So we arrive at the Royal York Hotel which is a very old traditional hotel in downtown Toronto and its been totally taken over by the music business. I always feel sorry for people who are checking in for a nice quite exclusive weekend away from it all to be confonted by what has to be theirs and probably my worst nightmare, a hotel full of bands.

We register to collect our passes and one of the first things that catches my eye is a new “energy” yep just what we need but this has a twist it has Jimi Hendrix on the can! This is a sponsor of the entire event, a nasty product full of shitty chemicals commercialising on of rocks icons and somebody that was so against product and commercialism. Absolutely despicable, one of the guys at the check in desk justified it by syaing that the manufacturer was going to put some of the profit ( I doubt anyone will buy this ) towards a pension fund for musicians hahahahh and they believe that ?

First thing on the schedule is Erin being interviewed by a puppet, actually its just an old muppet… The guy has a youtube channel and gets about 30 views per show … So we are really ratcheting up the promo campaign here. Then we kind of wander around a small trade area and I resist the urge to bait the people selling Blackberries, especially on the day that Apple makes the iPhone work for industry. I also resist to urge to bait the people selling Zunes, yes the devils own mp3 player. Its not worth it is it? We go and talk to the people at Sonicbids, you know those guys who make money out of desperate bands applying to the 10 million festivals they will never be accpeted onto but we did get a handy pen and pad…

So we manage to miss the first two panels we half wanted to see, a companion decided she need a drink…. But I dont think we missed anything. We decide on going early to see a third panel which was on the future of radio. Yes i know what you are thinking, Radio doesnt have a future but we went and we dozed off while a panel of “good radio” voices defended their positions and talked about how to make money out of things that should be free. There was one particularly obnoxious Australian guy who reminded me of the stance of Rupert Murdoch but without the forward thinking. I even said something but they ignored it … I suggested that radio was going in the same direction as the labels , down that well beaten pathe the dinosaurs have left. When artists have direct contact with internet music streaming and stations and labels are out of the picture it will be a better place for us, not them …..

Ok that was that and we returned home to regroup and prepare for a nights ” entertainment” hahahha

Usually when you do these festivals you fly in, SORRY, drive your beaten, barely running van, in on the day you perform. We have the luxury of having an apartment in Toronto and we have been here a few weeks already so Erin has been busy preparing for the show for quite a while. We don’t have a regular band and use musicians wherever we perform, happily in Toronto we already know a great guitarist who we used in the past named Jeff. When we played in Montreal in October we had one of Erins’ oldest friends guest on Double Bass and it sounded so cool we decided to try and get somebody in Toronto, a quick ad in Craigs List ( thanks Craig ) we have an amazingly talented new bass player, Andrew. Its such a joy to work with young musicians who love music and havent been through the ringer 5 times.

So we decided to do one rehearsal on our own without the guys just to remind ourselves of how the whole thing worked and as Erin hadn’t sung for a while. We also thought we would try a new rehearsal room which was the first mistake…. Unfortunately I have the luxury of having been in some big bands in my career and being pampered when it comes to facilities, Erin doesn’t care and is used to working in shit holes with no heat and no soundproofing … So we froze our asses of and had a few arguments hahah then we decided to go back to our normal place.

Its always nice to hear the songs live again and hear them how they are supposed to sound and with these guys its perfect, like I said talented, dedicated and enthusiastic. The srehearsal studio we use is called Brockport by the way, if you are looking for somewhere nice in Toronto.

Erin is great at doing promotion and dropped of a package at the local University radio station CIUT ( www.take5.fm ) . I always think its a waste of time but hey what do I know ! The next thing we get an email asking us to come in and perform a live set on the morning drive in show at 8am. Jeff couldnt make it as he was working but Andrew brought his double bass in on the subway and we played three songs in the basement studio. The sound in the headphones was absolutely the worst I have ever heard but like the troopers we are we soldiered on…. Erin was a bit surprised to be asked questions but she sounded very at home and was even compared to a bottle of Chardonnay ( which she isnt hahah, I wnat to say shes a Campari and Soda hahah not sure why that just popped into my head, now shes trying to decide what she would be if she were a drink hahah )… W got a cd from the nice sound guy, Steve and listened on the way home in the car and it sounded great. Friends and family from as far away as Devon and Pheonix managed to listen thanks to the internet.

For some reason that we cant work out Erin seems to have become something of a media darling in Toronto and appeared in The Sun, luckily not on page 3 and the National Post … So things are warming up nicely.

Next I will tell you all about our first day at the conference … Cant wait can you hahahhaha…

Hi my name is Roger O’Donnell, I’m a musician and I am in Toronto to perform at Canadian Music Week this Saturday with an artist I have been working with for many years; Erin Lang.

We will be performing on Saturday night at Holy Joes’ on Queen Street West above the Reverb at 10pm. If you would like to see and hear a show that is truly original, inventive, musical, lyrical and creative then don’t go anywhere else.

While I am here I thought I might as well blog about our experiences surrounding CMW… I hope you enjoy my accounts, I have been a professional musician for many years and this whole Music Conference thing is new to me so hopefully I will have some different insights.