David Myles is nominated for an outstanding five ECMA awards including, Songwriter of the Year, Song of the Year (“Simple Pleasures”), Folk Recording (Live at The Carleton), and the Bell Aliant Fan’s Choice Entertainer of the Year and Video of the Year (“Simple Pleasures”).

Hi folks,

Happy New Year. I just got back from my first tour in Australia. Pleased to report it was a blast. Such a great place to tour. Super sweet weather, ocean swimming, perfect coffee everywhere and really nice people. What more can one ask for? Plus the Woodford Folk Festival was pretty much the craziest and best festival I’ve ever seen. Had a great show in Melbourne and a few beauties in and around Sydney too. Can’t wait to go back.

In other very exciting news, master videographer Hiep Vu has done it again. A new video! This time for a song called “Long Dark Night” from “Into The Sun”. I’m particularly pumped about how this turned out. I really hope you dig it. Please share it with your friends and let me know what you think.

Talk soon,
Thanks for the visit.
David

Hi everyone,
It’s been a great few weeks leading up to the holidays. My 2nd annual “Singing for Supper” tour was a great success. We did free shows in Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton and raised over $2700 and 700 pounds of food for local food banks! Thank so much to everyone who came out and donated. I look forward to doing it again next year and making it even bigger. There were some pretty key players in helping out this year and I want to sincerely thank Delta Hotels for donating hotels rooms, Sound Systems Plus for donating a sweet PA, Spincount Music and Promotions for all their promotional help, CBC for their incredible support of the tour, Champlain Place, McAllister Place and Regent Mall for letting us set up shop there for the day, and to all the other media folks that covered the story and helped out. Remember I’m still selling my versions of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” which you can find here: http://davidmyles.bandcamp.com/album/ill-be-home-for-christmas – http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/ill-be-home-for-christmas/id483000746?ign-mpt=uo%3D4 and proceeds will go to Food Banks in New Brunswick.

Also, as another little holiday treat, we decided to release the David Myles App for iPhones! It’s free and if you ask me, it’s pretty wicked. Check it out. http://itunes.apple.com/app/id485368289

Happy holidays to everyone. I feel so lucky be able to do what I do and I can’t thank you enough making it possible. You rule.

On Christmas eve, I’m off to Australia for three weeks! My first tour there. Bringing the trio and we’re going to rock it. I can’t wait. I’ll keep you posted for sure. The shows were playing are posted in the tour section. If you know any folks in any of the cities please pass the info along.

Thanks again,
All the best,
David

Hi folks,
This coming week I’ll be heading out for my 2nd annual “Singing For Supper” tour. I’ll be playing free shows to help raise money and to collect non perishable food items for food banks in New Brunswick. Please come out if you have the chance and tell your friends. Last year was a great success and this year’s going to be even better. I can feel it.
Here are the details:

Monday, December 12th, Moncton, Champlain Place Mall – 12pm – 1:30 pm
Tuesday, December 13th, Saint John, McAllister Place Mall – 12pm – 1:30pm
Wednesday, December 14th, Fredericton, Regent Mall – 12pm – 1:30pm

Also, I recorded a couple versions of a favourite Christmas classic of mine to help raise more money for the Food Banks. You can buy it here and on itunes here.
Thanks so much,
I hope to see you soon,
David

Hi,
I just wanted to send a quick note to share with you this cool profile CBC Radio 2 Drive did up on me. I played a couple tunes from the new record and chatted quite a bit about how the songs came about. It was a great time. I thought you might dig it. Here it is.
Thanks
David

David Myles won two Music Nova Scotia Awards this past weekend in Yarmouth, NS – Male Artist Recording of the Year and Folk Recording of the Year – for his album Live at The Carleton. Congratulations to all the nominees and award winners at Nova Scotia Music Week!

Hi folks,
Just got back from a great trip down to North Carolina. Got to see some beautiful spots and play in some really sweet venues. I was lucky enough to have been sent down there as part of a Nova Scotia trade mission. It was awesome. I spent the week cruising around with Jenn Grant, Tanya Davis and James Hill. Good times. This past Friday, I flew from Asheville, NC to Toronto, then made my way to Guelph, where I played at the River Run Centre. Also awesome. Thanks so much to everyone that came out. It was a really fun night for me and Al (who was playing guitar). When I finished making the record I took a bit of time to write a description of each of the tunes. I thought I’d share with you, check it out below.

Thanks for the visit. I hope you’re all digging the new record. Please take note of the sweet ringtone we have for sale (to the right on the sidebar!).
David

Run – Part of the philosophy of the record was to find interesting and perhaps less conventional ways to present a song. In this case, it meant rather than doing an acoustic guitar, bass kind of thing, we decided to ditch the instruments altogether and try rocking it acapella. Kind of a mix between a 50′s vocal group, Bobby McFerrin, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. It was so fun to record. Though definitely one of the harder things I’ve ever done in terms of singing. It really forced me to use my entire vocal range like I’d never done. I think it might be the first time I’ve rocked falsetto.

Simple Pleasures – A song I wrote just a couple weeks after getting back from a trip to Havana. I guess I was dreaming of the sun. This song came together very quickly. I was running around my house, with my guitar, singing, laughing and trying out as many little hooks as I could. It’s kind of my anthem for those moments when you stop thinking about what you don’t have and realize you have it all.

I’ll Never Know – This is a song about embracing uncertainty. Being okay with not knowing certain things. In terms of production, we kind of went for a Heptones-style reggae vocal group thing. I love those guys. Also, the whistling at the beginning is kind of a tip of the hat to one of my favs, Taj Mahal. This song had a bit of that happy blues thing that Taj Mahal does so well.

The Sea – The trumpet was my first instrument. I started playing in grade 5 in the Connaught street elementary school band. I haven’t really stopped since. Charles Austin, one of the producers of the record, and I wrote this tune around a kalimba (thumb piano) part. It just grew from there. We tried to mix the world’s of finger style guitar with a horn based party tune in the style of the Hallelujah Chicken Run band (an amazing band fronted by Zimbabwean Thomas Mapfumo in the 70s).

Long Dark Night – One of my personal favourites on the record. I kind of wanted to go for a modern day Simon and Garfunkel sound. Graeme Campbell, another key producer of the record, did some amazing things with electronic sounds one this one. Plus, Kevin Fox played cello on this one and took the whole tune to a different level.

Don’t Look Back - This was one of the first songs we worked on. Recording this song helped us set the precedent for much of the rest of the record. Again, rather than going for a more traditional guitar based approach we decided to strip it down to just the bass and focus more on the multi layered vocals. The breakdown in the middle is what we like to call the “Mississippi John Hurt meets New Order” section.

Leaving - Probably the closest thing to a rock song on the record. This song was a bit of a beast to record. Mostly because I was determined to find as many ways to make it different from a traditional rock song as I could. Joshua Van Tassel, who played drums on the whole record, really helped push this tune out of the traditional rock world and into something a bit closer to the rest of the record.

Nina – I’ve been really into Brazilian music for the last couple years. This was my tribute to that music. I wanted to use my voice as an instrument more on this record and this is an example of that. As much as a soundscape in some ways as a song. Plus, Joshua’s drumming on this one is crazy. That’s all live drumming. Pretty fun stuff. Decided to mix in a bit of 90′s drum and bass for good measure. I also was inspired by John Lennon’s sweet song “Oh Yoko” and wrote my own dedication to the wonderful woman in my life, Nina.

Falling In Love – A song about how wild falling in love can feel. I wrote it from the perspective of a doctor diagnosing their patient. I really love the sunny feel this one has in the middle section. Charles, played bass on this one, and came up with the most unconventional bass part. I love it. It gives the whole tune this really interesting groove.

The Bottom - Here’s my tribute to the amazing funk/psychodelic music that came out of Nigeria in the 70s. All of us who were involved in making this record love this era of music. We were all very pleasantly surprised how this one turned out. Again, much thanks to Joshua Van Tassel on this one. He added the drums to all of these tunes from his home studio in Toronto. It was amazing to see how the tunes transformed with his parts. This one was a great example of that. He nailed it. Plus, the way Graeme Campbell mixed it all together really made it all work.

Ooh La La – Another trip to Brazil. My tribute to the beautiful Bossa Nova music of the early 1960′s. Again, the idea of using my voice an instrument in order to build chords really came into play here. I love the way Harry Nilsson does that and wanted to try rocking that myself. This is a song about the mysterious process of writing a song. The outro is something I’m particularly proud of.

Time To Be A Man - A song about the relationship between father and son. Kind of my version of the Cat Steven’s classic. I think this one features one of Charles Austin’s finest moments, a beautiful guitar solo during the outro. It almost sounds like a Kora (an African harp) at points. I love it.

Simple Pleasures (Classified Mix) – I had just written the song when I heard from the Classified. We had worked together on a song called “The Day Doesn’t Die” a couple months before. The song appears on his latest release “Handshakes and Middlefingers”. It went over awesome and we had a great time working together. We knew we had to keep the collaboration going. So when he got in touch about producing one of my tracks, I told him I had just written one that I thought would be perfect. We had a blast making this one. Given how our collaborations have gone so far, I’m really looking forward to more in the near future. Good times.

Hi folks,

It’s been a wild few weeks. Had a great time in the UK. Did some shows in a beautiful rural part of western England. Really great. Then after some sweet days off in London I headed up to Scotland to play at the Americana Festival in Glasgow. From there, I was homeward bound for only a couple days before hitting the road again. Off to Vancouver.

On Wednesday, I flew out west with my good friend Classified and his crew to play at an event called WeDay. It was amazing. You can read about it here http://www.weday.com/event/vancouver. Special guests included Mia Farrow, Mikhail Gorbachev and Shaq. Pretty wild. Over 18,000 people rocking out in the Rogers Centre. We played “The Day Doesn’t Die”. Probably one of the highlights of my musical life. To see that many people singing and dancing along. Plus, I got to meet Shaq.

On Sunday night, I was lucky enough to have been voted the “Expat Of The Year” at this year’s Music New Brunswick Awards! I was so honoured. Thank you to all the good folks that voted. I really appreciate it. Music New Brunswick is a great organization and is doing some great work. And in breaking news, yesterday, I was voted Best Contemporary Singer at this year’s Canadian Folk Music Awards. A great week indeed.

I hope you’re all enjoying the new record. I have four of the tunes featured in the music section if you feel like checking them out. Also, check out the review section, there’s been a bunch of nice reviews come in over the last little while, including a few beauties “en francais”.

This Saturday, I’m playing at the Pearl Theatre in Lunenburg. A wicked venue in one of Nova Scotia’s nicest towns. Then next week I’m off to North Carolina for some shows, and, next Friday, Oct. 28th, up to Guelph to play to the River Run Centre. On Nov. 12th, I’ll be back home in New Brunswick to play a show in Hampton at the Vintage Bistro. I hope to see some of you there.

Thanks so much for the visit.
David

We are pleased to announce David won the Music New Brunswick 2011 Expat Artist of the Year award, which was handed out at the second annual MNB Awards in Moncton on Sunday. Congratulations to all the nominees and thank you to MNB and everyone who voted. David is playing on November 12 at the Vintage Bistro in Hampton, NB – come out to the show and let’s celebrate!

Today my new album “Into The Sun” is being released to the world! To celebrate I’ve decided to give the first single “Simple Pleasures” to everyone for free (Click here to be sent to download page) . On top of that, if you share the song with two of your friends, you’ll get a second song from the record entitled “Nina”. (Click here to share!)

Happy Album Release day my friends!
Thanks so much for the ongoing support.
Enjoy the new album. I had a wicked time making it and I’m really pumped for you to hear it.

Thanks again

David