your one stop shop for Canadian classic rock and more!
The brainchild of Lance Chalmers, Sump Oil was a 2001 side project during some off-time while touring as Trooper‘s drummer. The Ottawa native grew up with music in the household, and his father played guitar and sang lead for the band The Rhythmnaires. “I’ve always had music in my blood. I can remember seeing reel …
Born in Churchill, Manitoba in 1967, Susan Aglukark’s family spent most of her youth moving around the Keewatin Region of the Northwest Territories, eventually settling in Arviat, a community of about 1,300 people in what is now Nunavut. After finishing high school, she moved to Ottawa and worked with the government as a linguist, and …
One of eight children, Susan Pesklevits first began singing on local radio programs at 7 years old. Her family moved from Saskatoon to Vancouver when she was 9, where she joined the school and church choirs. She had her own radio show at 13 and made her first buck (literally) at age 14 singing at …
Formed in 1987 by vocalist Dave Wanless, guitarists Dee Cernile and Andy Frank, Shawn Mahar on bass, and drummer Steve Macgregor, within a little over a year Sven Gali had become one of the top covers bands on the southern Ontario circuit. All the while they’d been writing their own material, and by ’89 they’d …
Upon finishing high school in Vancouver, Nick Gilder formed Rasputin in the summer of ’73, with guitarist high school friend Jim McCulloch and became young vets of the garage bar/local club scene. After hooking up with drummer John Booth, Bud Marr on bass and keyboardist Dan Gaudin, they changed their name to Sweeney Todd, inspired …
In the mid 1980s, singer Rick Hughes and his drummer/brother Dan decided to seek their rock and roll fame and fortune, and formed Sword with fellow St Bruno, Quebec natives guitarist Mike Plant (real name Michel Plante) and bassist Mike Larock (real name Michel Larocque) – not to be confused with a short-lived American metal …
The son of a geologist, Timo Laine moved from Finland to California when he was only 6 so his father could work in the Mojave Desert, and also due to a perpetual fear of the Soviet Union at the time. He worked his way around the circuit for nearly a decade while moonlighting as a …
Formed in Toronto in the late ’60s, Syrinx consisted of John Mills-Cockell on keyboards, Doug Pringle on saxophone, and percussionist Alan Wells. Mills-Cockell was classically trained in composition, studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto, and won a BMI Award in 1967 given to student composers, for his specialization in …
Born in Winnipeg in 1968, Talmage Bachman learned to play the guitar, piano, and drums at an early age, but lost interest in music all together as a teen, instead studying political philosophy in Utah once he’d graduated from high school in Vancouver. He did Mission work in Argentina for a few years before returning …
Hailing from Thornhill, Ontario, Tall New Buildings was formed in 1983 by longtime friends vocalist Jean (real name Jian) Ghomeshi and bassist Murray Foster, along with Tracy Jones on guitars, keyboardist Reno Manfredi (who Ghomeshi met at a Psychadelic Furs concert), and John Ruttle on percussion while they were still in high school. It wasn’t …