With the release of their first album What We Have in January of 2006, METHODOLOGY joined the revolution to bring true Soul, R&B, and Funk back to the live stage. With approximately 50 independently produced shows across Canada in 2006, METHODOLOGY has grown into one of the foremost underground Live Soul acts in the country. In 2006 they were nominated for ‘Best Live Performance” and “Best R&B Group” at the Toronto Independent Music Awards, and were honoured to be nominated for “Group of the Year” at the Soultracks Awards in the USA (running against the likes of The Brand New Heavies, Amel Larrieux, Omar, and many other signed acts).
Through online distribution, internet and satellite radio, campus radio, and music publications, METHODOLOGY has developed a world-wide following. Sites like Myspace have exposed METHODOLOGY’s music to an international audience. Mixes of METHODOLOGY’s music are being spun by renowned DJ’s in the U.K, U.S.A., and Europe. With thousands of hours of airplay on radio and in clubs, METHODOLOGY’s music is now widely recognized in countries they have never even been to.

Formed in late 2003, METHODOLOGY are five individual artists that found a blessed connection together, and formed a unit to create and perform some intense, original music. With KAMIL spearheading the group on Vocals, JAMIE laying down the live beats on the Drums, MARTYN churning out thick riffs & rhythms on Guitar, STEFAN’s sweet fingers on the Keyboards, and DAN laying down the bass on the heavy tip, METHODOLOGY is a band that focuses on great music with great musicianship. Now with the frequent addition of the vocal talents of JANELLE, METHODOLOGY often rocks the live stage with six dynamic members. Their music has been called; ‘a perfect mixture of Soul, Hip Hop, and Funk’. The band has been described as; ‘Imagine Jamiroquai, Stevie Wonder & Prince all rolled into one fantastically melodic groove band’. The music is straight from the soul, steeped in the flavours of Hip-Hop, R&B, Funk and Pop.

2007 and 2008 has proved to be busy years for the band as they delved into work on their second and now highly anticipated album titled “THE REPRISAL”. A four-song EP featuring hot tracks from the new record has been released ahead of schedule to wet the increasing appetites of METHODOLOGY’s followers. With a fiercely growing large fan base and demand for new matieral, “THE REPRISAL” is is nearing completion and is currently slated for official release in the Summer of 2008.

Upcoming Shows

24 Jul 2008 14:00 Beaches International Jazz Festival Toronto
25 Jul 2008 14:00 Beaches International Jazz Festival Toronto
26 Jul 2008 14:00 Beaches International Jazz Festival Toronto
16 Aug 2008 22:00 Montreal Funk Fest! Montreal

Singer-songwriter Layah Jane is a hearty young musician with a mission. With soulful vocals and a poetic, articulate tongue, Layah’s sound recalls Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones and Ani Difranco, with a resonance all her own.
Both piano and guitar became tools for writing and accompaniment as Layah began to create and perform original material at the age of thirteen. Since the completion of her first demo in 2000, Layah has been invited to play countless shows and festival showcases including the Rochester International Jazz Festival, Winterfolk Festival, North by Northeast Music Festival, Toronto Indie Music Week, Toronto City Roots Festival, the Ottawa Folk Festival, and New Music West. Following the release of her debut album Grievance and Gratitude (Grace Note Records, 2005), Layah won a CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award, a Toronto Independent Music Award for “Best Jazz” and nomination for “Best Live Acoustic Act”, and a nomination for an American Independent Music Award in the “Folk/Singer-Songwriter” category. Her song “Reverence and Ridicule” won the political category in the Ontario Council of Folk Festival’s 2005 songwriting competition. Recently Layah received a 2007 Ontario Independent Music Award (Best Folk), and nominations for two 2007 Toronto Independent Music Awards (Best Folk and Best Female Fronted Band). Layah’s new EP Patience (Grace Note Records, 2007) was produced by Oliver Johnson (Ivana Santilli, Esthero), and was musically blessed by drummers Davide Direnzo (Holly Cole, Jacksoul), Ben Riley (Bruce Cockburn) and Lyle Molzan (Jann Arden), bassist Marc Rogers (K’naan, Philosopher Kings), and percussionist Dave Gouveia (Amanda Marshall, Ivana Santilli). Both Provincial and Federal grant programs continue to recognize Layah’s musicianship and support her projects, through the Ontario Arts Council, and FACTOR. The Grievance and Gratitude Remixes (Grace Note Records, 2005) took the folk song seeds planted on Layah’s debut recording Grievance and Gratitude, and grew them into flowers that bloom compellingly in colours of breakbeat, trip-hop, hip-hop, rock, sam

ba, and reggae. The tracks were produced by a diverse and well-respected tribe of remixers. Layah Jane has been seen and heard as a live and recorded back-up vocalist for a range of artists making folk, funk, soul, and hip-hop music in the Toronto area. Over the past ten years, she has also appeared as a lead and back-up vocalist on various commercials and Juno-nominated albums. In the realm of television and radio, Layah’s songs have been licensed for Global TV’s “Blue Murder”, and ESPN’s primetime drama “Tilt”. Layah appeared on Toronto 1’s late night entertainment TV show, “The Toronto Show” in 2003, and on Calgary’s A Channel’s “Wired” in 2005. Through regular college and CBC radio play, as well as a fortunate invitation to be the voice of the Dove Real Beauty/Self Esteem Fund’s 2006 “True Colors” TV Campaign, listeners all over the world are being introduced to Layah Jane through the airwaves. Morphing from singer-songwriter to DJ, Layah co-founded the Move Collective, a Toronto dance jam that spread west to Calgary and east to Halifax. Voted Best Non-smoking Dance Event in Toronto by Now Magazine in 2003, rotating DJs pack dance floors each week. Armed with new tunes that are as organically rich and sonically intimate as ever, Layah completed a Summer/Fall 2007 tour of ON, QC, NY, VT, MA, NC, and TX, and is currently preparing for a Spring 2008 cross-Canada tour, in support of her highly anticipated sophomore full-length recording, “Brightness & Bravery”. Layah Jane is a spirited and natural performer who receives enthusiastic support wherever she plays. When she takes the stage we are transported to a place where emotion is raw, reflection is deep, and revolution is not only possible, but necessary.

Grab all of her albums from CD Baby!

25 May 2008 20:00 The Slice Bar and Grill Lethbridge, AB
4 Jun 2008 20:00 Healey’s – Toronto Ind. Music Award “Best Live Act” Competition Toronto, ON
7 Jun 2008 20:00 Moonshine Cafe Oakville, ON
20 Jun 2008 20:00 House Concert Peterborough, ON
28 Jun 2008 18:30 Toronto City Roots Festival Toronto, ON
1 Jul 2008 20:00 Good Sounds Good Showcase – Supermarket Toronto, ON
12 Jul 2008 20:00 Knox Acoustic Cafe – with Brian Macmillan Owen Sound, ON
1 Aug 2008 20:00 Blue Skies Music Fest – with Brian Macmillan Clarendon, ON
2 Aug 2008 20:00 Blue Skies Music Fest – with Brian Macmillan Clarendon, ON
3 Aug 2008 20:00 Blue Skies Music Fest – with Brian Macmillan Clarendon, ON
5 Sep 2008 19:30 Hugh Foster Hall – “Just Milton Folks” Series with Brian Macmillan Milton, ON
6 Sep 2008 20:00 House Concert Waterloo, ON
13 Sep 2008 20:00 Elk Mountain House Concert Series Asheville, NC
14 Sep 2008 8:00 Jubilee Community Asheville, NC
20 Sep 2008 20:00 Salem Art Works Salem, NY
22 Sep 2008 20:00 Dryden Community Center Cafe Dryden, NY
23 Oct 2008 20:00 Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Conference Ottawa, ON
24 Oct 2008 20:00 Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Conference Ottawa
25 Oct 2008 20:00 Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Conference Ottawa, ON
26 Oct 2008 20:00 Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Conference Ottawa, ON
29 Oct 2008 20:00 The Bees Knees Morrisville, Vermont
28 Mar 2009 20:00 Perth House Concert Series Perth, ON
25 Jul 2009 20:00 Knox Acoustic Cafe Owen Sound, ON

Julie Ann Bertram is a very talented indie folk musician from Toronto, Ontario. But to do her justice, I can’t peg her down to any one location really — this woman is everywhere! She’s really made a life based around artistry, taking in every beautiful outcome along the way. At a young age she left university (where she was taking theatre studies), packed her bags and moved to Vancouver where she began a monumental journey. Armed with a tent and a guitar, she took off hitchhiking along the West Coast crossing into the U.S., Mexico and back again. Though many days were tough and nearly unbearable, alone in strange woods and stranger cities, she really honed an artistry – melding her crafts of writing, music and performance art into busking on street corners for money to continue the journey.

“It is during this time that I came to understand much about the human psyche and my place in this world” she says of the journey.

A couple of years later, in her home town of Toronto, the fruits of this edification were apparent to her newfound songwriting career: winning two first-place medals for guitar composition from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Peel Music Festival), and the Sylvia Tyson Songwriting Scholarship (CMPA). She released her EP JAB and she was the top finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition and Lilith Fair’s Talent Search.

The story goes, that while working in a metaphysical bookstore, she came across the poetry of a 13th century mystic poet named Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. The timeless sentiments of this Poet inspired her to write music and melody to the translations written by Coleman Barks – that album, my personal favourite of hers, is called Ecstatic Songs.

It wasn’t long until she was top finalist in the Q107 Radio talent search, and won the title of Best Acoustic Female Artist at the Toronto Independent Music Awards.

Preview or buy “Woe Is Me” off of CD Baby!

If you want to catch her live, check her out!

May 29th – Groundswell, 96 Victoria St., Alliston

May 30th – Graffiti’s Bar in Kensington Market, Toronto

July 25th – Mattawa Voyageur Days Festival

July 30th – Moonshine Cafe, 137 Kerr St. Oakville

**Julie Jams at Little Montreal (182 Elgin St.) in Sudbury, ON every Thursday night