Jean-Paul De Roover
Brief update from the road – I’m touring all over the US at the moment, playing some neat intimate shows, festivals, and much more! If you haven’t caught me on this leg of the tour, there’s more coming up, just check out the Tour page. But in the meantime, please check out this cover of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine” that I did at The Study this past September. Thanks to The Walleye for capturing it on video!
Many, many months ago, myself and Rob Benvegnu were assembled to collaborate on music for a series of commercials for Thunder Bay Tourism. Having always been an advocate for my hometown, I was honoured, and excited to work on a pretty big project with someone I hadn’t worked with in years. Rob and I used to play in a band together in 2003, but haven’t really worked on anything since. He was busy with his dance group CoNcEpTs while I ventured into the world of the one-man-band. He’s been producing lots lately though, winning an Aboriginal People’s Choice Award for Shy-Anne Hovorka’s album ‘Pseudo’ as well selling beats as his alter-ego, RaWb EaTs. Working with him on the music was a lot of fun, and we went through many different versions before settling on the one you hear there. We experimented with different sounds and styles, but I think you’ll agree that the finished product flows along quite nicely just as it is!
We teamed up with Dave Angell from Dining Room Studios to first record the music for the 3 spots, as well as the whole gang from Imaginarium Studios who then synced it to their finished video. The whole production was coordinated by Generator, with Robin Moss (a British songsmith himself) writing the script. There are more credits on each of the videos if you click through to YouTube, but give them a watch, who knows what people and places you’ll recognize! Here they are, broken up into the 3 main tourist seasons: Summer, Fall and Winter.
Feel free to leave a comment on the actual video pages or down below!
I was honoured to be a part of what will hopefully be Thunder Bay’s first TEDx experience. I kicked off the event at 11:30 am, and welcomed everyone in to what was a solid day of interesting live talks and pre-recorded official TED speakers. The theme was reinvention, and I think everyone walked away with a ton of fresh ideas in mind.
It’s also pretty sweet when my gear (and me) colour coordinate with the event!
For more info on the Thunder Bay edition of the event, visit tedxthunderbay.com
Yep, it’s been busy here at the Nick Sherman camp – it really feels like I haven’t even touched my own material because I’ve been working so closely with him. However, this stuff is wicked fun to be a part of!
We’ve had 2 packed CD release shows (Thunder Bay and Sioux Lookout), with still one more to come in Fort Frances, and people are loving the disc and the full band live show.
Here are some photos:
You can now download the album on iTunes!
So it turns out that I have a lot of friends in Ottawa. For some strange reason, there are quite a lot of Thunder Bay-ites that have decided to relocate there. Is it because it’s like southern Ontario while still being ‘North’? Who knows.
Anyway, this particular stop wasn’t on my birthday (NB, almost every other visit to Ottawa has been on October 9th), but rather a bitterly cold evening in March. I stayed (as usual) with my good friends Iggi and Alicia, who unfortunately couldn’t make it to the show because his family’s genes have decided that they were all to inherit very weak achilles tendons. Stuck in a wheelchair, winter is not a very convenient time to try to take public transportation around town.
Either way, I loaded into Zaphod’s for the first time, and met with Liam Epps (from Ace Kinkaid) and the Acorn Trail, the two other acts on the bill. As you know, Liam and I now go way back as I even spent last thanksgiving with his family in Kitchener, playing trivial pursuit on a team with his grandmother. We lost.
So, before the show began, Shannon and I met up with our friend Diane for some Mexican eats, and this very small little restaurant near the marketplace. I was so excited because it has been years since I’ve had Inca Kola (the last time was when I was visiting Machu Picchu in Peru).
Eventually, the show started at Zaphod Beeblebrox (named after Douglas Adams’ The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), and Liam showed me up as an analog one-man-band. He combined his drumming skills while playing a mandolin and some other things as well, all at once. I went up afterwards, and was then followed by the Acorn Trail, currently a three-piece, but it was really nice to see a band incorporate a lapsteel guitar, not a very common instrument for indie acts.
The show was over by 11pm, a nice change from the usual 3am. There was a long lineup of Thunder Bay friends to hug and catch up with, so I didn’t get to spend as much time with you all as I would have liked, but there’s always next October!
