The song Inner Ninja has already earned Nova Scotia rapper Classified and his partner-in-rhyme David Myles a Juno Award. It’s also gone [triple] platinum in Canada and now its uber-cute promo clip is one of the top contenders at the 2013 MuchMusic Video Awards.

Scenes of Classified and Myles performing with adolescent martial artists earned four nominations including video of the year, hip-hop video of the year, MuchFACT video of the year and the fan-voted Your Fave Video category.

This makes Classified the third most nominated act this year, after Marianas Trench, with six nominations, and Drake, with five.

Classified and Myles won’t be the only East Coast acts in contention at the awards gala, airing live on MuchMusic on June 16 at 10 p.m.

Rich Aucoin’s intricate Brian Wilson Is A.L.i.V.E. video got a director of the year nod for Halifax filmmaker Noah Pink, while Matt Mays’ trippy Take It on Faith clip was named in the rock-alternative category.

Keep your fingers, and nunchucks, crossed!

- The Chronicle Herald

Really, winning a Juno award for ‘Inner  Ninja’ – a collaboration with Classified, comes as no surprise for New Brunswick native David Myles. After all, good things come when you get along with someone so well.

“We have known each other for quite a while and we really see eye to eye. He has this amazing ear. He performs music by feel which is unlike me. I learned with technique, I am schooled and we are a perfect contrast. He plays and writes music the way most people hear it.”

Myles, of course, is speaking of his recent 2013 award at the Junos. He won, along with the Hip – Hop / Rap sensation ‘Classified’, the award for Rap recording of the year. A prize which makes Myles proud but is furthest from the type of music Myles is accustomed to performing or writing.
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For those of you who were excited by David Myles’ recent collaboration with hip-hop artist Classified on Inner NInja, the hit single that brought them the 2013 Juno for Rap Recording of the Year, there’s good news: In The Nighttime is another disc from the pair, Classified producing the Myles’ tracks, and appearing as the featured vocalist on two of the tracks.

For those of you who love David Myles for his folk-pop, pleasing and mellow singer-songwriter fair, there’s good news. In The Nighttime is another disc in that direction, this time produced by pianist Aaron Davis, alongside bassist David Piltch, guitarist Kevin Breit and drummer Davide Direnzo, top flight Canadian jazz players known for their work with Holly Cole and countless others.
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I’m not naïve. With the commercial success that resulted from David Myles and Classified’s last collaboration, the easy sell for Myles will be the companion EP that comes with his latest LP. The duo went back to the lab and Myles let Class create the beats and shape the tone of [the After Party]. Their collaborative relationship isn’t new – the duo worked together in the past, long before they discovered their Inner Ninjas, and the airplay and awards that accompanied that revelation – but the six-songs shows there was still much fruit left to be harvested.

Class plays to David’s strengths, letting David’s heart and trusting smile shine through. These songs feature horns, programmed beats and even Classified getting a chance to spit on a few tracks. The hits are uptempo and infectious (especially “So Blind”, a song that lets Class and Myles sneak in a playful homage to Naughty by Nature) but this is far from a paint by numbers experience for both artists. The cold, uptempo beat of “I Will Love You”, the remorseful and fuzzed out “Peace of Mind” and the intricate percussion of “One in a Million” all offer new terrain for David’s voice to glide over, without losing any of the warmth he exudes.

Truth be told however, I find as much in the more standard tracks David offers on In the Nighttime. Warm organs, weeping steel and stand up bass are the perfect backdrop for David to sing of love that makes him better. From the opening, airy moments of “Maureen” you witness the charisma and sincerity of a man willing to take bold risks to win the perfect love. You hear a man willing to sing from the top of the mountains and the bottom of his heart; a modern day Lloyd Dobbler, tailored in high thread counts instead of a trench coat and huge high tops.

It’s not a sexy comparison in the blog world, but David’s output could be slid nicely alongside artists like Amos Lee (“Tell Me What” could be a b-side from the fantastical self-titled Lee release) or even Norah Jones. All are seasoned artists that write seemingly simple songs that just stick. To say these are more than the sum of their parts seems like a cliche, but tasteful arrangements and spirited female harmonies make every song on this record a delight.

In the Nighttime is soaked in tradition but never attempts to paint David’s emotions in nostalgic sepia tones. Myles offer us all a reminder that love is all we really need, and there is no more noble calling than trying to find the people that make you want to give selflessly until the last beat of your heart.

by Bryan Acker, Herohill

Having spent the majority of his career crooning around rural Canada, Fredericton native-turned-Halifax resident David Myles could have never imagined that the first Juno win he’d be associated with would be for rap recording of the year.

During what can be described as a whirl-wind-weekend at the Junos this past month, Myles’ career took a giant leap into the national spotlight. Speaking to him less than a month after his song, Inner Ninja, won a Juno, it was apparent that Myles was still flying high.
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Host Émilie Perreault at 98.5 FM in Montreal speaks (en français) to David’s new album, In the Nighttime. You can listen to her review here: http://www.985fm.ca/audioplayer.php?mp3=176057