Carrie is pure Torontonian and flips from an "extreme canuck" to a sophisticated arts lover on a dime.
She comes to us with an extensive background from the world of large corporate music retail, and has the passion for supporting Canadian Independent Musicians across Canada and so she found Indie Pool and convinced them to adopt her into their growing family!
Carrie has also been acting professionally from a young age. She is thankful for living in a city like Toronto, wherein she feels she can really have her cake and eat it too!
She also plans on winning the lottery one day...no, really!
She can be seen or heard dancing around and singing aloud to the Rheostatics, Ella Fitzgerald, the Beatles, many greats from the Trojan label (too many to list), Feist, Sinead O'Connor (okay-maybe not so much dancing around to Sinead), and the list, like the beat, goes on...
Current Favorite Artists include: Santogold, Adele, The Perishers (to name a few)
I have spent my entire adult life working with independent musicians.
First, as a lead singer of various indie rock bands as a teenager growing up in Ottawa. Some cover bands, but mostly originals. I drew great happiness from writing songs.
The next step for me was to record and produce our songs. I bought a quarter inch reel-to-reel recorder (yes I'm that old) and set it up in my parent's basement. I developed a passion for production that is still with me to this day.
In my early twenties, I learned how to manage the band and spent a lot of time booking gigs, running the fan club, applying for grants, shopping for record deals, etc...This is when I realized that I may in fact be better at working for bands then actually being in them.
I packed my guitar and $600 (it sounds cliche but it's true) and drove my beater car to Vancouver. I spent those years in poverty, often hungry, surrounded by despair and without my roots. I wrote the greatest songs of my life. It changed me fundamentally. I saw life's underbelly and learned to appreciate life's true meaning. It was during those long drives alone between Ottawa and Vancouver that I fell in love with Canada.
At 25, I co-founded Indie Pool which was clearly a continuation of my life's arc. We built the company from the ground up, working only for Canadian unsigned artists, without a single corporate client. Indie Pool's mission is to pool the resources of Canadian indie artists to create greater access and to lower prices through buying power.
Today, at 38, as the president of CIRAA (Canadian Independent Recording Artists' Association), I am helping to educate and advocate on behalf of Canada's unsigned artists. Please visit www.ciraa.ca for more information.
*********************************************** Albums that changed my life (as a KID) *********************************************** Rush - Exit Stage Left Chris de Burg - Spanish Train Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon Styx - Paradise Theatre Kenny Rogers - Greatest Hits Abba - Greatest Hits Neil Diamond - The Jazz Singer Barbra Streisand (w Barry Gibb) - Guilty
*********************************************** Albums that changed my life (as a TEENAGER) *********************************************** Pink Floyd - The Final Cut & The Wall Led Zeppelin - Everything Metallica - ...and Justice For All Neil Young - Live Rust Jethro Tull - Live Guns 'n Roses - Appetite For Destruction U2 - Joshua Tree
Props to Quiet Riot, Helix, Twisted Sister, Scorpions, et all...
*********************************************** Albums that changed my life (in my TWENTIES) *********************************************** Roger Waters - Amused To Death Nirvana - Nevermind The Pixies - Trompe Le Monde Radiohead - The Bends Pearl Jam - Ten Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power Eminem - The Eminem Show Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Blood Sex Sugar Magik Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine Sinead O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Do Not Have Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger Faith No More - Angel Dust U2 - Achtung Baby Richard Desjardins - Tu M'aime Tu
*********************************************** MY TOP 20 LIST FOR 2007 *********************************************** 1 - The National, The Boxer 2 - Ray LaMontagne, Till The Sun Turns Black 3 - Band of Horses, Cease To Begin 4 - The White Stripes, Icky Thump 5 - James Hunter, People Gonna Talk 6 - The Shins, Wincing The Night Away 7 - Lily Allen, Alright, Still 8 - Amy Winehouse, Back To Black 9 - Bruce Springsteen, Magic 10 - Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare 11 - Blonde Redhead, 23 12 - Bruce Springsteen, The Seeger Sessions 13 - Eastern Conference Champions, Ameritown 14 - Feist, The Reminder 15 - KT Tunstall, Drastic Fantastic 16 - M.I.A., Kala 17 - Radiohead, In Rainbows 18 - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Rising Sand 19 - Matt Mays, …When The Angels Make Contact 20 - Yoko Ono, Yes, I'm A Witch
*********************************************** MY TOP 20 LIST FOR 2008 *********************************************** 1 - Elbow, The Seldom Seen Kid 2 - Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholsen, Rattlin Bones 3 - Gnarls Barkley, Odd Couple 4 - Santogold, Santogold 5 - Kings of Leon, Only by the Night 6 - The Perishers, Victorious 7 - Duffy, Rockferry 8 - Beck, Modern Guilt 9 - Decemberists, A Crane Wife 10 - Amy MacDonald, This is the life 11 - Beth Rowley, Little Dreamer 12 - Black Keys, Attack and Release 13 - Wintersleep, Welcome To The Night Sky 14 - Kings of Leon, Because of the Times 15 - Nick Rose, The Cloverhill EP 16 - Ray Lamontange, Gossip in the Grain 17 - Rogue Wave, Asleep At Heaven's Gate 18 - The Fratellis, Here We Stand 19 - Adele, 19 20 - CSS, Donkey
*********************************************** 2009 Partial list ***********************************************
1 - Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up (there is no doubt this will be my record of the year)
Metric - Fantasies (I never would have expected it, but this record is amazing) Fever Ray - what a cool record
Heidi is a graduate from Graphic Design at Durham College. After completing an internship at MapleMusic, she knew that music was the industry she was born to work in, and had the best odds at keeping her from becoming a yuppie. After several gruelling interviews and interrogations, she started working at Indie Pool in November 2004.
Heidi is currently listening to Ryan Adams, The Perishers, Radiohead, Wintersleep, Blue Rodeo, and Matt Mays.
Jenn is the eldest of five children born in a rural community outside of Sydney, Cape Breton. Having grown tired of children’s music at a very young age, she began to explore her parent’s music collection consisting of CCR, Fleetwood Mac, Blondie, Peter Frampton, Led Zeppelin, Willie Nelson and many others. This was the foundation of her love for music.
In her teens while living in Ottawa, she started to dabble in event co-ordination and DJing. By her early twenties, she was an avid music supporter and promoter of her friend’s bands. By her mid-twenties, while her soul was slowly being sucked out in the corporate world by day, she was fully engaged in music by night.
While working for a radio show based in Toronto, she traveled across Canada as a photographer of various music festivals, awards and events, and migrated to doing some writing and co-hosting duties. All the while, she worked on solidifying and growing her artist and tour management company.
By 2008, she had tired of her double life and was finally ready to take the plunge into the world she loved. After a chance meeting with Indie Pool President Gregg Terrence at a music festival in Halifax, the wheels started in motion.
Having regularly dealt with Indie Pool for her artists and having fallen in love with Toronto and created a strong network there, fate was calling her. It was time to get out of corporate hell and get into helping bands all day long. In one swift move from Ottawa to Toronto, from a huge corporation to a small music company, from one life to another, Jenn made the big move in early 2009.
There has been no looking back.
Today, Jenn is at home assisting independent artists in moving their music careers forward.
Lauren started as Indie Pool's rep for S Ontario in the local franchise days. He has worn many different hats at Indie Pool from franchise owner, and web master to his current position as Artist Relations Manager. He is the longest serving member of the team, probably because he could never find another job that would let him listen to music and talk on the phone all day.
Graduated Audio Engineering from OIART (Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology) in 1992. He was the a-typical music school student, more interested in business and psychology than art or technology. Lauren devours books on business management, psychology and the biographies of history's greats. His favorite writings include those of Stepen Covey and noted psychologist Dr. William Glasser.
A quite spiritual soul Lauren will expound the virtues of clean living and the Tao of Baseball to anyone who will listen. "It's Yin and Yang, Pitcher vs Batter, Runner vs Defence - Poetry I say, Poetry in Motion." Anybody still paying attention?
Lauren welcomes your feedback on any of Indie Pool's services and, if you've got a few hours to kill, will tell you exactly what's wrong with Major League Baseball and how to fix it.
Favorite artist: Paul Simon Current favorites: Elbow, The National
The proud owner of both a post-graduate diploma in Public Relations and Corporate Communications and a ridiculously large record collection, it’s no surprise that I find myself in a position where my job is to talk about music all day. I’ve worn many different hats – from a retail buyer to freelance writer to public relations consultant to my greatest achievement (to date) as one of the founding members of the Toronto Roller Derby League. What has always remained constant is my love of music and the desire to further my knowledge and involvement in the industry.
Originally from the northwest of England, I grew up listening to The Clash, Queen and Slade on the radio. This planted the seed early, and when I moved to Canada in 1992, I was lucky enough to make friends at a tiny little used record store in the small Ontario town of Brantford. Surrounded by like-minded people to further my obsession, I learned about the music, the politics and ideas of revolutionary artists like Iggy Pop, Rob Tyner and Patti Smith. From there, music has always played a huge part in my life. I’ve been on tour, put on shows and contributed to music magazines. As an Artist Rep at Indie Pool, I have the chance to help independent artists grow their careers from the ground up and I couldn’t be happier.
Aside from music, my favourite things are mopeds, motorcycles and roller skates. I enjoy ranting about politics, traveling to places I’ve never been and gathering useless knowledge. Did you know there are more cats in London, England than there are people in Norway?
I have far too many favourite artists to list, but 6 records that changed my life are:
Kate Bush – Lionheart Dogs D’Amour – In the Dynamite Jet Saloon Marianne Faithfull – Broken English Hanoi Rocks – Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks Joan Jett – Album New York Dolls – New York Dolls Rowland S. Howard / Lydia Lunch – Shotgun Wedding
I’m currently listening to Johnossi, Mando Diao, The Hellacopters, Backyard Babies and a lot of Swedish bands no one has ever heard of.
I got my start working with music about 15 years ago when I first started playing drums. I started playing with a bunch of bands and eventually ended up in a couple that became really serious. We were a determined bunch of guys looking to really make it in the industry and we set out to learn as much as we could about how the industry worked and who we needed to know to make it happen.
As time went on, I naturally started to take on more of the business side of the band work and often was the guy who was responsible for seeking out the management companies, distributors, labels, licensing opportunities, booking agents, etc. I was able to successfully help my band get a national distribution deal with the help of a major label, we had our songs featured on a bunch of television shows, toured all across the country and got to open for a bunch of my favorite bands. I really enjoyed doing this kind of work and took great pleasure in knowing that my hard efforts were helping my bands get further in achieving our goals.
Eventually I figured it would help to get some formal training on the industry and decided to go to Fanshawe College for their Music Industry Arts program. It was there that I was taught more about the inner workings of the industry - dealing with contracts, the different types of royalties musicians are eligible for, recording engineering, producing, etc. I was also very fortunate to be taught by some of the best engineers/producers in the country such as Jack Richardson (Guess Who, Alice Cooper, Bob Seager) and Kevin Doyle (Juno award winning engineer – Alanah Myles, Andrea Bochelli, Hall & Oats). Learning from these people, I gained a great appreciation for the studio environment and as a result of my determination to perfect my studio skills, I was awarded with the Fanshawe College "Best Audio Award" in 2006 and in 2007. I was also the recipient of the 2007 Fanshawe College award for "Best Audio in Video".
Upon graduating, I started working in various recording and post-production studios around the GTA. I had a great time working in those places but eventually, I felt the need to start helping bands in other aspects, much like the work I had done with my own band. I became a tour manager for a major label rock act, toured the country many times and regained my love of working alongside musicians who are determined to get to the next stage of their careers. This is where Indie Pool came into play since their services allow independent musicians reach those next stages. I’m extremely grateful to be working for Indie Pool and look forward to meeting and working alongside many new artists. There’s so much talent in Canada that needs to be discovered and I can’t wait to help get it recognized.
Sanniah arrived in Toronto in 2005 after spending 8 years in the Nation's Capital. She attended Trebas Institute and graduated from the Recorded Music Production program. After graduation she began her new (and quite frankly, better) life at Indie Pool as a Research Intern. During her time as a glorified coffee-fetch she proved to everyone that she was not only charming and smart, but also had a eye for detail and deceptive mean streak - perfect for keeping the wheels of production moving. In the spring of 2006, Sanniah was hired to oversee manufacturing and production operations at Indie Pool. Since then, she has been a scorn to Indie Pools Artist Reps and a huge benefit to Indie Pool Artists.
Sanniah is married (sorry guys!), likes sleeping in on the weekend, cleaning her place, going to the beach, camping, roller blading, biking, ice skating, and watching TV.
Sanniah dislikes angry music, people getting on the bus and getting off the next stop, slow drivers and people making out on the subway.
It’s funny, when I think about the “how” or “why” I got into the music business, it’s not as clear as the “when”. And as most people who find themselves in the music biz – they’ll usually admit they “fell into it” yet all of them remember the moment “when” they wanted in.
My “when” occurred Saturday, April 4, 1992. It was the early nineties, glam metal was on its way out and a little movement called Grunge was on its way in – a revolution some called it – at least my generation’s revolution. That night I saw Pearl Jam along with a lucky few other hundred people at the Concert Hall theatre in Toronto and it literally changed my life. I’m front row balcony with 2 other friends - Eddie Vedder climbs the speaker stacks near the end of the show, stands beside me and as I help him balance himself on the railing, he then dives fearlessly and trustingly 20 feet below into a sea of hands that surf him back to the stage to finish and extended version of Even Flow. The album “Ten” was barely a few months old… but this was a band on stage with everything to prove and everything to lose - yet they left every once of themselves out there on that stage… and I bought in big time!
The feeling of electricity and connectiveness was so intense I realized - I needed to be a part of something that had the power to inspire and unite so many – I know, pretty idealistic – but I was eighteen. Chapter One – Birth of the Rockstar Dream.
A week later, decided to grow my hair and bought a guitar (in that order), taught myself to play and convinced 3 other friends in high school to fill in the holes - drums, bass and another guitar. The birth of my first band. Four fairly shy guys writing terrible songs - but somehow the girls still liked them – a miracle I thought and my first lesson in the “perks” of being in a band.
Finished high school and headed off to university. Somehow found the time to finish my degree in Communications from Wilfrid Laurier University between working full-time at a local production house renting and selling PA equipment, convincing a local studio I was a budding engineer so they’d let me work the overnight shift recording other bands – but most importantly – recording MY band for free, running a DJ business to make money to support my music and then most importantly, playing, rehearsing and touring in several key local bands as lead singer and primary songwriter.
In 1999 I moved to Toronto to pursue music full-time. Played in several more bands, worked part-time as free-lance engineer and met Indie Pool’s president and founder Gregg for the first time. Indie Pool helped me distribute my albums and helped us sell our merchandise on numerous national and local tours. At the time I thought –cool company – might be cool place to work someday… who knew?
2001 saw me take a sales/consulting position at Long & McQuade pro audio department giving me the opportunity to hone my studio skills and network with some of the city’s best musicians. Still working as a solo singer-songwriter on the side, in 2003 I left Long & McQuade to go work for the CBC as an engineer in Television Production Services. I worked on shows like Royal Canadian Air Farce, Hockey Night In Canada and The Rick Mercer Show to name a few.
In an attempt to bring about a fusion of my recording and production abilities, my experience and knowledge from being a self-managed artist for over a decade AND knowing I had the downright business saavy to impart “what it takes” to survive as an independent artist in Canada, I joined Indie Pool as an Artist Representative in 2004.
Music I grew up on and shaped my tastes: I’d take the The Beatles and Zeppelin over The Stones and Black Sabbath any day of the week. I was lucky to be in my peak teenage years when such bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam came along. Got really into the 90’s British invasion and re-birth of Mod with bands like Oasis, Blur, and The Jam to name a few.
My Top Ten Albums List for 2007:
The National - The Boxer Band Of Horses – Cease To Begin Eastern Conference Champions – Ameritown Radiohead – In Rainbows Ray LaMontagne – Till The Sun Turns Black The Kooks – Inside In/ Inside Out Wintersleep – Welcome To The Night Sky Feist – The Reminder Bruce Springsteen – Music Artic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
I think that I'm built from 50% Creativity and 50% Logic... maybe that's why I'm a Web Developer/Designer. From Etta James to Joy Division music has always been a huge part of how I live my life and I can't picture it otherwise.
Started getting interested in Web Design around 1999 and quickly jumped into programming soon after. With a wide range of Web development gigs under my belt I think that I found the perfect one... coding for the music industry.
Dabled in recording, remixing and doing club nights over the years while on the road to becoming a programmer. Still a big fan of music and technology but I will leave it to the pros while I build the next version of indiepool.com
Music I like... Joy Division, New Order, Pistols, Rancid, JAMC, Anything Mowtown, KMFDM, Public Enemy, NIN, Chem Brothers, DFA, Presets, The Theme from Sanford and Son, Prodigy and I could go on but I should get back to work.
tel: in Shanghai : +86 (21) 5059-3404 or +86 (137) 7444-8943 (mobile)
As leader of Canadian Juno-nominated 80s techno-band Eight Seconds, Fish worked in some of the world's top studios, alongside some of that era's biggest names.
After Eight Seconds' second cd was released in 1990, Fish became an experienced music producer/engineer, notably working on Alanis Morrisette's first 2 A&M releases as composer and co-producer. In all, Fish has been involved in more than 50 cds by Canadian artists, as composer, keyboardist, recording & mixing engineer, producer and/or mastering engineer.
In the mid 90s, Fish met a young Ottawa group called Persona, whose lead singer was Gregg Terrence. The chemistry between them was undeniable, and after producing a few cds together, Fish & Gregg set out to found Indie Pool. At first, the idea for Indie Pool came out of necessity, but soon the pair realised there was a real need for what they offered, both for musicians and for the industry.
The birth of Indie Pool coincided with the birth of the Internet, so it was only natural that website development became a part of Indie Pool's "repetoire". Between 1996 and 2003, Fish became the webmaster for many of Indie Pool's earliest artists.
In 2003, Fish left Indie Pool to concentrate solely on multimedia, as Archer Multimedia and Fishtank Studios. In 2004, a chance trip to Asia brought him to China, where he was blown away by the incredible city of Shanghai, home to some 20 million people. Immediately upon returning to Canada, plans were put in motion to move the entire operation to China, under the name The Bridge Group, a proudly Canadian company operating in Shanghai.
Today, The Bridge Group's activities consist of marketing production (website development, print job management, promotional product sourcing, etc.), business consulting (product sourcing & development, quality control, logistics, representative office services, vip trip services, translation/interpretation, etc.) and the Fishtank Studios continues to exist as a small music production house.
Since his arrival in Shanghai, Fish has built a team of experienced, bilingual graphic artists and web professionals. The Bridge Group provides graphic design and website development services for clients all over North America, Europe and Asia. In 2005, Fish & Gregg solidified an agreement which today continues to provide Indie Pool's clients with world-class website work at unbeatable pricing. Since then, almost 100 websites have been created for Indie Pool clients of all styles, from all corners of Canada.
"I have discovered some great music in Asia. J-pop and K-pop is huge here. My favorites are Singapore's Stephanie Sun (Asia's Sarah McLaughlan) and Hong Kong's David Tao. There are also many great artists from Taiwan. For movies, i have found some absolute gems coming out of South Korea; any movie by director Chan-Wook Park is a must-see."
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