1: How would you describe your sound? I've definitely got an alternative rock sound. It's one of my favourite genres of music and it shows when I write. As I've gone on with my newer songs I've definitely adapted more of a singer songwriter sound while keeping my alternative rock roots. 2. Who are your influences?  God there's so many. As far as music goes, definitely Weezer. Cosplay, Our Lady Peace, and Green day as well.  Lyrically however, I take inspiration from John Mayer, and Ed Sheeran. The way they write songs and structure them are inspiring.  3. What's on the horizon for 2019 musically? I'm going on tour! I've gotten an opportunity through a charitable organisation through Live Different (Their Insta handle is @livediff) and I'll be going either to eastern, or western Canada to promote Hey Ryan. Once I get back, I'll hopefully be releasing another single for the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020. We'll see how things g...

Hey readers, It has been a long time since I posted on here. I've been so busy the last few months that the Blogger page took a back seat. We here at The Ottawa Sound have been working on a bunch of new media for you but due to our busy schedules and lack of funds we have had to hold off on them. But we would like to present our faithful readers with a special 2018 In Review article. This year has been the biggest year of my life when it comes to music and journalism. I have had the opportunity to interview many bands, made new friends, made new music and started a record label. The local scene has been very supportive of The Ottawa Sound and we appreciate each and every one of you that has been to a show, read an article or watched a video. Our main goal moving forward is to post at least one article weekly. That doesn't seem like much but when you're working, in 3 bands, working on a record label, writing blog posts, running 2 YouTube channels and working on a solo ...

Local band Skybound is releasing its debut full-length album. The album features 10 songs including Void and Bipolar Bear. The Album will be coming out on June 15 th . Tiago was kind enough to give us here at The Ottawa Sound an early look at the album. The album is a concept album that follows a young fighter pilot that has crashed his plane during the second world war and finds a mysterious island. Each song is a journal entry from the perspective of the pilot. I'm willing to admit that before I listened to this album I was not a huge fan of instrumental music, but this album has thoroughly changed my mind. Song 1: Void This song is about the pilot crashing his plane and how he feels hopeless. The song starts with a lamenting vocal line that brings across the despair and hopelessness that the pilot must feel. Then the music erupts and you start to sense his determination to survive. Skybound is a seriously talented group of musicians and this song goes to show it. 9/10...

A Chat With (Episode 1): Scenic Route To Alaska by The Ottawa Sound Blog, Scenic Route To Alaska

On Friday, May 11th we will be hosting our first ever Rap/Hip-hop only show at everyone's favourite house. Message us or the acts for the address. May 11th, $10 @ the door, doors open at 7:00 first act on at 7:30 SET TIMES: Yeti Prezi (Debut show) 7:30-8:05 LB 8:10-8:45 IC-Art 8:50-9:25 Icy Flow 9:30-10:05 Apollo The Child 10:10-End

Dutch band Aestrid comes back to Ottawa to play at House Of Targ for the first time. They'll be playing with Swim Team and Sweet Alps on May 3rd. We decided to check out some of Aestrid's tunes and they have a nice discography with a plethora of music to choose from. Two of their albums have actually been recorded here in Ontario.'No Map Or Address' was recorded in Brantford, Ontario, in 2014. "We've recorded this record with Bob Lanois and Glen Marshall. A Lake Inside, (the record we'll put out at the end of this year) was recorded in a basement in Kingston, Ontario, by ourselves on a 4 track tape recorder," Ray the drummer told us. The first single off of the album is available now on Bandcamp and is called 'I Dream Of You and Me' When we were taking a look at their discography we fell in love with the first track off of 'No Map Or Address' which is called 'Billy'.  When asked to explain 'Billy' Ray said, "Lik...

Have you been aimlessly scrolling through the google search wondering which of the 1,590,000 websites or links you should click for your Giant Connect Four? Well, look no further. Pro Event Shop is the one stop you need to make for all your party and event needs. Their brand new and redesigned website has anything and everything you'll need, and its all laid out and straightforward. No more scrolling through endless pages and being inundated with useless stuff that you don't even need. Pro Event Shop has everything broken up into sections, with their most popular searches/purchases on the main page, and if you are in a rush you can use their handy dandy search tool and whatever you need will show on up. Plus, with their wide range of products and services available, you don't need to go anywhere else. They really do have everything you'll need to make your party or event that much better. The site holds everything from Giant Connect Four to wireless microphones to li...

Nighttime In Kansas, the nicest band in Ottawa, probably the most talented group of individuals that I've ever had the pleasure of meeting has finished production on their second EP which is entitled No Shame In Letting Go. The 4 song masterpiece is beautifully written. Those who love their first EP, Solstice, will definitely enjoy No Shame In Letting Go. It will be released on April 6th so definitely go and check it out! Song 1: Microdot The EP leads off with the straight banger Microdot. A fast-paced exciting catchy piece that starts the album off with a bang. John, the drummer, his voice is perfect for the song and the vocal melody is just straight up perfection in my opinion. It melds beautifully with the instrumentation. 9/10 Song 2: 416 This song is slow and smooth but not boring at all. The song gives off a slight jazz vibe and has a smooth sexy sax solo in it that caught me off guard at first but really adds a nice layer to the song. The little synth sol...

How many of you have heard of Robert Johnson? Probably not many. Robert Johnson is considered one of the greatest guitar players to ever live and I'm here to teach you all about him. Robert was born in Mississippi in May 1911. His father was a well to do land owner but due to the Jim Crow era south, Robert's family was chased off of their land by a lynch mob. Johnson lived with his uncle until about 1919, when he moved back to his mother's home. He took the name of his adoptive father and was known as Robert Spencer, some people around town called him Little Dusty Robert. After he finished school, he changed his name to his natural father's, Robert Johnson. In 1929 he was an expectant father and tragedy struck his life again. His wife and child died in childbirth. After the death of his wife and child, Robert decided to move around be an itinerant musician. He played at various clubs around the US. Originally he was known as a very bad guitar player but an amazing...

Here is the official list of winners for the 2017 Ottawa Sound Music Awards! Congrats to everyone who was nominated and everyone who won! Producer Of The Year: Mike Poisson Mike Poisson won the tightly contested Producer Of The Year category. He has worked on: Castlefield The Mascot EP: https://castlefield.bandcamp.com/releases Coveter: Love Me to Pieces, by Coveter 5 track album coveter.bandcamp.com Lost in a Wave - Rats (2017) Bandcamp: https://rats613.bandcamp.com/album/lost-in-a-wave Harmful Distractions - The Superlative Bandcamp:  https://thesuperlativeband.bandcamp.com/album/harmful-distractions No Filter single - T-Rex Marathon (2018) Bandcamp:  https://t-rexmarathon.bandcamp.com/track/no-filter The Departed - The Thirteenth Floor (2018-vocals only) Bandcamp:  https://thrtnth.bandcamp.com/ Into the Snow, Kill the Engine - Weird With Cats (2017) Bandcamp:  https://weirdwithcats.bandcamp.com/ The Pennyroyal EP (March 10...

It is always a treat to get to see your favourite band play live, especially when you live in Canada and your favourite band is from Europe. When you consider the fact that not many European bands do a full Canadian tour, it makes seeing them all the more special. Most bands from Europe hit Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and maybe Winnipeg and Regina (if those last two cities are lucky). Many times they skip over Ottawa, Halifax, Brampton, Charlottetown, Thunderbay, Quebec City, Laval, Saskatoon, Lethbridge, Victoria and many other cities in this beautiful country, which I explained in a different article . When I found out that Enter Shikari wasn't coming to Ottawa, I decided I'd rent a car and drive down to Toronto to see them, because they're my favourite band and I love watching them play. For the first 10 years that I was a fan, I had to satiate my hunger for a live performance by watching grainy low-quality cellphone footage on YouTube or wait a long ...

Hey! It's that time again, the monthly update is here. The Ottawa Sound has a new TeeSpring campaign up and running, we're raising money for The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Research Foundation. There are two designs available and they're available here: https://teespring.com/the-ottawa-sound-mental-health https://teespring.com/theottawa-sound-mental-health We've also started up an opinion section, which is where you, our readers, can send us your opinions, and we'll throw them up on the site! you can send your pieces to theottawasound@gmail.com and use the subject line: Opinion Piece. We are proud to announce the final line up for our show on March 31st at #askapunk is: Noi Ya (Opener) 7:30-8:10 Unholy Era 8:15-8-45 Rebel Reload 8:50-9:20 Lessons In Crime 9:25-End Some of the proceeds of this show will be donated to The Royal.  We're also selling ad space on the site now. If you're a band, music related business or venue, hit us up for mo...

If you live in Ottawa you are no doubt used to having your favourite acts skip our beautiful city on their tours, and you may have asked yourself, why? Why won't they come and play here? There isn't any single correct answer to that question. Part of it has to do with location; it also has to do with our lack of large venues, and believe it or not, we're viewed as a small market. The reason location plays a factor in our little problem is this, we're only four hours away from Toronto and two hours away from Montreal. Many acts don't want to spend the extra money on a venue in Ottawa if people can just use a car, train or plane to get to Montreal or Toronto in a half decent amount of time. Ottawa is also lacking in one very important thing when it comes to music: venues. For a band like Metallica, ACDC, or a giant act like Beyonce or Katy Perry to come to a town, they need to have a venue big enough to hold a few hundred to a few thousand people. Could you picture AC...

Mubarak Farah is a blind piano player who set up a music school for the disabled called, Ability Through Music. The school aims to help any disabled person, with any disability, learn how to play music. Music is a great tool for those lacking in confidence to gain a new skill, join a fantastic community and gain their confidence! The Ottawa Sound sat down with Mubarak yesterday to have a chat!

We're starting a new thing! You guys can vote on who you think is the best band of the year! The poll will work in two tiers, for one month there will be a nomination poll, you ad the artists you want to see on the list, BUT! They must have played at least one show or released at minimum one song during the year of 2017. It will be broken down by genre and you can add your faves in the comments! Check here  https://www.facebook.com/pg/OTTSoundBlog and vote vote vote! After that month is up, we will post the list of the top 5 artists with the most nomination votes in each genre and for another month, you will be able to vote for those 5 artists! On March 19th voting will close and the winners will be announced on March 31st!

From now until March 1st you can buy an Ottawa Sound T-Shirt and 50% all income will be going to The Canadian Heroes , a foundation that helps support veterans, active duty service members and the families of fallen soldiers. The Ottawa Sound will be choosing one charity each month to donate to. If you have any suggestions feel free to leave us a message on Facebook or email us at theottawasound@gmail.com! Our store is located here:  https://teespring.com/stores/the-ottawa-sound?page=1 Thanks for all your support! Patreon Facebook Instagram

I realize that this is a couple of weeks late but I'd like to say something anyway. We are so grateful for all the support and love you have given us in our first year of business! The business has expanded faster than I ever anticipated and we can't think of the words to describe how much we appreciate your love and support. 2017 was a rollercoaster year for the whole world and we hope that our content helped put some normality and joy in your life. We know that our posts have been inconsistent and we are working to better ourselves. You can expect higher quality articles and YouTube videos in 2018 and we are opening a web gallery for you to see the videos, pictures and art that we have created! We would like to say a massive thank you to Oakeh, our Patron Of The Year! Also starting in 2018, all Patreon Patron's will get 50% off their tickets at any concerts we are promoting (some exclusions may apply i.e a band's contract forbidding it) We've interview...

The Ottawa Sound Concert Promotions is proud to present our first #askapunk show! On March 31st, 2018 we'll be hosting Rebel Reload, Lessons In Crime, Unholy Era and a few more bands that are TBD at ASKAPUNK! The doors will open at 7 and show will start at 7:30! BYOB,  NO UNDERAGE DRINKING!  RESPECT THE NEIGHBOURS Anyone caught breaking the rules of the venue will be removed without refund! $10 @ The door, we will be accepting Cash, Debit and Credit via our Square Reader! Receipts will be available via email, text message or written by hand.  Part of the proceeds of this show will go towards The Royal Mental Health Research Foundation  in memory of Carissa Stumpo (August 1, 1991- March 31, 2016) More details to follow!

Lubalin Two Ottawa born artists who now reside in Montreal, have teamed up together to make a longing and regret filled song called Listen, Lubalin's debut track. We here at The Ottawa Sound got a sneak peek and we are impressed. Lubalin's gritty rough vocals and low key production merge well with the smooth voice of Lonely Boy , and the result is a depressing, but a somehow uplifting song that anybody that has been through a rough break up or bad argument can relate too. While we are not big fans of R&B/Hip-Hop we can see that this track has massive potential and is radio friendly. Lonely Boy The song has an easy to follow rhythm and melody with catchy lyrics. The music video is very high quality, but very low key. The video shows the two artists gagged and bound in the back of a red BMW as their captors drive through the city of Montreal and on the highways. The official release date is January 18th so make sure to mark it down on your calendar. R&B/Hip...

Tonight at the 27 Club, Bearings, Pine, Castlefield and Letdown will be celebrating the release of Bearings EP Nothing Here Is Permanent! Letdown will be starting the show off at 7:30! If you don't have tickets yet there may be a few left for pick up at Vertigo Records or you can try talking to some of the bands! If you're going have fun and stay safe! Big congrats to Bearings on the EP, it is by far one of my favourite releases of 2017!