On the second floor of a Shoppers Drug Mart, there’s a shrine to Yonge Street’s musical history

July 4, 2018 Nick Krewen Special to The Star It’s not often that you have the opportunity to shop for acne ointments and body lotion before stepping into a museum that spotlights a bygone era of Toronto’s fabled musical history. But there The Friar’s Music Museum sits – on the second floor of Shoppers Drug Mart’s brand-new Yonge and Dundas location opposite the Eaton Centre – offering a time capsule…


KILLY: Capturing The Energy of the Moment

Story by Nick Krewen | May 2, 2018 For SOCAN Words & Music… KILLY season has arrived. Five years after his first club performance, Scarborough’s Khalil Tatem – a.k.a. KILLY – is killin’ it for real: joints like 2017’s “Killamonjaro” and “No Romance” are racking up streams and views well into the eight figures. Now, with his 11-track independent album Surrender Your Soul, and a summer world tour that will…


Q&A: Milck Empowers #MeToo and Answers How Men Can Help

Originally published Jan 26, 2018 Nick Krewen Milck, the 30-year-old Los Angeles-based Atlantic Records signing born Connie Lim, calls the #MeToo movement that’s gone global — and called out many high profile men for their inappropriate and often criminal conduct — “a very carnal way of us manifesting our resistance,” she tells Samaritanmag. She bravely sang about her own experience of sexual abuse and harassment in the ballad “Quiet,” which…


Upstarts: Moscow Apartment

Story by Nick Krewen | March 13, 2018 for SOCAN Words and Music Welcome to the first in a new quarterly series, Upstarts, profiling very young SOCAN members who are making some noise with their original music. First up: Moscow Apartment. Moscow Apartment, the young Toronto duo comprised of 15-year-olds Brighid Fry and Pascale Padilla, has already piled up the accolades in just a year of existence. The Rosedale Heights…


Massey Hall’s Massive Revitalization

Story by Nick Krewen | December 13, 2017 The Grand Old Lady is not only getting a facelift, but a makeover. Massey Hall, originally built in 1894 by Canadian industrialist and philanthropist Hart Massey at a cost of $152,000, is in the midst of a $139 million revitalization that will see the iconic, downtown-Toronto, 2,765-seat music venue shutter for a little over two years, starting July 30, 2018. When it…