By Nick Krewen Special To The Star Serena Ryder knows all too well about the art of falling apart. As a recording artist who used to tour relentlessly, the six-time Juno Award winner found the incessant grind of the road personally damaging, as she relied on a steady diet of drink, drugs and cigarettes to cope and carry on. “Being a touring musician can be one of the most draining…
Nick Krewen Special to the Star After two years of building its production library, Toronto-based Nagamo Publishing is ready to take on the world. As the first exclusively Indigenous-created music production library and composer agency on the planet to serve media needs, Nigel Irwin, Nagamo Co-Creative Director and Composer says the shingle offers a lot of variety. “Our bread and butter is contemporary music fused with traditional sounds, as well…
Nick Krewen Special To the Star “Stay driven.” For 20 years, that message has been the underlying theme of Toronto hip-hop veteran Duane “D.O.” Gibson’s presentations at over 1000 schools across Canada. Offering four programs that focus on the topics of anti-bullying, self-confidence, leadership, peer pressure, literature and Black history, to name a few, Gibson estimates he’s delivered more than 2500 of his empowering speeches and workshops to hundreds of…
Nick Krewen Special to the Star Sometimes to move forward, you have to take a few steps back. Or stop completely. For singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards, who releases Total Freedom her first album since 2012’s Voyageur, on Friday (August 14), the latter move was her answer to a decade of the non-stop rinse-recycle-repeat music industry treadmill that took its toll. In 2011, her marriage to local producer and Blue Rodeo guitarist…
Nick Krewen Special to the Star The cavalry has arrived in the nick of time for Toronto music venue owners. On May 28, Toronto City Council passed a proposal that enables property owners to claim a 50 per cent property tax break on sites that primarily operate as a live music venue, with the assumption that they’ll pass that savings on to their tenants. With COVID-19 protective measures bringing live…
