SoJam in Raleigh, NC: it’s not a mythical acappella festival but it’s for real. We know – we’ve been inside the belly of the beast and lived to tell our tale.
SoJam is one of the largest acappella festivals in the world. As a group that just formed in 2012, we confess that we were a little shocked when we were asked to perform at SoJam in 2013.
We recall our manager emailing us and saying SoJam had contacted him. We replied, “Are you sure? They must be confusing us with another group – one year old acts that haven’t even released their debut CD don’t just get to headline SoJam”. But it was true. We were shocked and honoured at the same time.
The festival in short, was incredible. If you’re an acappella fan you must experience this festival at least once in your lifetime!
We hate thanking people because we will surely leave someone off in error, but as Canadians we still feel compelled to thank people incessantly.
So, no joke...if we left your name off this list and you know you should be on it...email us at band@eh440.com with the Subject line: You forgot me, knucklehead!. We’ll add it and pretend we never missed it in the first place. Ah, the beauty of online publications – edit as you go!
Dave Sroka: Executive Producer of SoJam: a kind soul that you feel like you’ve known for 5 years within 5 minutes of meeting him, he put his heart into this festival and we can't thank him enough
Kristin Sroka: Welcomed us into her home, no questions asked or criminal backgrounds checked. ;)
Lindsey McGowan: Drove us around in a big van and kept us on time. She was once on Jeopardy so we would make her always answer us in the form of a question. :) She also was a Riff-Off Team Captain as shown in this video!
From Liquid 5th Productions: Carl Taylor, Eric Scholz, Josh Chopak, Chris Juengel
SoJam/CASA Types: Amanda Cornaglia (who first suggested we play SoJam), Blair Baldwin (always delivers), Lauren Thomason (she brought us Bo-Berry Biscuits vine here ), TeKay, Michael Eldredge, Tom Keyes, Brian Watts, Troy Dolendo, Virginia DeMoss, Yassee Mohebbi, Kate Pientka, Nic Parson, Tom Anderson, & Scott Cobban
New Friends (& Some Old Online Friends): Bill Hare, Mike Why, Melissa Taylor, Charlie Friday, Chris Tess, Deborah Rosanwo, Florian Stadler, Marc Silverberg, Michael Marcus, Tone Siwela, Tara Marie Ahn, Heather Newkirk, Dave Bernstein, Alli Brooks, & Rachel Chalhoub
One last thing...
MICappella from Singapore : Mark Spencer (sound), Diana Tan (manager), Calin Wong, Eugene Yip, Goh Junyi, Peter Huang, Lee Ein Ein, & YK Teng
Swingle Singers from England : Hugh Walker (sound), Clare Wheeler, Jo Goldsmith-Eteson, Sara Brimer, Oli Griffiths, CJ, Kevin Fox, & Ed Randell
...sang amazing sets for us to enjoy on Saturday night. The Swingles got standing ovations in the middle of their set...you don’t see that very often but it was well-deserved. We’re looking forward to hearing the collaboration recording we recorded with them and U of Denver’s MIX at Liquid 5th! When we have it, we’ll send it out to you too!
Thursday 14 November 2013
Friday 12 July 2013
Alianait Arts Festival in Iqaluit, Nunavut
| Day 1 |
| These pics & videos accompany our blog on the Music Canada website: http://www.musiccanada.com/newsitem.aspx?scid=64709 |
| The view from the plane near Iqaluit. Awesome! Right? |  |
| Iqaluit Airport is so bright and cheerful! |  |
| We thought the airport was bright and cheerful until we saw Anne Hellwig's smile! We wish she could be there to greet us any time we step off of any flight! <3 her! |  |
| We thought walking down this rocky slope from the hotel to the venue was difficult... |  |
| ...until we had to climb up! |  |
| We met a talented guy, JP Cormier, accompanied by his talented bass player Emily Dingwall both from Nova Scotia. |  |
| JP and Emily brought some East Coast charm to Iqaluit. |  |
| Greenland folk legend Rasmus Lyberth and his awesome band. |  |
| We jammed with a great fiddler, Wesley Hardisty! |  |
| VIDEO ~ Wesley & Luke jam while Janet Brewster drums along. |
| Day 2 |
| These pics & videos accompany our blog on the Music Canada website: http://www.musiccanada.com/newsitem.aspx?scid=64710 |
| Janet Turner always has a way of sniffing this out. The writing at the top is Inuktitut, an official language of Nunavut. |  |
| Mike found this on the shores of Frobisher Bay. He wanted to add it his bone collection, but how do you explain it to airport security? ;) |  |
| Billy Kuksuk shares his talent. We called him the Inuk version of Tom Waits! |  |
| Billy sings every song from the inside. Lesson learned. Thank you, Billy. |  |
| Anthony from Koel and the Twin Otters & Mike put on their very best smiles! |  |
| VIDEO ~ Christine Tootoo tries to teach Jo3 to throat sing. Jo3 admittedly gave himself a "negative F triple minus" but promised her that he will practise and nail it next time! |
| VIDEO ~ This is how throat singing is supposed to be done! Here the awesome Kathleen Ivaluarjuk Merritt (on the right) and her friend bring it home! (Put your headphones on for full enjoyment!) |
| This is a better view of Kathleen. She taught us how to pronounce a lot of things properly! |  |
| This is our first show in any Canadian territory. We coulda sung all night. |  |
| Luke, Janet, and Jo3 sing while Mike and Stacey look pretty. |  |
| How did we take those pictures of ourselves while we were on stage?! We didn't! Our new pal Bruce here contributed those and some of the other pics in the blog! Thanks Bruce! |  |
| Kinnie Starr belts out a few notes for a packed auditorium. |  |
| Day 3 |
| These pics & videos accompany our blog on the Music Canada website: http://www.musiccanada.com/newsitem.aspx?scid=64717 |
| Photographer & new friend Ed Maruyama sets up a shot for Stacey. She looks a little shaky. |  |
| Yes, it take this many people to take a picture of Jo3. He looks a little shaky. |  |
| Mike shows off his balancing skills to Jo3 & Stacey. Not shaky at all. |  |
OK, enough of our amateur pics. Here are some of the real shots that our buddy Ed took! He's good, eh?
|
| Our pal Anne teaches us how to drum properly. Bend the knees, Stacey! |  |
| A Circumpolar Soundscape. One from each of Canada's territories and one from Greenland. Lovely blend. |  |
| Day 4 |
| These pics & videos accompany our blog on the Music Canada website: http://musiccanada.com/newsitem.aspx?scid=64718 |
| Koel and the Twin Otters put smiles on people's faces on Canada Day! |  |
| VIDEO ~ Christine Tootoo (left) and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (right) rehearse their "throat boxing" with Luke. |
| The wonderful Laakkuluk and her gentlemanly husband Stephen invited those who were at rehearsal and within earshot over for dinner before our show because we wanted to try some "exotic" foods. Here Stacey feels conflicted about trying seal because they're sooooooooooo cute! ;) Laakkuluk laughs because she knows Stacey will love it. :) |  |
| Christine Tootoo gets too too close to the camera... |  |
| ...then she can't find it even though Stacey and Janet are looking right at it... |  |
| ...now she's got it, posing here with Jo3! |  |
| Agaaqtoq, Mike, and Calvin Pameolik jam out John Lennon's Imagine in Inuktitut! This inspired Agaaqtoq to record it days later! |  |
| Mike teaches Calvin & Agaaqtoq how to make rock star poses. |  |
| Calvin and Janet smile but Agaaqtoq still loves his rock star pose! |  |
| Here Janet poses with David Hart, who's got a great big smile! |  |
| Like any guy, David smiles even more when there's food around! Calvin too! |  |
| Stacey likes to steal stuff! Here she steals Calvin's NU jacket... |  |
| Here she steals the trampoline from some neighbourhood kids... |  |
| But she couldn't "steal a victory" in a running race against this young guy. For real...he beat her and she had a head start. :) |  |
| Another neighbourhood kid found a polar bear skull outside and was just walking around with it like it's nobody's business. Mike would have loved to add this to his bone collection, but again...airport security? :) |  |
| Here are your friends Eh440. This is just a normal picture of us, L2R - Jo3 Oliva, Stacey Kay, Janet Turner, Luke Stapleton, Mike Celia. Right? It's just a normal pic. |  |
| Gotcha! That wasn't Mike in the last pic! It's his doppelgänger Alec Frith from our new friends Gypsophilia! Here he lets his hair down with Janet and then looks a little less Mike-like. |  |
| This is Alec performing with his fun band, Gypsophilia! |  |
| The real Mike hanging out with a real good guy, Tjupurru, from the land down under. Those of us in the finale collaboration piece showed our unity by painting a white stripe across our faces at the urging of Christine Tootoo. |  |
| The most resistant to the white stripe idea was JP Cormier (posing with Jo3 here), but sweet Christine can be very convincing. We did check with several people and were assured that this wasn't culturally offensive to anyone in any way! |  |
| Christine Tootoo, Luke Stapleton, and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory merge beatboxing and throat-singing. |  |
| Executive Director of the festival, Heather Daley. Secret talent: she plays a wicked fiddle! |  |
| The fearless leader of our finale collaboration piece - Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory. |  |
Done! Went off without a hitch! L2R - Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Eh440 (Luke, Jo3, Stacey, Janet, Mike), JP Cormier, Christine Tootoo, Agaaqtoq, Calvin Pameolik, Rob Aubé, David Hart, Tjupurru. |
| Day 5 |
| These pics & videos accompany our blog on the Music Canada website: http://musiccanada.com/newsitem.aspx?scid=64719 |
| Some tired but still smilin' musicians in the airport ready to fly home...L2R: Stacey, Jo3, Janet, Mike, Luke, JP Cormier, Emily Dingwall, David Hart. |  |
 | ...but we had to. And we'll do our best to fly back one day! |
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