SaskMusic is pleased to return to Brighton UK for the 10th anniversary of The Great Escape (http://greatescapefestival.com). Continuing our successful and longstanding partnership with Manitoba Music, Alberta Music, and Music BC, we will co-present a showcase under the BreakOut West banner at TGE on May 16 at Brighton’s “The Green Door Store.” This year’s BreakOut West showcase includes two Saskatchewan acts, Close Talker and Young Benjamins, alongside Western Canadian artists The Lytics, Leaf Rapids, 36?, Jordan Klassen, and Dralms. Close Talker and Young Benjamins, along with Andy Shauf, received official showcase invitation from TGE organizers this year.
The Great Escape is the UK’s premiere music business conference, bringing together thousands of music industry practitioners for three days of talks, panels, showcases, and business-to-business events. The convention runs alongside The Great Escape festival, Europe’s leading festival for new music, which showcases 400 bands at 35 venues during its run. The UK is the largest music market in Europe and acts as a barometer for buyers, media, and music partners around the world.
Andy Shauf, Close Talker, and Young Benjamins will appear at official TGE showcasers (details below) before continuing on with their respective UK/European tours. Young Benjamins and Close Talker will also perform at the Liverpool Sound City Festival and industry conference from May 22-24, 2015.
THE BREAKOUT WEST BBQ
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Green Door Store, Brighton UK
11:30 am-5:00 pm local time
With Leaf Rapids (MB), Jordan Klassen (BC), 36? (AB), Young Benjamins (SK), The Lytics (MB), Dralms (BC), Close Talker (SK)
Performance Times:
Andy Shauf
TGE: May 15, 2015 3:00-3:30pm @ GREEN DOOR STORE
TGE: May 15, 2015 6:45-7:15pm @ PATTERNS – DOWNSTAIRS
Close Talker:
TGE: May 14, 2015 9:15-9:45pm @ QUEENS HOTEL
TGE: May 16, 2015 4:00-4:30pm @ GREEN DOOR STORE / BreakOut West BBQ
LSC: May 22, 2015 THE CAVERN STAGE, Docklands
Young Benjamins:
TGE: May 15, 2015 8:30-9:00pm @ QUEENS HOTEL
TGE: May 16, 2015 1:45-2:15pm @ GREEN DOOR STORE / BreakOut West BBQ
LSC: May 22, 2015 THE CAVERN STAGE, Docklands
About the Artists:
Close Talker (www.closetalker.ca) is an indie rock quartet from the great plains of Saskatoon. With subtle earworm melodies and harmonies set against tightly wound rhythms, they have drawn comparisons to Bon Iver, Local Natives, and Bombay Bicycle Club. Following the release of their debut EP, Timbers, in February 2013, Close Talker performed at a number of notable festivals and showcases including Ness Creek, Gateway Festival, MOSO Fest, Ponderosa Festival, and the Regina Folk Fest, where they showcased on the main stage to a capacity crowd directly before headliner Feist. The band has a strong tour history, including dates with Canada’s Royal Canoe and Library Voices. In May 2014, Close Talker recorded their sophomore record “Flux” released via Nevado Records (Yukon Blonde, Bahamas, John Grant) on November 4, 2014. They are nominated for a 2015 Sirius XM Indie Award and are currently on tour across Europe with Mounties.
Young Benjamins hail from the sunny streets of Saskatoon. The band is comprised of Neusha Mofazzali, Veronique Poulin and Brynn Krysa. Young Benjamins combine contemporary folk and rock with a subtle dose of pop, creating a sound that is infectious and refreshing. Young Benjamins’ live show and compelling stage presence have begun to attract some very positive attention for the young band, referred to by some as Saskatchewan’s “indie folk darlings”. The band released their first full length album, Less Argue, on Dollartone Records.
Andy Shauf (www.andyshauf.com) is a storyteller, a singer of heartbreak and regrets, isolation and loneliness, reflecting his prairie surroundings in Regina. Meticulously written over four years, Shauf’s The Bearer of Bad News is a warm and welcoming album, bathed in piano, dampened drums, weathered piano, softly-strummed guitars and clarinet, which lends its unique timbre to frequently brighten – or hauntingly underscore – the songs’ darker undercurrents. Fans of Elliott Smith, Nick Drake and Harry Nilsson, take note.
About Liverpool Sound City (www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk):
Nominated for best UK metropolitan festival for the fifth year running, Liverpool Sound City is an unrivalled 3-day festival of incredible live music and arts, capturing the city of Liverpool and reinforcing it as the cultural core of the UK. With a groundbreaking 2-day music and digital industry conference running in tandem, showcasing some of the most influential people from the creative industries, Sound City is one of a kind. Since its inception in 2008, Liverpool Sound City has grown into one of the most important and well-respected cultural events in the UK. Known as the ‘first music festival of the year’, Sound City sets the standard for all music festivals to follow by bringing you the very best breakthrough acts and major names before anyone else. Previous years have seen the likes of Bastille, The 1975, Royal Blood and Clean Bandit perform at the festival and an array of massive industry names speak at the conference, such as John Cale of The Velvet Underground, Seymour Stein (Warner Bros and Sire Records) and representatives from leading organizations such as Live Nation, Universal Music Publishing and Island Records.
