Is there a Canadian music sound? I could start with when I name our top artists that are known worldwide—Sarah McLachlan, Shania Twain, Diana Croll, Nickelback, Avril Levine. Off the top, there’s absolutely nothing musically that they have in common with one another. I think there is no particular kanuck sound in the same way that we put hockey players out into the world. However, there are a number of— Within the Canadian sound, there is a number of regional nuance.

For example, Canada’s East Coast very, very clearly is a wonderfully vibrant folk, Celtic, very Irish vibe, a little bit of bluegrass. The whole vibe out there is not country music per se, but its hybrid country, if you will, and Celtic. As you come west, the next stop, of course, is Québec. Québec is probably in the 80% range French-language music, so its transportability is fairly finite across Canada also. You have to really go from Québec to France to really further champion French-language music. But there is a second culture, and we have now only been a 10th of the way across the country.

As you come into Ontario, which Toronto is located in, you’re dealing there with much hipper— Toronto is the New York of Canada. I say that with respect to anyone watching from any of the other cities. It’s a well-known fact. You have a broken social scene, and all the sort of very cool, downtown Queen and King Street and College Street, which are our main hip streets here. There are a lot of bands, whether they are from Toronto or not, they certainly come to Toronto as their conduit. Instead of New York and LA, it’s just Toronto for us in that sense. So the cooler, the alternative, all that scene, the much hipper here, probably a little less country, probably a lot more rock, but mostly alternative as well.

Then you go on your way west to the prairies, to Winnipeg and Calgary and Edmonton. You’re back into very much rock land, very much country land again, more in your Texas level. Now you’re into that whole vibe. A lot of rock, a lot of country, not that much urban.

Then you’re coming through the mountains to Vancouver, and now you’re back into an international city, where you have urban, you have country, you have rock, and you have all the melting pot of music that Toronto has. Vancouver, additionally, given its proximity to both Seattle and LA up the coast, is also a great starting point and gateway to the world, if you will.

So Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver, all three of them in their own way are all equally legitimate gateways. That’s for those of you watching from Vancouver and Montréal, too. Those three are really the conduits. As you know, Montréal has a major Seattle kind of buzz around it right now with Arcade Fire and all the various bands that are coming from that territory. Toronto has that from time to time, Vancouver, etc.

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