After spending the last decade supporting some of Canada’s most talented artists from Doc Walker to Imaginary Cities and developing a reputation across Canada and various parts of the world for their exceptional musicianship, Joey and David Landreth have at long last taken the plunge into a project that is uniquely their own, the Bros. Landreth.
Born to a musical family, both sons took to the craft early and quickly. Joey played the guitar before he could speak and Dave experimented with every instrument in the house before eventually settling comfortably on his Dad’s old Fender P-Bass.
“Victoria Sparks holds a bachelor of Music and Education from the University of Manitoba, where her teachers included Jauvon Gilliam and Rob Gardner. In 2010, Sparks graduated from Butler University, where she had the opportunity to study under Jon Crabiel, completing a Masters in Percussion Performance. Victoria has also had instruction from Craig Hentrick, Julie Spencer, Johnny Lee Lane and Jack Van Geem, and has worked as a technical consultant for Dame Evelyn Glennie on several occasions.
Sparks is an active music educator throughout Manitoba. In 2010, she was appointed the Coordinator of Percussion Studies at Brandon University where she currently teaches percussion techniques, directs the percussion ensemble, and runs a private studio. She teaches runs the percussion studio at the University of Manitoba and directs their percussion ensemble, as well as teaching at the Canadian Mennonite University. She is also the founder and director of the Prairie Percussion Workshop, an education an d performance based event for percussion students in middle and high school. Sparks performs regularly with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Brandon Chamber Players, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Groundswell New Music Series.
Victoria has strong connections to the New Icelandic community, as she grew up spending her summers in Gimli with her Amma and Afi: Dr & Mrs Irvin and Lois Olafson. She had the incredible opportunity to spend a semester in Rekjavik while in university where she studied percussion with the principal percussionist of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. In recent years she has been honoured to perform works by Icelandic composers through the Groundswell New Music Series and the Núna(now) Festival. “
From http://icelandicfestival.com
Reputation is a fragile thing, and in the frantic and fickle world of “pop music,” it’s especially so. It can take years of hard graft, both in studios and on potentially soul-crushing tours, to build. And it can take mere minutes – about the length of your average pop song – to destroy. That risk can make the thought of taking a chance anathema for some artists, who’d prefer to beat the drum of past glories until the skin snaps into shreds.
Typically, those artists tend to be boring as hell. Thankfully, Thomas D’Arcy is not that sort of artists.
D’Arcy is known to many indie pop connoisseurs as the front man for Small Sins, a Toronto-based band with three critically acclaimed albums to its credit (2006’s self-titled debut, 2007 Mood Swings, and 2010’s Pot Calls Kettle Black). Some may even recall his time as lead singer and bassist for indie rock quartet The Carnations. But now, with the release of his first album under his own name What We Want (Thomas D’Arcy Music/MapleMusic Recordings), he’s stepping out from the relative comfort and gang mentality of the band dynamic, and into the brand new world of “solo artist.”
