Hi everyone,

It appears that New Brunswick is at a crossroads in terms of how it promotes itself. Tourism ads have, as of late, become a matter of debate in this great province. I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I’ve decided that I’m going to make my own little New Brunswick tourism video.

Now, here’s where you come in. I want your favourite photos of New Brunswick: old, new, portraits, landscapes, whatever. Whether you’re from there or not doesn’t matter a bit. Just email them along to me and I’ll do my best to put them to good use.
It’s going to be wicked.

Thanks so much for your help.

David
A NOTE FROM THE DM TEAM: Submission of any photograph indicates approval of usage for a David Myles promotional video.  Photo credits will be made available at www.davidmyles.com for any photographs that are used.  Please include photo credit and contact info with your submission and send to davidmylesmusic@gmail.com . Submissions close September 20, 2010 at midnight.

FROM THE CYBER TEAM:  Congratulations to Youtube subscriber and commenter  “ thebrokenspeaker” for winning this week’s David Myles CD pack! Thank you to everyone who has participated!

We are amping up for the final week of the contest.  David Myles fans have one last chance to get in extra entries to win the ipod filled with David Myles music!  For full contest details,  you can head over to http://www.davidmyles.com or you can view the last of the beautiful David Myles videos “ So Far Away” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnkvkwpmaW8 and post your comment to enter!

FROM THE CYBER TEAM: What a week it has been! And with all that’s been going on for David, we at cyber central goofed a little. Seems we posted the beautiful video for I WILL LOVE YOU and went and made it private – not public. So not everyone could see it! We are very sorry, and to make up for it, we have extended David Myles’s video for I WILL LOVE YOU for one more week before we make the CD Draw. Apologies to all ( and to David ) because it is a stunning song and beautiful video.

FROM THE CYBER TEAM: 

Congratulations to our second contest winner Michael White from Ontario who wins a David Myles CD pack!  Only two more to go until the Grand Prize!

The newest video is now posted  ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2ix1afbT0k ).  It is a breathtaking version of “ I Will Love You” by David Myles and bandmates Alan Jeffries and Kyle Cunjak.  A quiet, still and intimate performance that will make you stop and think fondly of the people you love.  Even if you don’t want to comment or participate in the contest, take a moment to click on over and enjoy this beautiful song & video.

FROM THE CYBER TEAM: 

Congratulations to the very first contest winner Youtube user ScotianInVA ( Paul Caudle ) who wins a David Myles CD pack!  There are still plenty of chances to win the CD packs and the grand prize of the ipod!

 The new video is posted now so subscribe, comment or fanlist David! ( It’s stunning too … we highly recommend!)

Hi everyone,
After a few weeks on the road I’ve managed to find a few minutes to write a little update.  Things are going great.  Summer’s been   good. Since I last wrote, I had a wicked weekend at the Stan Rogers Folk Festival with the trio.  Had a bunch of really fun shows and got to meet lots of cool musician folk I had yet to hang with (Kathleen Edwards, Deep Dark Woods, etc).  From there I made my way to my hometown of Fredericton for a few days before flying overseas to the UK.  Old Man Luedecke and I flew over there to showcase at the National Rural Touring Forum (say that five times fast!).   It went really well and hopefully will mean some sweet touring in the UK over the next year or two. I spent the last week in Southern Ontario. I was lucky enough to open two shows for the legendary John Hiatt.  One in Kitchener and one in London. Both were awesome.  What a songwriter.   I then packed up the car and headed on a really quick adventure to visit my brother Sean in Ithaca, New York for a few days.  Totally worth it.  It’s a beautiful town and features some of the best lake swimming anywhere I reckon. This past weekend I was at the Home County Folk Festival in London, ON.  I arrived Saturday night just in time to see Bruce Cockburn rock “Wondering Where The Lions Are” live.  Perfect.  It’s a great festival.  I played a bunch on Sunday and had a really fun mainstage set on Sunday evening with my guitar player, Alan Jeffries.  Good times. That brings us right up to now.  Chilling in beautiful Halifax. Catching up on home time. Thanks as always for the visit.
Take care,
David

Hi folks,

Summer is here!  I just spent a week in southern Ontario.  Had a great time playing at NXNE (North by NorthEast festival) with the trio then stuck around to do a house concert in beautiful Stratford with Matthew Barber and a songwriters showcase in London (ON).  All were great.  Thanks so much to Andrew Shaver for the hosting such a great party in Stratford.  He had a great vibe going on.  Sweet loft, packed with theatre folk.  Very cool.

Since then I’ve been enjoying being home.  We (Nina and I) went sailing on the weekend.  Went down to Mahone Bay with my good friend Old Man Luedecke, his wonderful wife Teresa and boat captains Eric and Marla.  We had a blast.  The first ocean swim of the year!  Not sure if you knew this but swimming is pretty much my favourite thing to do.  I’m going to be rocking as much lake/ocean swimming as I can this summer.  Here’s a few photos of our trip.  Thanks to Eric and Marla for the good times!

I’m hitting the road again in a couple days.  Playing Canada Day at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth with the legendary Joel Plaskett. I play at around 5pm. Also on the bill that night is Deep Dark Woods, Steve Poltz, English Words and Rose Cousins.  Should be a party indeed.  After that I head right to Stanfest for the weekend.  It’ll be my second time to this wicked festival.  It’s in Canso, Nova Scotia.  Feels like you’re at the end of the world out there.  It’s a real special festival.  I’m really looking forward to it.  I play a bunch over the weekend (after party on Friday night, workshops all weekend, then a mainstage gig on Sunday night).  Once Stanfest has come to a close, I head back to my homeland of New Brunswick and get ready to head to the UK for a week!  Me and Old Man Luedecke are heading over there to showcase for a bunch of presenters.  I’ve been referring to this summer as the summer of LuedeMyles.  We happen to be playing in tons of the same spots over the next few month (Stanfest, UK, Home County Festival, Evolve).  It’s sweet.  Lots to look forward to over the next month or so.  I’ll do my best to keep you updated.

Thanks so much for the visit.  Enjoy the sweet summer weather!
talk soon,
David

Hi folks,
Two weeks have quickly passed by since I last checked in.  It’s all been going great here.  Most of my time has been spent relaxing in Halifax. Watching my backyard blossom into a true thing of beauty.  I love it. Last weekend, the trio (Al, Kyle and I) packed up a van and headed to the homeland of New Brunswick for a couple shows.  I played the IWK telethon in Saint John on Saturday night and on Sunday night I played my first show in Miramichi! It was awesome. Thanks so much to everyone that came out. On our way back to Nova Scotia we decided to take advantage of the surroundings and stopped for a little hike in Kouchibouguac National Park. It was really cool.  I hadn’t been there in ages.  I failed to take a single photo of the incredible beaches that are there but I did take this one of a neat bog hike we did.  

This week has been spent mostly working on new tunes (always a good thing to get back into), doing press interviews (“Need A Break” is now starting to get some commercial radio action in the Maritimes, which is pretty cool) and getting ready to head to Toronto next week.  I’m heading up there for NXNE (North by Northeast Music Festival).  It should be fun. The trio will be playing Friday night, June 18th at the Dakota and Saturday night, June 19th at the Gladstone.  I’m pumped to be heading back to the big city for a few days, especially during such a crazy weekend.
Hopefully I’ll see some of you at the shows.

Thanks as always for the visit.
Talk soon,
David

Hi folks,
It’s been an few exciting weeks in the David Myles camp. The album was released to the world and I’ve been lucky enough to play some really sweet shows. On April 16th, just a few days before the official album release I played a show in Halifax with Symphony Nova Scotia. Getting to rock my own tunes backed by a full orchestra of that calibre was unreal. I did eight of my songs with the orchestra and 7 other tunes with my trio. A memorable experience indeed. I can’t wait to do it again. The next night, Al, Kyle and I packed up the van and headed to Saint John, NB to play at the beautiful Imperial Theatre. It has got to be one of the best spots in the country to sing. A truly incredible venue. If you’ve never been you should find a way to go. The first time I went was in Grade 10 and my brother took my girlfriend at the time and me to see the Canadian Brass. That’s what I call a classy high school date if I’ve ever heard of one.

The next weekend the van was packed up again and we headed to my hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick for a full band CD release show at the Playhouse. So good to be back. The Playhouse was where I went to see my first concert (without my parents). It was the Barenaked Ladies just after their record “Gordon” came out. The next night we were in Moncton at the Empress Theatre which was also a blast.

Once the initial release shows were behind me, my sweet wife Nina and I hit the road and headed out west for some family time in Alberta and to attend the wedding of our good friends Jill Barber and Grant Lawrence. What a wedding it was. Beautiful. It was the perfect weekend in Vancouver. Sweet weather, great friends and a wicked party in celebration of a tremendous couple. Good times.

From Vancouver I flew to Toronto for a week. Took me a day to get used to the big city but did I ever adjust. I had a great time there. The show on Wednesday night at Hugh’s Room was a beauty. The full band was there for the occasion and a great crowd came out. Plus the show was recorded by the CBC for Canada Live so it’ll air soon on the radio and be available online. Should be cool. My time in Toronto reminded me of all the great things that city has to offer. Tons of wicked folks, great food and a really active cultural scene. I even snuck in a quick trip to the AGO, which has been seriously renovated since my last visit. Very cool. Thanks to everyone who came out to the show. I’m really looking forward to coming back next month for NXNE. Friday night, June 18th, at The Dakota!

While in Ontario I also got to head up to the beautiful town of Meaford, Ontario on the shores of Georgian Bay. I did a show up there with Matthew Barber. It was a real treat to get to do a show together. We’ve been friends for a while and I’ve been a fan of his tuneage for even longer so it was great. Plus Meaford Hall is a beauty. Here’s a photo to give you an idea.

So there you have it. The last month in review. Sorry I’m not better at blogging from the road but I’ve been rocking the Twitter quite a bit so keep an eye on that if you want more up-to-date posts on what’s been going on.
I hope you’re enjoying what you’ve heard of the new tunes. So far so good. The reviews have been really exciting. You can read them here.

Thanks as always for the visit.
talk to you soon,
David

The Making Of The Album

I thought it might be fun to share with you how this record came about. It all started with last year’s NBA playoffs. Joel Plaskett and I had recently figured out, while on a trip to Memphis together, that we shared a love of basketball. So when it came to playoff time we hooked up a few times over a couple weeks in downtown Halifax to watch the games and have some beverages (vodka on the rocks was the drink of choice). Anyway, as we often do, we were chatting about music. I was telling him about all my new tunes that I was really excited about and my plan to make a new record and he was talking about getting more and more into producing. So, it just seemed natural to ask if he’d be into producing the record (I couldn’t believe it hadn’t come to me sooner really). I told him I’d send him a whole bunch of the tunes I’d written over the last year or two (there was about 24 or so) and said that if he dug them and thought he’d be into producing them I would be totally keen. It was kind of like asking a person you’ve been friends with for a long time whether or not they want to go on a date, take things to the next level. “No pressure at all, if you’re into it we can go for it and if not, we’ll still be friends, so no worries.” Kind of funny. In any case, he was keen.

So we figured out a time when our schedules would allow a good amount of time to work on this beauty, he picked his favourite tunes of the lot and we went from there. I figured if I was going to be hiring Joel as a producer I’d really let him dig in and give his input on everything. It was pretty new for me. We sat down early on in the process and he suggested little things that could change in the tunes (repeating choruses, cutting out lines, adding hooks, etc). Songwriting had previously always been a pretty personal experience and I was a bit precious about it. But I figured if this was going to work and I was going to get the most out of having Joel involved I had to drop that and treat it as if I had an editor. Someone who’s really helping me get at the best of what the tune has to offer. It worked. It was a great experience and it helped me see the tunes from a different perspective, which was really cool. Plus he had some sweet ideas. The bridge on “Out of Love” was his idea. I hadn’t really intended to go into co-writing territory but he suggested the “do-do-do-do” hook for a bridge and it was too good to deny. One thing Joel really brought to the tunes was a sense of risk and fun. If there was a possible vocal hook that could be added or something that would draw the listener in, sure it may sound quirky at first but it was worth it. And because I had told myself to go for everything without too much judgement until I had lived with it for a while we went for it. Now looking back I can’t really think of much that we tried that we eventually backed out on. It was a blast.

So after Joel and I had had a few days looking at the tunes we parted ways for most of the summer (we were both busy touring). During the summer I had a chance to figure out how it was all going to translate with the band. I had been playing with the same crew of characters for a good part of the year and four out of five of us were heading to the UK for three weeks to open for Jools Holland.

It was the perfect chance to spend some time together to work out the tunes. In fact, how it worked out, was that between two of the shows (which were a week apart) we packed up the van and headed to Amsterdam. We rented this unbelievable houseboat, set up our gear on the bow of this barge and rocked it all day for a few days. I will tell you, it was pre-production at its most rad. Here’s a photo that Kyle took that might give you an idea.

Soon enough it was time to hit the studio for some proper rehearsal with the whole crew [Joel, Alan Jeffries (guitar), Kyle Cunjak (bass), Joanna Borromeo (piano, wurlitzer) and Josh Van Tassel (drums)]. We set up in Joel’s Scotland Yard studio in Dartmouth and ran all the tunes. Everything’s in one room there (no control room) so it was all six of us, the console, the tape machine and all our instruments crammed into a pretty small space working away at harmonies, hooks and arrangements for three or four days. It was super productive. Plus we had set up mics and ended up using some of those first or second rehearsal takes ’cause they had such a great vibe (So Far Away and Need A Break).

A month later and after a three week trip I had taken to India we were ready to roll. We spent the first couple weeks of November tracking. The fun part about tracking at Joel’s place is that everything is done on tape. He’s got a great 2 inch 16 track tape machine. It’s a beauty. Most of the records I listen to and love were made in the age of analog (tape) recording so I have a natural affinity for the sound I’ll admit. However, I was surprised at how much I loved the process of recording on tape. First off, because there are only 16 tracks you have be really choosy in terms of what is going on the song and what isn’t. The arrangement have to be pretty tight. Plus, because of the nature of editing tape (it’s not easy) you really have to aim to get full takes of everything. No getting too uptight about a funky syllable or funny note here or there. If the take is good it stays. I really enjoyed that. It helped me get into each take ’cause I knew I couldn’t just go in and fix up anything I didn’t like afterwards. In most cases we just ran two takes of the vocals and picked the best of the two. Very refreshing.

After three weeks or so the record was starting to really take shape. Some tunes came together really easily and were closer reflections of what they sounded like when the band had played them live and others transformed quite a bit during the recording process. It’s always a really exciting thing to witness and hear. There’s almost always a definitive moment when we would all come to realize that we had turned a corner and the recording of the song had come alive.

A couple months before starting the record I had bought a 60’s era Wurlitzer Electric Piano. I bought it ’cause I’ve always loved the sound and I didn’t have a keyboard at home. At the time, I didn’t really have it in mind that it would show up on the record but as we were recording we decided to lay it down. It was a great moment. I think it was “Out Of Love” that we tried first. We muted piano parts and tried out the Wurli. Immediately, we all smiled, realizing that this was the sound. Tight, close mic’d drums, electric bass, wurlitzer (and in some cases, doubled wurlitzer, one for each side of the mix) and electric guitar. It sounded like the seventies. Like Fleetwood Mac or some other type of soft rock from that era. Not a sound I would have guessed we would have gone for but it revealed itself and sounded too good not to go for. That was the approach we went for on “Out Of Love”, “Turn Time Off” and “I Will Love You”. A similar sound was used in “Peace of Mind” but we went closer to dub/reggae territory on that one.

Piece by piece the album took shape over the month of November. Joel and I then headed down to Arizona to mix with this wicked dude named Bob Hoag. He only wears clothes from the 1940s and has an insane amount of knowledge about a seemingly infinite amount of gear and mixing tricks. Very fun. Here’s a video I took when Bob was making me sound like T-Pain by putting me through some serious auto-tuning. In the end we decided not to put this version on the record (though I do still have it in the vault!). Hilarious.

After the mixing, came the mastering (the final touch). That was done by my good friend J. LaPointe in Mineville, Nova Scotia. J.’s a dude and has a beautiful spot in the countryside outside of Halifax. Mat Dunlap did all the sweet art work, created the website and generally makes me look as sharp as possible. Anyway, that’s the story of the record so far. I hope you enjoy it.