Photo by Marie-Michèle Bouchard (collage)

The Best of 2022

Story by Howard Druckman & Eric Parazelli | Thursday December 8th, 2022

As we look forward to 2023, Words & Music and Paroles & Musique also remember and celebrate 2022, with Top 10 Lists of SOCAN members’ songs from some of our regular contributors. Happy Holidays!

 

Eric ParazelliEric Parazelli
Eric Parazelli is the Editor of SOCAN’s online magazine Paroles & Musique and Manager of Francophone Communications for SOCAN.

 

1. Lydia Képinski – “Depuis”
2. Vulgaires Machins – “Aisle”
3. P’tit Belliveau – “Demain”
4. Les Louanges – “Facile”
5. Les Trois Accords – “Pâté chinois”
6. Ariane Roy et Lou-Adriane Cassidy – “Fille à porter”
7. Marilyne Léonard – “Dans la foule”
8. Lisa LeBlanc – “Gossip”
9. Rymz – “Hédoniste”
10. Gab Bouchard – “Trou d’eau”

 

Howard DruckmanHoward Druckman
Howard Druckman is the Editor of SOCAN’s Words &  Music online magazine.

 

 

1. Julian Taylor – “Wide Awake”
2. Jessie Reyez – “Only One”
3. TOBi – “Flowers”
4. Fortunate Ones – “Day to Day”
5. Beaches – “I’ll Grow Up Tomorrow”
6. Lisa LeBlanc – “Gossip”
7. Daniel Caesar featuring BADBADNOTGOOD – “Please Do Not Lean”
8. Bros. Landreth – “Shame”
9. Snotty Nose Rez Kids – “I’m Good”
10. Moonfruits – “Brittle Earth”

 

Olivier Boisvert MagnenOlivier Boisvert-Magnen
Contributor to Paroles & Musique Olivier Boisvert-Magnen is a journalist, researcher, columnist, host, curator of music lists, and on-air director for ICI Musique/Première, QUB Musique, Stingray, and CISM.

 

 

1. Loud – “Peinture à l’huile”
2. Thierry Larose – “Des noeuds dans les doigts”
3. 1969 Collective et Safia Nolin – “Tu danses, condessa”
4. gabwan – “L’école Sacré-Coeur”
5. Shreez – “Tout c’que j’connais”
6. Raccoon – “C00N”
7. Ariane Roy et Lou-Adriane Cassidy – “Fille à porter”
8. Julie Aubé – “Changer le mal de place”
9. SeinsSucrer et Figure8 – “Un thousand pounds de pression par slap”
10. Bkay – “Post Mortem”

 

DDel Cowieel Cowie
Words & Music contributor Del Cowie has worked as a writer, producer, and researcher for the Peabody and International Emmy Award-winning Netflix documentary series Hip Hop Evolution. He’s also worked as a producer for CBC Music and was hip-hop editor at Exclaim! magazine for more than a decade.

 

1. Kaytranada feat. Anderson .Paak – “Twin Flame”
2. Planet Giza – “While You On Road”
3. Faiza – “Benchmark”
4. Tanika Charles featuring DijahSB – “Different Morning”
5. Pierre Kwenders – “No No No”
6. Dylan Sinclair – “Open”
7. Drake – “Massive”
8. allie – “Soundboi”
9. Jully Black – “Half Empty”
10. Savannah Ré – “About U”

 

Phil RenaudPhilippe Renaud
Paroles & Musique contributor Philippe Renaud has been a music journalist, columnist, and critic for some 20 years, during which time he has been read, seen, and heard at La Presse, Radio-Canada (ICI Première, ICI Télé), L’Actualité, and Le Devoir.

 

1. Jonathan Personne – “Un homme sans visage”
2. Pierre Kwenders (featuring Anais) – “Heartbeat”
3. Modlee – “Grass in Blue”
4. Les Trois Accords – “Pâté chinois”
5. Lash – “Maldita”
6. Sophia Bel – “You’re Not Real You’re Just a Ghost”
7. Vulgaires Machins – “OK”
8. Bayta – “Princesse de Laval”
9. Poirier & Ms. Bella – “Shake Mama”
10. Salimo – “Porte”

 

Nancy DutraNancy Dutra
Words & Music contributor Nancy Dutra is a writer and editor who loves to read, write, and sing about the human condition.

 

 

1. William Prince and Serena Ryder – “Sing Me a Song”
2. Scott Nolan – “Candy”
3. Lynn Hanson – “Hundred Mile Wind”
4. Allison Russell, Brandi Carlile – “You’re Not Alone”
5. The Sadies – “More Alone”
6. Les Cooper – “Keep It Down”
7. Lydia Persaud – “Good for Us”
8. Ron Sexsmith – “What I Had in Mind”
9. Shawnee Kish – “Mr. Tie”
10. Tanya Tagaq – “I Forgive Me”

 

Elise JetteÉlise Jetté
A contributor to Paroles & Musique for the past five years, Élise Jetté heads the musical web magazine Feu à volonté, and has hosted the show Les Charlottes on CISM for the past 12 years. She also writes articles for many print magazines such as Cool! and Clin d’oeil.

 

1. Pataugeoire – “Emoji fraise”
2. Vulgaires Machins – “Aisle”
3. Bolduc Tout Croche – “D’où c’que j’viens”
4.  Larynx (feat. Helena Deland) – “Beau beam”
5. Les Shirley – “It’s Time”
6. Les Louanges – “Facile”
7. Lucill – “Et tout s’effondre”
8. Lydia Képinski – “Vaslaw”
9. Ariane Roy – “Le paradis de l’amour”
10. Mon Doux Saigneur – “Jojo”

 

Errol NazarethErrol Nazareth
Words & Music contributor Errol Nazareth is the host of Frequencies, a global music show that airs every Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. ET on CBC Music.

 

 

(In no particular order)
Pierre Kwenders – “Coupé”
Wesli – “Rara Mawoule”
Balaklava Blues – “Shelter Our Sky”
Kobo Town – “Shades of the Living”
Empanadas Illegales – “Batidora 3 In 1”
Bruno Capinan – “Tara Rara”
Daniela Gesundheit –  “The Great Confession”
Tanya Tagaq – “Tongues”
Joy Lapps –  “Lulu’s Dream”
Tallies – “Special”
Waahli & Poirier – “Teke Fren”

 

Claude CoteClaude Côté
Paroles & Musique contributor Claude Côté is a columnist, host, and freelance writer for La Presse, ICI RDI, ICI Première, and Ted Magazine, in addition to working on several industry juries, including that of ADISQ. A journalist for Voir from 1993 to 2003, host and programming director at CIBL in 1994, he’s been active in the field for 40 years.

 

1. Steve Hill – “Don’t Let The Truth Get In The Way (Of A Good Story)”
2. Navet Confit – “Prétentieux d’être en vie”
3. Durham County Poets – “Back at The Groove Shack”
4. P’tit Belliveau – “Depuis que la neige a fondu”
5. Shane Murphy – “Going Back to Brownsburg”
6. Les Shirley – “It’s Time”
7. Paulo Ramos – “Lua Vermelha”
8. Justin Saladino – “Sink or Swim”
9. Scott-Pien Picard – “Nipa minuenten”
10. Luc De Larochellière – “Le Pont Viau”

Photo by Marie-Michèle Bouchard

Video – Keep creating, no matter what

Story by Éric Parazelli | Wednesday December 14th, 2022

2022 was the year when live shows rerurned, much to the delight of artists and audiences alike. But 2022 was also a year of painful assessments concerning the difficulty of generating substantial revenues from streaming platforms, not to mention the discoverability issues of Canadian and Québec music, especially Francophone music, on these platforms. Add to that the rising costs of touring, while concert fees aren’t increasing at the same rate, and you have a situation that could potentially discourage the most die-hard artists. Fortunately, the SOCAN members interviewed during the Premier Gala de l’ADISQ on Nov. 2, 2022, still find the motivation to carry on creating and performing, despite adversity and recurring bad news in the music ecosystem. In this video, Pierre Lapointe, Souldia, Lisa LeBlanc, Jean-Michel Blais, and Hubert Lenoir share what motivates them to keep creating, no matter what.   

Interview thumbnail

Click the image to view the video

Photo by courtesy/courtoisie.

SOCAN mourns the loss of award-winning composer, sound designer, producer Phil Strong

Story by Howard Druckman | Tuesday December 6th, 2022

SOCAN is mourning the loss of award-winning composer Phil Strong, who passed away on Dec. 3, 2022, at the age of 59, after a battle with amyloidosis, a rare illness, for which he was being treated. Much appreciated in the Canadian music and arts communities for his calm demeanor, sharp wit, and great skill, Strong composed music and designed sound for film, dance, theatre, musical performances, art installations, and educational outreach.

Among those reacting to Strong’s passing on Facebook, artist, singer-songwriter, and composer Kurt Swinghammer called him “a unique, gentle, generous and most brilliant creative spirit.” On the same platform, bassist, singer-songwriter, and composer David Woodhead, who often worked with Strong, called him “one of the most talented and inventive people I’ve ever met and hung out with.

Only a few months before his passing, Strong earned the most recent in a string of honours, this one at the inaugural edition of the Canadian Screen Music Awards (CASMAs), held Sept. 27, 2022 at El Mocambo in Toronto. He was honoured in the category of Best Original Score for a Short Film, for his work on In the Wake of Progress, directed by Ed Burtynsky – the soundtrack for which he was recruited by the legendary producer Bob Ezrin. Typically, in his acceptance speech, he deflected the glory from himself to those with whom he’d collaborated.

At the time of his passing, Strong – working alongside his life partner, singer-composer Laurel MacDonald, and their colleague composer Cathy Nosaty – was starting on the production of Moving Parts, for Denise Fujiwara of Fujiwara Dance Inventions, slated for August of 2023. This would be the fourth edition, and culmination, of a multi-year project. Each year (pausing for COVID), Strong would arrange the music for, and musically accompany, a new 45-minute dance and choral production, which premiered either at Harbourfront Centre Theatre at The Power Plant, or at the summer Dusk Dances event in downtown Toronto’s Withrow Park.

Strong grew up in Sudbury, ON, playing piano and drums, and tried his hand at composing from an early age. After a stint playing drums and singing alongside Laurel MacDonald in Toronto quartet 3 Our Tour in the ‘90s, his interests led to a vital audio internship at the Banff Centre for the Arts. There, he came into contact with many artists, who imparted their craft and insight in the art of soundtrack creation. Since then, Strong had scored the soundtracks for more than 30 films, as well as dozens of dance productions and art installations.

Working, writing, and performing together since the early ‘90s, Strong and MacDonald teamed up to score several films, including Year Of The Lion, which earned a Gemini Award for Best Original Musical Score in 2003. The following year, Strong generated a combined sound design and musical score for Continuous Journey, which generated two more Gemini nominations; one for Best Music and another for Best Sound. In 2010, Strong picked up another Gemini for his original score to Cat Ladies. Strong and MacDonald also earned a Canadian Screen Sward nomination, and a 2021 SOCAN Award win for Achievement in Made-For-TV Movie Music, for You Are Here: A Come From Away Story – which detailed the true story behind the hugely successful stage musical Come From Away.

Strong was the principal composer for Christopher House and Toronto Dance Theatre for more than a decade, creating soundtracks for nine major dance productions – and earning the first-ever Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Music in Dance (for Timecode Break). He was nominated for a Dora again in Outstanding Music and Design for EUNOIA, Denise Fujiwara’s piece based on Christian Bök’s seminal book of poetry.

As an installation designer, Strong was tasked by John Oswald to design a 14-channel surround sound system (as well as some multi-channel composition) for the multi-screen video installation, Stress, by Bruce Mau. This piece debuted at the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in the year 2000, and continued on an international circuit. Phil again collaborated with Oswald to create A Time to Hear for Here, a permanent 35-channel audio installation in the Royal Ontario Museum. He also engineered immersive surround compositions for Sara Angelucci’s Anonymous Chorus and Su Rynard’s As Soon As Weather Permits.

Strong produced albums for several recording artists, and contributed to collections of sound and  music, as well as releasing soundtracks from his film scores and dance productions. Lusciana’s Lullaby, produced for Laurel MacDonald, became Echoes Radio’s Best album of 2005. Storas, which Strong produced and arranged for Mary Jane Lamond, earned an East Coast Music Award for Best Solo Album in 2006.

Strong also headed up a Film Sound & Music course for a decade, and was involved in outreach recording and production at the University of Toronto School. He was also known to perform on the T.O.O.B. – an electro-acoustic instrument of his own design.

SOCAN extends its deepest condolences to Laurel MacDonald, Strong’s family, his friends, his musical colleagues, and anybody who’s ever enjoyed his music.