sion and we are all at such a good place musically that you can hear that and see it.”

The songs have taken Sons of Revelry to a new level musically with a more techni-cal sound that continues to revolve around the kind of melody and groove the band has defined as its own.

“We played at Two Doors Down a couple of weeks ago and we played one of the new songs that we’ve never played live before and literally, by the second verse there were people singing the words back for part of the song,” Black said.

The winners of the 2013 Er-nie Ball Rockstar Energy Drink Battle of the Bands had a hec-tic but successful 2014. The win included an amazing five-week, 30-plus-city North American Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar tour, recording a five song EP at NRG Studios in Los Angeles with Jay Baumgartner and winning about $10,000 worth of music gear.

The band plans to return to L.A. to record a full-length album with the help of Baumgartner.

“We’re not in a rush, which is nice, we’re happy to take our time,” Black said. “We’re kind of at a stage where I fell maturity wise, that most bands take 10 years to get to.”

“And we’re lucky to have friends in L.A. that are willing to work with us with no rush,” bassist Arron Rayner said.

In the meantime, Black, Rayner, drummer Sean Boyle and guitar/back-up vocalist Corey Brouwer, will look to record a three-track summer EP locally at Jukasa Studios in Ohsweken.

“I’ve struck up quite a good relationship with those guys so we’re going to do a little three-track, live off the floor, maybe summer EP that people can maybe swipe and share,” Black said.

The Brantford boys are also looking forward to playing in front of friends and family when they take the stage at the inaugural WTFest on June 13.

“I think a lot of people have heard of us but this is maybe the first time a lot of people locally are going to get to see us,” Rayner said.

What people will see is a band that gels together well, playing off of each other’s unique talents to create an entertaining and powerful show. Even though the band hasn’t been together long, the members quickly formed a bond.

“Through communication and maturity, obviously those things come to a plateau,” Rayner said. “When you know

SONS OF REVELRY

one another, once you learn each other’s habits, we know how to get along.”

Described by Black as be-ing “like brothers,” Sons of Revelry has become a family of sorts. The support the men receive from home has helped them to follow their dreams.

“I have to thank my wife Jodie, without her help and support this would have been impossible,” said Rayner, who has a nine-year-old son Evan.

Black recently welcomed the addition of a new baby boy to his family that includes a 17-month-old daughter and wife Layla.

“I am blessed to have such an amazing woman who al-lows me to have the free time to do what I do,” he said. “She just holds everything down.”

Other Sons of Revelry family members include Brouwer’s longtime girlfriend Sam, Boyle’s high school sweetheart Akayla and invaluable merch booth manager Jay Sayles.

In addition to WTFest, Sons of Revelry will play at Burling-ton’s Sound of Music festival, at Sound Garden, at the Horseshoe in Toronto, June 6, the Warped Tour on July 17, the Biggs and Bar show 97.7 Hitz FM autism awareness fundraiser and are finalists for another battle of the bands.

They are hoping for a win but are happy just to keep playing, Black said.

“Music is not to be judged, it’s not a right or wrong thing, it’s not a true or false, it’s just music is,” he said.

Check out the band’s fan page on Facebook to see their touring schedule and to vote for Sons in the upcoming battle.

Brantford band looking forward to performing in front of their own

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Peeler’s new songs previewed

at WTFestCOLLEEN TOMS | BRANT NEWS

Music is like a drug that Craig Peeling couldn’t imagine living without.

“Being very honest with you I think really, the only time that I personally feel that I’m reaching my worth or real-izing my potential is when I’m performing in front of people,” Peeling said. “It’s like you need the approval, be it of a group of 20 to 30 people, a group of hundreds or sometimes you get fortunate and play in front of thousands, but I need that acceptance to feel fulfilled.

“There’s no drug like it.”Peeling will perform at

WTFest with his band Peeler – which includes Derek Drabble on bass and backup vocals and Jason Hall on drums and back-up vocals. The trio will treat the audience to some new songs that they will release in a new, upcoming album.

“We’ve been working very hard on a lot of new music,”

Peeling said. “We’re going to play from the first album some of the more popular songs that people have heard before, and then take a newer direction I suppose for this next album, which hopefully we finish re-cording this year. We’re going to preview a lot of new songs.”

Peeler’s newest material is the result of collaboration between the three band members in addition to about two years worth of new songs written by Peeling.

“At a festival like this it’s important to represent the original music,” Peeling said. “This is what I think it’s about, it’s about bands that write, record and play their own mu-sic and I think it’s important to represent that and also to represent Brantford.”

Brantford will be well rep-resented at WTFest by about seven local bands.

“We’re in good company with Ghost Town Orchestra,

PEELER

Harbour, Mark Wilson, Ascot Royals, Steven Ryan and Sons of Revelry,” Peeling said. “They are all going to be play-ing music that they’ve written and we’re excited to get people to hear what is coming next from Peeler.”

Peeler’s new sound is less hard edged and more of a groove-based “sing-along-able” style that will appeal to a diverse group of music fans. Past works have touched age groups ranging from their teens to seniors.

“You don’t necessarily set out to please a certain demographic,” Peeling said. “You just hope you can write a song, first and foremost that I like and feel good about performing, and if other people like it, it’s a bonus. I’ve been fortunate that some of the music appeals to a pretty diverse audience.”

With the range of bands that will perform at WTFest over the two-day event there will no doubt be a very diverse audience packing the grounds of Lions park.

“There’s a huge cross-polli-nation of people that will be at this show and that’s one of the cool things about it,” Peeler said. “There are acts on both bills on both nights that appeal to teenagers that like pop mu-sic or rock music or both and then there’s music that appeals to people that are in their 50s and 60s. It’s a great represen-tation of what’s available.”

Peeling officially entered the music business full-time in November 2006 after “flirt-ing” with it for a number of years. Shortly thereafter he re-leased his first album Evils of the Modern Pleasure Dance.

“I’m a lot happier now,” he said. “The reality of it is that I’m on the wrong side of 25 to do this forever but music will always be a part of my life. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing than playing the music.”


THE ASCOT ROYALS

Ascot Royals are better and stronger than ever


When thieves made off with their van and all of their gear

in November 2013, it led to a lot of soul-searching for mem-bers of The Ascot Royals.

“It was a breaking point I think, and in that breaking point we kind of gathered ourselves again and said ‘OK, let’s do this and write our mu-sic and make this band hap-pen the way we’ve never done it before and just go better and make it more meaning-ful and deeper,’” guitarist Tal Vaisman said.

The five-piece band did just that and The Ascot Royals are back on track, stronger and better than ever before.

With a new conviction to give their all to the music and live every day as though it was their last, members of The Ascot Royals have had a renaissance of sorts.

“The van being stolen was really the epiphany of all of that put together and us saying ‘well, this is why we do this, because we love doing it, it’s our favourite thing in the world to do,’” keyboardist Ben Chauveau said. “So let’s go away and write songs that really mean that to us and let’s put everything on the table.

“It’s whether you are just going to go, ‘all right, it’s been good, it’s been fun’ and leave it at that or you kind of go back at it harder and stronger.”

The Royals went back to the studio and threw their hearts into writing and jamming. Band members recruited

some key people in the music industry to help create and produce their second EP.

“Right now we’re working with a really big Canadian producer, Gavin Brown,” Vais-man said. “He’s done Three Days Grace, Billy Talent, the last Tragically Hip album and Mother Mother.”

Other outside influences such as renowned songwriters Casey Marshall and Neil Sand-erson of Three Days Grace have helped the band create a solid repertoire and discover what direction they wanted to take musically.

“If it wasn’t writing it was exploring other options musically and figuring out ‘OK, what’s the next step for us and how do we make this better? What are we about?’” Vaisman said. “There was a lot of self-reinvention almost and (Marshall and Sanderson) have been very, very integral of that process and it’s been going great.”

The date for the new EP’s release is still up in the air, but that doesn’t mean The Ascot Royals will be slowing down anytime soon. With a jam-packed summer touring schedule, the Royals really are back in full swing.

In addition to playing at WTFest in front of their hometown crowd, the band will perform at Toronto’s Luminato Festival, join the Vans Warped Tour for eight dates of touring through the southern U.S. and play at the Way Home Festival that is headlined by iconic Canadian rocker Neil Young.

“If anyone told us 10 years ago that we would one day be playing the same stage as Neil Young we wouldn’t believe it,” Chauveau said.

The recent success of the band has proven to be a silver lining in the cloud that threatened to consume it when thousands of dollars worth of precious gear – some of which had priceless sentimental value, especially for Vaisman who brought his guitar with him from Israel – was stolen.

“One of the conversations I remember best at the time was when I was talking with Ben,” Vaisman said. “He said ‘well you know, with all of this happening we’ve had over 50,000 views. A lot of people know who we are now so this might be a good thing.”

The Ascot Royals will show fans just how hard the band has been working when new songs are presented at WT-Fest. And they can’t wait to hear those fans singing along.

“It’s one of the craziest feelings you ever have,” vocal-ist Jimmy Chauveau said of hearing the crowd sing. “It’s strange but amazing, you lose yourself for a bit.”

In the meantime the band will keep “grinding it out,” Jimmy said.

“We are going to have many more practices before that so we can come out of the gate sprinting.”

Fans can catch the Ascot Royals – which includes Sam Stark on drums and Scott Page on bass – at WTFest on Sunday, June 14.

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The exciting lineup for Saturday, June 13, also includes The Mohrs, Gloryhound and Ghost Town Orchestra.On Sunday, June 14, Dear Rouge, Harbour and Mark Wilson are among the featured bands.

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