As part of our ongoing strategy to help Saskatchewan artists succeed in worldwide markets, SaskMusic is set to undertake a series of overseas events. We are pleased to be participating in a new export mission this year, to Wrexham, Wales for the Focus Wales festival. Continuing our longstanding partnership with Alberta Music, Manitoba Music, and Music BC, our associations will co-present a showcase under the BreakOut West brand at Undegun on May 12, and Rewind on May 13. This year’s BreakOut West showcase includes three Saskatchewan artists: Nick Faye, LOA, and Poor Nameless Boy, all of whom received official showcase invitations from Focus Wales festival organizers.
Following Focus Wales, SaskMusic will be in London UK to participate in business-to-business meetings, networking receptions, and a sync summit presented by the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA). We will co-present a ‘Made in Canada’ networking reception in London, followed by a pre-The Great Escape showcase at The Slaughtered Lamb on May 16. This showcase, co-presented by BreakOut West, Manitoba Music, Music BC, and Music Nova Scotia, will feature Poor Nameless Boy alongside YoungBlood (BC), William Prince (MB), and Port Cities (NS).
We then head to Brighton UK for The Great Escape Festival, where we will revisit our successful partnership with Alberta Music, Manitoba Music, and Music BC to co-present a showcase under the BreakOut West brand at The Green Door Store on May 19-20. Poor Nameless Boy, DGS Samurai Champs, Colter Wall, and The Avulsions were selected to perform by The Great Escape festival organizers.
Following The Great Escape, SaskMusic will undertake our first export mission to the New Skool Rules festival in Rotterdam NL as part of a Canadian Blast initiative, with partners CIMA and Music BC. DGS Samurai Champs was selected by NSR festival organizers, and will perform on May 21 at De Unie. SaskMusic representatives will attend the conference, networking receptions, and partake in business-to-business meetings.
SaskMusic will then make its way back to the UK to once again attend the annual Liverpool Sound City festival, partaking in the industry conference and meetings. DGS Samurai Champs and Poor Nameless Boy were selected to perform at the event by Sound City organizers.
Artist Schedule
Spotify Playlist
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Focus Wales, Wrexham
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Made in Canada BreakOut West showcase, London UK
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The Great Escape, Brighton UK
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New Skool Rules, Rotterdam
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Sound City, Liverpool
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Additional Artist Dates of note
The Avulsions
- May 26: Oxford UK, The Library Pub
Colter Wall
- May 21: Southampton UK, The Platform Tavern, w/John Clay
- May 23: (SOLDOUT) London UK, Servant Jazz Quarters, w/John Clay & River Matthews
- May 24: (LIMITED REMAINING TICKETS) London UK, Borderline, support for Brent Cobb
- May 25: Birmingham UK, Hare & Hounds Kings Heath, support for Brent Cobb
- May 27: Dublin Ireland, Bello bar, support for Brent Cobb
- May 28: Glasgow Scotland, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, support for Brent Cobb
- May 30: Berlin Germany, Maze, w/ John Clay
- June 1: Amsterdam Netherlands, Melkweg Amsterdam w/John Clay
- June 2: Ottersum Netherlands, Roepaen Podium, w/John Clay
DGS & LOA
- May 15: London UK, Birthdays
Nick Faye
- May 14: Edinburgh Scotland, The Bluebird Café (w/ Poor Nameless Boy)
- May 15: Leeds UK, Gaslight Club (w/Poor Nameless Boy
- May 16: London UK, Live at Salon Noir
- May 17: London UK, The Slaughtered Lamb
- May 24: Paris France, Le Motel
Poor Nameless Boy
- May 14: Edinburgh Scotland, The Bluebird Café (w/Nick Faye)
- May 15: Leeds UK, Gaslight Club (w/Nick Faye)
- May 22: Brussels Belgium, house concert
- May 23: Paris France, Pop In
- May 24: Metz France, 7(7)
- May 25: Nancy France, Off Kultur
About
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The Avulsions |
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Colter Wall Wall is a prairie-born songwriter/performing artist from Swift Current. Recently chosen to perform for the P&E Wing of the Grammys - as well as having earned his Ryman Auditorium debut while opening for Lucinda Williams - Wall’s inaugural EP “Imaginary Appalachia” continues to keep him a non-stop, buzzed-about young artist. His signature baritone is paired with sparse, beautiful, old-soul songwriting inspired by artists like Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley, Emmylou Harris & Waylon Jennings. His self-titled full-length LP, produced by Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson) will be released on May 12/2017 via Young Mary’s Record Co/Thirty Tigers. |
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DGS Samurai Champs Hailing from two Saskatchewan cities – the “Bridge City” Saskatoon, and the “Queen City” Regina, DGS Samurai Champs is a Canadian recording and performing R&B/hip-hop duo. Consisting of new-wave rapper Jeah and future-R&B singer Merv xx Gotti, the duo draws influence from their Southeast Asian heritage while taking pride in their urban-Canadian identity. Their sound has been likened to that of current Canadian hip-hop/R&B contemporaries Drake, The Weeknd, and Tory Lanez. |
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LOA |
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Nick Faye Faye, a songwriter from the deepest depths of the Canadian Prairies (Regina) makes music that sticks to your ribs. Alongside his band The Deputies, he has shared the stage with a mix of notable artists such as Arkells, July Talk, Shad, Rah Rah, Elliot Brood, Andy Shauf, Northcote, and Close Talker, and performed at festivals including the Regina Folk Festival, Folk Alliance, CMW, NXNE, and JUNOFest. The band is currently finishing up a new album with JUNO and Polaris-winning producer Michael Wojewoda (Barenaked Ladies, Buffy Saint Marie, Amelia Curran). "(Regina) has long been a hot spot for indie-rock greatness (think Library Voices, Rah Rah and, way back, Despistado). Now you can add Nick Faye and the Deputies to that list." - Grant Lawrence, CBC Music. |
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As Poor Nameless Boy, Canadian indie folk artist Joel Henderson leaves a piece of himself on stage every time he performs. His mellow sound is personal, speaking honestly about love, life, and our changing hearts in a busy world. The 2016 release of his third album “Bravery” debuted at #2 on Canadian folk charts – listen carefully and take note of the passionate range of vocals and songs with stories, sung from the soul. |
The annual multi-venue festival in Wrexham each spring places the music industry spotlight firmly on the emerging talent that Wales has to offer the world. FOCUS Wales 2017 is the festival’s 7th edition, and will welcome over 7,000 people to the town, building upon 2016′s record attendance across a jam-packed weekend of events. 200+ bands showcase on 20 stages, in addition to a full schedule of interactive industry sessions, arts events, and film screenings throughout the festival.
The Great Escape
TGE is the festival for new music, showcasing 450 emerging artists from all over the world in 30+ walkable venues across the city of Brighton UK. It’s the first place to discover a new artist and see them in an intimate setting before they go on to headline major festival stages. TGE is also attended by the music industry who are on the hunt for the next big thing. A convention runs alongside the gigs, featuring insightful panels, topical debates, keynote speeches and networking opportunities in abundance. The Alternative Escape, Spotlight Shows, secret gigs, club nights and spontaneous collaborations all add to the festivities and make this weekend in Brighton one not to miss.
“If anyone had any doubts that The Great Escape is the most important UK music festival for new bands, new trends and making new friends, then they most certainly got knocked out of the water this year. 10 years in, and TGE went harder than ever before.”- Crack. “The Great Escape has established itself as the best place in Europe to discover new bands” - The Times. “The Cannes of the music world” - Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 6 Music.
New Skool Rules
A three-day international conference with seminars, an exchange program, concerts, afterparties, a fashion show and speed date sessions. All of these aspects contribute to creating new business opportunities for delegates of New Skool Rules and giving an overview of the new Skool Culture worldwide. NSR is a bi-annual high quality event that helps the New Skool sector develop and gives the audience an overview of what the New Skool genre has to offer the world.
Sound City
Nominated for best UK metropolitan festival for the fifth year running, 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, it has grown into one of the most important and well-respected cultural events in the UK. 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.
Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA)
Canadian Blast is the business development brand under which CIMA promotes Canadian independent music in the US, UK-Europe, South Asia and other emerging markets. These international events provide global, collective, multi-faceted marketing opportunities which individual companies and artists would be unable to undertake on their own. CIMA is a not-for-profit national trade association representing the English-language, Canadian-owned sector of the music industry. CIMA’s membership consists of Canadian-owned companies and representatives of Canadian-owned companies involved in every aspect of the music, sound recording and music-related industries. CIMA’s mandate is to develop and advocate policies and services that serve to support a strong and economically stable Canadian independent music and sound recording industry, ensuring the long-term development of the sector and to raise the profile of Canadian independent music both in Canada and around the world.
SaskMusic
SaskMusic is a non-profit association that stimulates growth and development in the commercial music industry of Saskatchewan through leadership, promotion, training, advocacy and partnership. We offer programming including artist consultations, workshops, marketing, artist listings, export assistance, networking opportunities and much more. We represent the four components of our industry: creative, interpretive, technical and administrative. Our artists and music professionals hail from across our province, and work in pretty much every genre you can imagine. We are a source of information and resources for both the public, and the music industry.
BreakOut West
BreakOut West and the Western Canadian Music Awards are the primary events hosted by the Western Canadian Music Alliance (WCMA), an organization created by the music industry associations of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, The Northwest Territories and the Yukon Territory in Canada, to promote and celebrate Western Canadian music. Each year, the BreakOut West conference, festival, and Western Canadian Music Awards are held in a different Western Canadian region. 2017 marks the 15th year of the event, which will be held in Edmonton AB. Additionally, BreakOut West serves as a central brand for export initiatives jointly undertaken by the association partners.
SaskMusic’s participation in these events is made possible through Creative Saskatchewan's Market & Export Development Grant Program.
