Kevin Hearn
Barenaked Ladies, Solo
www.kevinhearn.com
Stage Essentials: Yamaha AvantGrand N2 Digital Upright Pi-
ano, which runs into an Eventide Space pedal for reverb and a
Line 6 DL4 pedal for various delay settings on command. Ac-
cess Music Virus TI Polar Synth, which is used for everything
from a kick drum to interstellar rock and roll, Axiom Air 61
MIDI controller, Apple MacBook Pro running MainStage routed
through a MOTU UltraLite-mk3 Hybrid Audio Interface and
iConnectivity mio4 MIDI Interface, Haken Continuum Finger-
board, Weltmeister sparkly blue accordion (enough said).
I started classical piano when I was five years old and hated
playing scales. My mom and I had an agreement: I’d play scales
for an hour and then was allowed to improvise for as long as
I wanted. It was through improvising that I found my musical
voice; however, I’d never be able to play all I hear and feel if not
Rich Aucoin
www.richaucoin.ca
Stage Essentials: A real piano if available! Fender Rhodes
’54, Nord Electro 5D Keyboard (or anything Nord!), Korg SV-1
Stage Piano, Moog Little Phatty Synth, Roland JD-XA Synth.
And I write everything on the Korg Triton LE Workstation.
While I have a classical and jazz piano background, I knew
the best thing I could offer in my playing was just trying to do
something I hadn’t seen someone else attempting, so I wrote
my albums to be soundtracks to films as well as stand-alone
indie pop records themselves.
I would sit at the keyboard with my laptop in front of me
and just loop these films while trying out various chord pro-
gressions to capture the moods of the scenes I was scoring.
This led to some unusual pop chord structures and arrange-
ments with lots of added bars of unusual counts to fit the sec-
tions to the films. I think it also made me fall in love with the
pedaled bass suspension chords as an effective way to build
urgency, so all my albums have had sections with the bass
note remaining the root while the other chords change over it.
So far, I’ve done this four times with Dr. Seuss’ How The
Grinch Stole Christmas (1968), We’re All Dying to Live (a film
made from public domain films such as It’s A Wonderful Life
and Night of the Living Dead), The Little Prince (1979), and Alice
in Wonderland (1951).
52 CANADIAN MUSICIAN
for the techniques I’d learned by playing those boring scales.
In grade eight, my fellow students and I had an assign-
ment. We had to partner up and for an hour each afternoon,
one of us would be blindfolded and led around downtown To-
ronto. We might pass Moss Park, Massey Hall, The Eaton Cen-
tre, hospitals, churches, or pinball arcades. Our assignment
was first to listen, then to listen to the everyday sounds of the
city as music, and finally to write a piece of music based on
what we heard.
This was a life-changing experience. Music wasn’t just
notes on a page, in a book, or on the radio; it was everywhere,
emanating from everything. That led me to buy my first sam-
pler, a Roland S-760 – “The same one Rush uses,” said the
salesman. I sampled air conditioners, balloons, telephones,
and music boxes and spread the samples across a keyboard,
slowing them down, reversing them, combining them, and
coming up with unique and new sounds. This was part of find-
ing my voice and expressing things my own way.
To me, “breaking the rules” is synonymous with inventive-
ness and innovation. Trust your inner creative voice, experi-
ment, have fun, and take chances.
Megan
Bonnell
www.meganbonnellmusic.com
Stage Essentials: The keyboard I bring on tour
is the Yamaha P-155. I find it has by far the best
piano sound as far as electric pianos go.
My relationship with music began on the piano
when I was about four years old. From that point
on, I gradually taught myself by ear. I would
sound out songs that I liked on the keys, and over
the years developed my approach to songwrit-
ing that way. Although at times I’ve felt my lack
of formal training as a piano player has caused
limitations, I attribute the type of songwriter I
am to it as well. It’s allowed me to write songs
from a completely exploratory place. In a city like
Toronto that is chock-full of incredible talent, this
approach has helped keep me focused and lis-
tening out for what I’m feeling, instead of tapping
into a more theoretical side of music to get me
there. I feel this has been one of the main contrib-
uting factors to my vulnerability and honesty as a
songwriter. It’s allowed me to ignore the rules and
forge my own sound and style as an artist.