After Runnymede makes it to the City Finals

Show Details

The qualifiers are over and I’ve been invited to play the City Finals at the Sound Academy  as part of the Supernova Hysteria – Battle of the Bands. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for indie artists to get “discovered” by A&R reps from the world’s biggest labels, i.e. EMI, Sony, Warner & Universal. It is the real deal. I had a meeting with them last night so the relationship is already in the bag… now I just need to impress these executives with an amazing performance and a crowd of my own. Here’s a breakdown of what is so exciting about this showcase.

1) The Venue

The Sound Academy was rated as the #1 Concert Theater in Toronto by Live Nation and one of the top 10 across Canada. It has been the choice venue for such artists as Bedouin Soundclash, The Tragically Hip, LIGHTS, Alexisonfire, Korn, Arkells, Ill Scarlet and many more.

Sound Academy boasts one of the best lighting rigs in the entire country. 3-storey ceilings and a 60 ft. stage 4 ft. off the ground! Oh, did I mention it holds up to 3,000 people?

With this in mind, I have hired a video crew to come out and film the performance. It will be the biggest venue on my resume and serve as the all-mighty hammer of THOR breaking down all the doors I need to walk through to play other warehouses and clubs across the country I feel a tour coming after this show… gigidy gigidy

2) The Record Deal

The winners for this prize are determined by ticket sales. I need to sell at least 75 tickets ($12/each) to play on the main stage which also wins me a full day of recording at EPIK PRODUCTIONS STUDIOS! If I sell 45 tickets then I’ll get a half day in the studio. I’m hoping to win the full-day so that I can bang out my two newest songs, i.e. Just for You & So Broke

I’ll release them as a free download on my website as a celebration for the win and get the ball rolling on the next record. Have you ever heard of “Crowd Funding“? It’s the new approach for an indie artist to raise funds for ongoing projects such as a new music video, a new album, etc.

3) The Private Industry Showcase

The band/artist with the best performance will win a private showcase arranged by Coalition Entertainment who manages Our Lady Peace, USS (my favourite), Finger 11, Simple Plan and many more. Last year they set this up for a band called Good for Grapes which they flew into Toronto… here is a video of the experience they had at this private showcase which lead to signing a record deal and a booking agency deal. Jealous? Who me? Shhhhhhhhh…. don’t tell anyone.

So what do you think? Exciting no? Care to buy a ticket?
Care enough to support an indie with a relentless drive?

My personal goal is to sell 100 tickets (raise $1200) and take home all the prizes!! Ambitious I know. If you’re stuck on Christmas gifts and know someone who loves live music, perhaps this is your saving grace

Please use the “special instructions” field on the checkout page after you click on donate to have someone else’s name put on the ticket list. Every donation gets a free album download, so if you cannot attend the event, you still have some incentive to click that button!

You don’t even have to pay the full $12 if all you want is the album, use “other” in the drop-down below to set your own price.

Donate using the form below for your free download of the album and a ticket to attend this life changing career making competition, live at the Sound Academy.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 at 10:05 pm. It is filed under News and tagged with competition, contest, help, supernova. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.