#freelancesb

Seeing the DIY video for The Pursuit of Happiness' "I'm an Adult Now" on MuchMusic at age 11 was probably the first time I keyed into the concept of an independent music scene happening in my hometown, so I was stoked to put together this oral history on the song for q on CBC Radio One. 

I wrote about the 20th anniversary of New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give” for Stereogum—an article I’ve been waiting about 19.5 years to write.

At Spotify for Artists, I talk to Metric’s Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw about their band’s double life moonlighting on the arena-rock circuit. 

I spoke to Meg Remy, a.k.a. U.S. Girls, for SOCAN’s Words + Music site about breaking up with The Boss and embracing your inner Alannah Myles, while over at Spotify for Artists, we talk about staying philosophically punk while going musically pop. 

Over at SOCAN’s Words+Music site, I profile Toronto’s garage-spawned Buzz Records.

It was a fortuitous coincidence that the very week I moved to Hamilton, one of the city's greatest exports—the Junior Boys—released an excellent new record, Big Black Coat, which has served as my official soundtrack to navigating and getting acclimatized to my new environs. And this week, I made my Red Bull Music Academy debut with a look at how Hamilton has shaped JBs braintrust Jeremy Greenspan, and vice versa (with supporting commentary from Dan Snaith, and fantastic photos by Hollie Pocsal).

In the Thursday edition of the Toronto Star: my feature story on Geary Avenue, a drab industrial strip that—with the recent opening of two music venues, and another on the way—is fast becoming Toronto's noisiest quiet street.