{{ February 16, 2004 }}

Happy belated Valentine's Day everybody! ... and I guess while I'm at it I should wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too since it's been that long since I updated! ... OK, so I lied... I wasn't back soon with all the gossip from Creative Collective... but I'm here now!! ;)

The NEW Sly-Fi Studios is almost complete! Another month and we'll be unveiling the new rooms. We're really excited! We've already done a couple of sessions in the almost finished rooms and everything is sounding fantastic... :)

"Creative Collective 2003" was again an incredible experience. It was more "artist driven" this year - definitely my thing. I wrote with a bunch of amazing writers - Robbie Patterson (Peer Music), Bryan Potvin ("Northern Pikes"-BMG), Stefan Skarbek (BMG-UK), Martin Acosta ("The Beautiful Truth"), Andrea Wasse ("The Weekend"-EMI), Nicole Hughes ("Scratching Post"-Sony), Kristina Trites, Bobby Cameron (BMG), Andrea England, Lacey Block ("Velvet Empire") and Alex Price ("Velvet Empire"). So far, at least two of my co-writes from that week are confirmed as "cuts" on records coming out this year with some BIG producers involved! Thanks again to Justin and Brandon Gray for organizing such an amazing event.

Lots more industry meetings have been set up - I'll let you know of all the developments...

We put on a couple of showcases at Holy Joe's in downtown Toronto recently. The first one, back in October, featured artists Marqus Bobesich, Adrien Breda, Scott Celani, and Lacey Block. The most recent show, a couple of weeks ago, featured Adrien Breda, Tanya Philipovich, Lacey Block, and my newest project, Diana Planche. Both nights were incredibly special - the artists were phenomenal, the club packed and most importantly... it was all about the music. You could hear a pin drop in the room... A lot of love from the artists AND the audience. Thanks to everyone that helped make both nights so fantastic - we'll do it again very soon...

Marqus Bobesich recently secured an OAC grant to record some new material. We'll be finishing that up in March. In the meantime, check out the MP3 section of this site to hear Marqus' latest single "New Day Calling". It's charting Top 10 on the internet right now!!

Jeigh Madjus secured a FACTOR grant recently. We're going with an organic approach to the songs that got him so much attention last time round...

Buffalo artist Scott Celani's brand new EP "Saturday" is complete and will be in stores shortly. The release party is set for Saturday, March 13, 2004 at The Tralf in Buffalo, NY. Rumour has it I'll be "key-slinging" on a couple of songs and Diana Planche (Diana sang backgrounds on the record) and Monika Burany (Moni sang on Marqus' latest) will be singing backgrounds. And then of course there's Scott's band of unbelievable regulars! The EP features 5 killer new band tracks as well as unplugged versions of a couple of Scott staples. The rhythm section of Adrian Passarelli (drummer for Nelly Furtado) and Drew Birston (bass player for Chantal Kreviazuk) is featured on the disc. Check it out!

Lacey Block and I have completed writing 4 songs for her upcoming project. Another 4 are in the works... I LOVE these songs... hope to start tracking later this spring... industry feedback on the vocal/piano demo has been fantastic - can't wait to spin these folks the finished product! Lacey was a member of the Popstars2 group "Velvet Empire", and, my first collaboration with her, a track called "Satisfy" (co-written with James Robertson-EMI), generated some interest from mega-producer Rodney Jerkins (www.darkchild.com)!

Adrien Breda and I are gearing up to start recording the 8 songs we finished up at the end of last year. Keep your ear to the ground for this guy - at both Holy Joe's showcases, he was incredible - definitely a fan favourite. Adrien is managed by Beau and Zack (Canadian Idol judge) of Venus Management (they also manage Skye Sweetnam, Esthero, and others).

New to the B-Group family is Diana Planche, an unbelievable soul singer brought to my attention by new Sly-Fi engineer Chris Gordon (formerly of Metalworks). Diana and I are in the process of finishing up a 4-song EP started in January. Diana also blew the lid off of Holy Joe's at the last showcase! There's lots more to come from Diana and The B-Group...

I'm in the final stages of mixing a 5 song project I produced for band 28N (now based in NYC). The sound is melodic, soulful and rocks really hard - think "Our Lady Peace-meets-Live-meets-Lenny Kravitz". I'm excited to unveil this one - the songs are really strong and the band is awesome - I think you're all going to love it! This project also marked the beginning of a new era at The B-Group Music - it was the first project I had Chris Gordon in on, helping me out with some of the engineering! Welcome Chris - a great start for sure...

I've also been writing with Adam Cassidy, frontman for Toronto band The Beggarz. Tracking for the 4 songs we'll be recording is scheduled to begin in early April...

Lexx Lethal is in working on a new track called "Dear John". I think it's his strongest work to date. Look for it soon...

I'm also in the process of mixing an album for Brampton band Outerashes. Indie modern rock with strong hooks...

Tanya Philipovich recorded a 3 song demo with me at the end of 2003. What a unique talent! Tanya's a singer/songwriter with heavy emphasis on POET. We've made some plans to do some more work this summer...

And then there's the project that I can't talk about right now, but I'm really excited about... I know you're gonna dig this one! I'll let you in on it soon...

In addition to all of the great artists I've been fortunate enough to work with lately, Chris Gordon has recently done sessions here at Sly-Fi Studios with modern rock groups "The Graduation Day", "Boostersquad", and "Mr. Nobody Soon". Chris brings a definite "punk" edge to what's going on around here... :)

Well, I'd like to say I'll be back soon with lots of news, but that's what I said last time and it took 6 months!!! So I'll leave it at... "I'll be back"... hopefully soon! But please check in from time to time 'cause I'm going to post MP3's of the new stuff as it rolls off the line! See ya... B