After many years in the making, Calgary metal band Viathyn made their debut in 2009. Brothers Tomislav and Dave Crnkovic had been playing music together for most of their lives, but it wasn’t until four or five years ago that the seed for what would eventually become Viathyn was planted, when guitarist Jacob Wright caught Tomislav’s ear.
“Jake came into the music store I work at and started playing a very difficult guitar solo that I recognized. I actually got him a teaching job there first, and months later realized we …

Ahhh, Christmas! It’s the time of year when kids of all ages dream of getting free stuff from friends and relatives alike. And if you have a musician on your list, they can be the hardest people to buy for. Let’s face it, most of us tend to be notoriously picky about our gear, and more often than not, we want the good stuff. Throw in the tendency of players of all shapes and sizes to suffer from GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), and you have a difficult task ahead of …

If you are in a band, chances are you’ve at least thought about getting a manager, or an agent, or both. But what’s the difference between the two? What do they do? And for that matter, does your band really need either of them?
When the term agent is used in conjunction with the music business, it generally means a booking agent. As the name would imply, a booking agent’s job is to book shows for the artists he or she is representing. In doing so, they negotiate minimum payments, the …

Summertime brings warm weather, and plenty of outdoor shows and festivals at which music fans can soak up some song and a little vitamin in the key of D. For musicians, it’s a great opportunity to expand your experience and fanbase, but it can also be a cause for frustration when it comes to sound and the vast expanse into which it can dissipate.
As I looked into the problems involved in mixing sound for outdoor venues (humidity, temperature, wind, etc.), I realized that in the vast majority of outdoor venues, …

When Scale the Summit was announced as a replacement act for this year’s Progressive Nation Tour, they were completely unknown to me. But halfway through “Bloom,” the opening track from their latest release Carving Desert Canyons [Prosthetic, 2009], I was convinced Dream Theater drummer and Progressive Nation founder Mike Portnoy had made a great decision.
The songs throughout the melodic and completely instrumental album focus more on composition and fluidity than on blistering chops and maniacal time signatures, although those don’t fail to make the occasional auditory appearance, reminding listener’s of …

Verbal Deception, Calgary’s kings of pirate metal, first formed as a trio in 2002, and in 2005 this humble writer was press-ganged into playing bass for the progressive, death-infused folk metal band. Okay, so I volunteered, but “press-ganged” does sound so much more pirate-y.
It was a formidable time of getting grogged at great gigs and pillaging full venues, but eventually scheduling conflicts – like my wedding clashing with the band’s first tour being one, and increasing commitments to my other band at the time, Caveat, being the other – resulted …

Virtually every musician either has, or at least has had, aspirations to tour. Some have been inspired by the stories of the road to pursue a musical trek, while others, especially at the independent level, have been overwhelmed by the logistical nightmare planning a tour can be and ended up staying at home.
In reality, going on tour isn’t very difficult at all, especially these days. The once-daunting task of finding venues and similar bands in cities you’ve never visited has been eased greatly by online social networking sites, such as …