| >>THE 411
Russell Broom is up for another Juno this year. He already won one in 2002 for "songwriter of the year" along with musical partner Jann Arden, but Broom is just as mildly pleased as the first time.
"I'm not a huge fan of artistic awards, but it's a big honour to be acknowledged," Broom says. "I feel like the Junos are important to the Canadian music industry and I'm glad they exist."
This year, it’s Broom’s engineering skills that are being acknowledged for his work on the last Jann Arden and She Daisy albums. But this may be just the beginning of his attention as an engineer – Broom has just finished more recordings for Jann Arden, Sheri-D Wilson and show business giants The Dudes.
But that’s not all that Broom has "engineered;" he has just begun a new project, producing a baby boy named Simon, a job that will undoubtedly be a work in progress for a number of years. The Juno Awards traditionally have not held a category for "best baby by a musician," but with the growing trend of professional musicians having kids, the industry can no longer ignore this as a passing fancy. Lobbying has already begun among industry to introduce new "timely mortgage payments," and "consistent shoulder checking" (by a Canadian musician) categories to the awards ceremony.
Good news for Reverie Sound Revue fans – the quintet has committed to doing another three recordings for Vancouver based Boompa records (home to bands like Run Chico Run and Leeroy Stagger), as well as a tour of Japan. Why Japan? My sources tell me that it’s because three of the Reverie members have blond to fair hair. It has been well documented that the Japanese love people who have blond to fair hair. I have a Metal Edge article from 1989 that reveals how Duff McKagan and Steven Adler were significantly more popular in Japan than Slash and Axl Rose. Furthermore, Reverie Sound Revue has been "pushing units" in Japan. I’m sure that the band will do some local warm-up gigs, so look forward to that this summer.
If the band feels green about gigging abroad, Reverie vocalist Lisa Lobsinger should be more than able to show the boys the ropes, having just returned from a veritable world tour doing vocals for Broken Social Scene. I guess you could say that Lobsinger is having a good year. |
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.