Bonny Morgan / DJ Bonseye

Genre: Jazz/Ambient

Toronto, ON

Sample Track: DJ Bonseye – Funkengruuven

BIO

Bonny Morgan’s CD “Acoustically Yours” is a collection of smooth jazz and torch songs receiving airplay across Canada on the CBC Radio Network (who called it “Mmmm… Flavourful”, “Nicely Done” & “Exactly what we’re looking for!”) and WhiStle Radio – for which she also wrote a station ID jingle.

Released under the name DJBonseye, “Digitally Yours” is a forceful, ambient, dance-pop album with funk and groove to spare.  The grooving, cinematic scenescapes painted by DJBonseye are a Twilight Zone-esque fusion of electronica, pop, dance, avante garde, urban, ambient, chill out, and trip hop.

Bonny’s music can be found on dozens of the world’s most popular online radio and music download websites, including Last.fm & iTunes.

She writes and produces music styles ranging from jazz, country and folk to pop, dance and electronica; and continues to perform live with a variety of different bands.

Bonny was recently featured on the “In a Song” cable TV series created by John Serré showcasing Canadian songwriters; she guested at the Ontario Latcham Art Gallery’s “Sound of Art” series; and served on the judging panel for the Just Plain Folks Music Awards.

A native of California, Bonny’s many live performances have included The Troubadour in Los Angeles, The Stardust in Las Vegas, and lengthy contracts in Hawaii, Japan, China, Korea, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, where she met her Canadian husband and now resides as a proud dual US/Canadian citizen in Ontario, Canada.

In Canada, Bonny has performed at many exclusive venues and events such as Toronto’s Nathan Phillip’s Square Summer Jazz series and WinterFest series (as seen on CityTV), Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay For Life, Stouffville Mayor Sue Sherban’s Fundraiser, The Toronto/Scotiabank Jazz Café Yonge St. Stage, Royal York Hotel, Windsor Arms Hotel, Hard Rock Café, Niagara Fallsview Casino, Metro Toronto Convention Center as well as hundreds of other clubs and private events.

Discography

Cheryl Catherine Smith

Genre: Rock

Vancouver, BC

Sample Track: All Dark Places

BIO

As a singer and performer I have had the privilege of working with a variety of famous, not famous and infamous artists both in the studio and on stages around the world. Throughout my school years I participated in a range of music and acting programs.  As a teenager I became a more serious musician working as a lead singer with several bands based in Vancouver’s very musically known Broadway Tabernacle, where the then manager of Little Mountain Sound Mr. Bob Brooks was an influence…(that’s right, I started out in the ‘Christian Rock’ scene!)  Although my personal beliefs have radically changed since that time, I am still grateful for the teen thrill of singing before an appreciative crowd of 10,000 people at Vancouver’s PNE Main Stage – this experience got me hooked on the high that only live performances can bring.  I remember receiving many accolades for sounding like a cross between Blondie and Pat Benatar, both of whom were very popular at the time.  For many years I went down the artistic road of excess, as I was seeking the palace of wisdom.  This led me to a multitude of wild experiences to include being in the studio with the London Choir Boys and many others I choose not to divulge until I am inspired to write my memoirs.  I eventually found said palace, grateful for the progressively darker experiences of mind-altering indulgences as they gave me much fodder for writing lyrics.  Most recently I have been a back-up vocalist for the well-known Canadian super group BTO and other lesser-known Canadian and European acts.  I have successfully fronted several Rock and Country bands, and worked extensively as a studio session singer with a variety of Canadian solo artists.  I am currently devoted to my own career as a solo artist, with the help of my very talented and accomplished partner, Kevin Swain.  Some 2005 highlights include visiting the UK and my most favorite city in the world – Paris, where we promoted our CD “All Dark Places”.  While in Europe we opened for the Maritime’s own ‘The Heavy Blinkers’ at The Brickyard in Carlisle, members of ‘Rubber Soul’ helped us by playing with us for our show at The Cavern in Liverpool, we jammed with the entertaining musicians of ‘Roadhouse’ band in London, performed at Raffles in Chelsea, New York’s Joey John played our single on his own Paris radio show, we made a weekend jaunt to Edinburgh to play alongside a most talented and hilarious musician and Scotsman, named Michael – in other words, we had tons of fun.

Discography

Woodpigeon

Genre: Indie-Pop

Calgary, AB

Sample Track: Love in The Time of Hopscotch

Recently voted onto the Polaris Prize Long List for their sophomoric album Treasury Library Canada on Boompa records, Woodpigeon was last years break through hidden treasure who garnered many accolades by making it onto many top 10 lists from last year.

Press Feedback

“Strings soar … and voices blend like a cool breeze hitting the ocean mist … Woodpigeon take flight with an ease that their name wouldn’t make you believe.” -EXCLAIM!

“A perfect balance of grandeur and intimacy, delight and melancholy. Treasury is a left-field gem … you can’t help but fall in love with.” -CHROMEWAVES

Mark Hamilton on Treasury Library Canada

Growing up in Canada, I remember flipping through the pages of those subscriber series of Encyclopedia Canadiana, wildlife picture books, and Disney collector storybook sets available at grocery stores and through mail order. I always begged my parents to subscribe, to get the monthly installments mailed directly to our house. I’d wait what felt like ages between issues – all read cover-to-cover upon arrival, of course, tossed onto the shelf and forgotten in the wait for the next package to arrive.

Diving back into those books as an adult and re-discovering just what waits inside behind dusty covers prompted the line of thinking behind the development of the songs on Treasury Library Canada. I didn’t want these songs to be forgotten, to end up on the shelf collecting dust. While a lot of them were written around the same time that we were working on our first record Songbook, they didn’t fit the overall story and feel, that I was going for with that record. But something kept them all together – a story started to emerge between the songs when left to their own devices.

We hit garage doors with drumsticks and test-ran every mellotron sound we could find. We chased new sounds and structures, throwing away entire arrangements to try it from another angle to see what would happen. As time went on into the recording, Treasury Library Canada felt more and more like a continuation of the diary composed on Songbook, but where Songbook told the story of my time living overseas – from happy arrival to admittedly bitter departure – Treasury Library Canada compiles the sounds of struggling with place.

We throw a lot of words around these days – everyone cusses; it seems saying “I love you” gets easier for folks all the time – but I’m always careful with the words I choose. “Love” only goes to those who deserve it. “Hope” never really dies, no matter how bad things may seem. And “home,” above all else, is only used correctly when it describes the place you’re meant to be. I’ve written a lot of songs attempting to figure that out for myself since moving back to Canada, re-experiencing our winters, driving across our vast expanses of prairie. Treasury Library Canada helped me figure out just what the words listed above – and “home” in particular – truly mean to me.

John Pippus

Genre: Bluesy Acoustic Folk

Vancouver, BC

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/johnpippus

Releasing a first full-length album at an age when most people are browsing the last-minute cruise line deals and senior’s rates specials takes some kind of nerve. Or passion. Or both. Although playing guitar and performing since the age of 12 (around the same time the Beatles hit it big in America), it’s taken this long for John Pippus to get around to recording and releasing a collected dozen of his 100+ original songs. “Myspace, Facebook, and other networking sites have been good places to post singles and get people listening and commenting – and sometimes buying,” Pippus says. “As a result, I haven’t felt the strong need to have a full-length CD out there – until now”. Milestones in John’s singer/songwriting career include nabbing a FACTOR demo grant, playing Nashville’s Bluebird Café, The Tractor Tavern in Seattle, and Bruxelles Bar in Dublin, Ireland (seen in the hit movie “Once”), as well as co-writing with Ra McGuire (Trooper), Nashville-based Angela Lauer, Austin’s Kacy Crowley, and many of Vancouver’s best young talent. He has also had songs on various compilation CDs and airplay on numerous Canadian and America radio stations. In June 2008, John was one of twenty five songwriters – and the only Canadian – invited to attend the Steel Bridge Songfest in Wisconsin. This event, organized by Pat MacDonald (Timbuk3), culminated with an all-day festival headlined by Jackson Browne, Jane Weidlin (The Gogos), and Eric McFadden (P-Funk, Eric Burdon). Sharing the stage with the aforementioned, John performed two of five songs co-written that week on the main stage for an audience of thousands. Many of the songs on the new CD “This City” will be part of a new, one-man musical comedy/drama Pippus is writing and starring in at the Victoria and Vancouver Fringe Festivals this summer. Directed by New York director/actor Rachel Scott, this play is the hilarious and poignant story of how an ex-hippie gets his musical groove back after raising the kids.

Discography