Mr Something Something » News

2012 | Time off | Time to get busy

Amin — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:06:57 +0000

Hello friends,

It’s been a while. Sorry we haven’t been in touch. We had an amazing 18 000 km summer tour that took us to some very remote and magical places like Atlin BC and Dawson City YT and we made some new friends along the way. Thanks to everyone who came out to the shows and made this tour the best one yet. Here’s a glimpse of the goodness, courtesy of EXCLAIM Magazine.

We have some big news to announce:

1) After 8 years of criss-crossing Canada and, to a lesser extent, the US, we’ve decided to take a year off from touring to concentrate on writing music and some other endeavours.

2) My main endeavour weighs close to 9 pounds and was born on October 9. Her name is Sanna [pronounced SUN-na] which means ‘true’ in Swedish. She looks like a balding old man and she smells better than home-made bread. Our percussionist – and, this summer, bass player – Dave Chan had a little baby boy named Otis about six weeks ago so we’re both very happy and extremely sleep-deprived. It’s a bit like being on tour. Actually, I will be touring a bit with my wife Elizabeth Shepherd next year as she’s releasing a new album in the spring. Touring with a baby should obviously take sleep-deprivation to a whole new level.

3) Our drummer Larry Graves (and Dave) will be very busy with awesome percussion group DRUMHAND. They have a new record in the works too. Check ‘em out; they’ll be in Kingston this Saturday. You’ll find all their tour dates here.

4) Our saxman and audio guru John MacLean landed a very sweet gig recently; he is doing live sound and engineering recording sessions at the marvelous Glenn Gould Studio here in Toronto, working with everyone from Feist to the best classical musicians in the world. He’s also getting married next summer (yes, we are all grown up now).

5) Our old pals Liam Smith (bass) and Paul MacDougall (guitar) are busy conquering the world with their fantastic (sm)art pop band The DoneFors. They have a new, shiny record out that you can listen to here.

So there you have it. I’m sorry that there won’t be any Mr. Something Something dance parties next year but I hope our paths will cross somehow anyway.

Until then, be well.

/Johan and the Something Something crew

Highlights of 2010 | Looking ahead

Amin — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:30:58 +0000

Photo: Zuzana Hudackova.com

Hello friends,

And happy 2011! My Mr. Something Something compadres and I hope this new year brings you exactly what you need – whatever that is.

We’re writing new music and looking forward to another year of adventures on and off the road. 2011 will bring us further north than ever, all the way up into the Yukon. We’ll see you where the dirt road begins.

Here are my personal Top 5 tour memories from 2010:

The sweaty workshop with early hip hop icons Arrested Development at Regina Folk Fest, a joyfest of a jam that had everyone in the audience on their feet. Seconds after the last note rang out, the heavens opened up. It was that good.
Our brazen bicycle-powered guerrilla show on Union Square in New York in September.
Our July show in Victoria, BC. The stage at Hermann’s is small but the crowd was big and warm and wonderful, as always. Gotta love those crazy West Coast dancers.
Driving through the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana and Washington State for the first time. Beautiful country. We passed on the buffalo pelts for sale but enjoyed the multitude of microbrews available in the North East and had to admit that the Americans are getting serious about their beer.
School shows: last year, we modified our pedal-powered show to draw kids into a dialog about music and sustainability. Fun and terrifying. You quickly learn what not to do. At our first school concert I was getting the kids to call in the instruments one by one so I had them chanting things like “We want sax!” Of course, as we were loading out after the show there were a bunch of 10-year olds in the yard screaming “We want sex! We want sex!” So yes, drop me a line if you need any pedagogical pointers.

As 2011 winds up, the members of the Something Something family have a bunch of other projects on the go:

Our drummer Larry recently released an awesome debut record with his drumming ensemble Drumhand which features familiar faces like Marcus Ali on wind instruments and Dave Chan on drums and percussion. The album is called Moving Still and climbed up to #1 on the Canadian college radio world music charts last week. Check it out at http://www.myspace.com/drumhandmusic
John “We want sax” MacLean is putting the finishing production touches to a record by our very talented friend Roman Tome and he is also busy composing a score for a contemporary dance production by Jennifer Dallas’ company Kemi Contemporary Dance Projects, on stage at the end of February in Toronto.
Liam and Paul and their awesome band The DoneFors are making a new record with studio wiz Joao Carvalho and they will be taking their bag of tunes to Europe in May.
I (Johan) am working on some stuff with my main squeeze Elizabeth Shepherd, including a Paul Simon tribute in Toronto in March. If you haven’t heard Elizabeth’s latest album which was a Polaris Prize contender, check it out, it’s awesome.

We hope to see you in person somewhere soon. In the meantime, you can always get in touch and stay in the know through www.mrsomethingsomething.com or facebook

Be well.

Peace

/Johan and the Something Something crew

—–

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”
-Goethe

Opening for Afrobeat legend Tony Allen

Amin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:42:30 +0000

Tonight, we’ll have the honour and great pleasure to open for Tony Allen, Fela Kuti’s legendary drummer. Fela once stated that, “without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat.” He turns 70 in August and he’s still the funkiest man alive. Best of all, the show at the Luminato Festival in Toronto is free. Bela Fleck is headlining.

CBC Radio highlights our pedal power philosophy

Amin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:19:42 +0000

June is Bike Month in Toronto and we kicked it off this past Sunday with a pedal-powered SoundCycle show in Toronto’s Kensington Market, for the first Pedestrian Sunday street party of 2010. The following day our lead singer Johan was a guest on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning to explain the philosophy behind SoundCycle. Johan’s conversation with Matt Galloway touched on why the bicycle is becoming a symbol for a quiet revolution and the ethical implications of our energy consumption. Listen to the interview in its entirety here.

National Geographic discovers what David Byrne and Mr. Something Something have in common

Amin — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:16:57 +0000

Thanks to everyone who came out and made our US tour in April so much fun. Here’s a link to an article that National Geographic did about us and ex-Talking Head David Byrne in conjunction with Earth Day on April 22.

SoundCycle 2009-2010: Our bicycle powered show gets warm reception in Europe

Amin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:55:06 +0000

A month or so before the climate talks began in Copenhagen, John and Larry from Mr. Something Something were in the supremely bike-friendly Danish capital attending the massive music conference WOMEX. Many of the European delegates were enthusiastic about the SoundCycle, our much publicized, bicycle powered show that gives audience participation a whole new meaning. At the request of environmental activist Giorgos Markakis, we were featured on Swedish National Radio, and concert producers responded tremendously well to our off-the-grid innovation. Festivals, agents and promoters from many European countries including Germany, Luxembourg, Turkey and Greece (where our new album ‘Shine Your Face’ got a fair bit of airplay and climbed up on the charts this past fall) are interested in Mr. Something Something’s “dancefloor activism” and zero-emissions, people powered performance model. Post conference talks have begun to engineer a second edition of the SoundCycle in Europe to support future touring. Stay tuned for more news of European developments in 2010.

Back home in Canada, we will be bringing the SoundCycle into schools this winter to give pedal powered concerts and do workshops to raise awareness about sustainable energy. We will also be featured in the documentary Powerful: Energy for Everyone by filmmaker and green educator David Chernushenko. The film will be released in 2010 and we’ll let you know when it comes to a theatre near you. Watch the trailer.

Globe & Mail article about our SoundCycle

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:15:24 +0000

In this past Saturday’s Globe & Mail, Robert Everett-Green talks to Johan about the pedal powered show and how it got started. Read the article in its entirety here

Toronto magazine highlights Mr. Something Something’s bike-powered dancefloor activism

john — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:03:08 +0000

Toronto’s hottest new magazine Dandyhorse writes about “Toronto on two wheels” or, in other words, about bike culture in a city dominated by cars. For their latest issue, they did a nice feature on Mr. Something Something.

In an article entitled ‘The Movers and Shakers’ Johan explains how the SoundCycle concept came about and how the band tries to use music as a vehicle for activism. Pick up your free copy of Dandyhorse here

“The Value of Food”: great podcast with Wayne Roberts, featuring music from Shine Your Face

john — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:31:38 +0000

The good folks at CitizenShift produce inspiring and enlightening media for social change. Under the CitizenShift umbrella, our friend Paul Baines has made an excellent podcast that we highly recommend. Paul talks to respected food policy analyst and author Wayne Roberts (pictured here riding a bike to power our sound system at a street festival earlier this summer) about the role of food in connecting environmental and social problems and solutions. Torontonians may know Wayne for his NOW Magazine columns, generally on themes that link social justice, public health and green economics.

By re-organizing food prices based on human needs and environmental limits, we can plant the seeds of sustainability at the local and global levels. Debunking the myths of jobs versus the environment and pollution in the name of progress, Wayne fuses ideas on work, health, community, energy, resources, farming, and global warming.

The podcast features music from our new album Shine Your Face. We’re honoured to be in such good company. Download the podcast for free here

Shine Your Face a “superb release”

john — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:57:37 +0000

The latest issue of Penguin Eggs, Canada’s leading magazine devoted to folk and roots and world music, features a very positive review of Shine Your Face. Here’s the album write-up in its entirety:

Mr. Something Something
Shine Your Face
(Independent)

From way out in left field comes this superb release, their third, spreading wide the gates of listener-friendly world music, but based out of Toronto. From a first listen, it grabs you with its busy rhythmic pulse and stop-on-a-dime horn section recalling Osibisa, another original band known for blending African and Western musics.

Yet this infectious five-piece band grafts each sensational track together with smart pop hooks held in place by a gifted and extraordinary singer in Johan Hultqvist—adding accessibility to what is otherwise a high-torque melding of funk, jazz and Afrobeat (each of which is far too limiting in defining this crackerjack band).

Special attention is also due the divine marriage of John MacLean’s tenor sax (and guest horn section) to Larry Graves’s precision drumming. The resulting wall of sound is spiced up nicely (but never enough) by Paul MacDougall’s guitar lines and the fleet-fingered bass work of Liam Smith.

The opening track serves immediate notice that this is something fresh and impossibly involving, its complex rhythms giving way to a phenomenally stimulating listen. Each of its eight tracks is its own highlight, an added plus found in the band’s smart lyrics—at once socially conscious and politically motivating. Why Why Why and What Are You Waiting For? alone make the perfect soundtrack to the summer that never came to Eastern Canada.

– By Eric Thom