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nydailynews.com, October 13th -It must be one of the fastest-made deals in show business history.

Paul Anka started Monday saying Michael Jackson’s new single “This Is It” is a rip-off of one of his songs … and within hours the songwriter became a 50% partner in the publishing rights to the record.

Anka will get other profits as well, but the publishing rights are the big ticket item, and sources say Jackson’s estate has agreed that Anka will get half.

Earlier in the day, Anka told TMZ.com that in 1983, he wrote a song with Jackson called “I Never Heard.”

After the demo of the song was cut in Anka’s studio in Carmel, CA. he says he took the tape to a studio in Hollywood to put the finishing touches on it for Anka’s duets album, “Walk a Fine Line.” Anka claims Jackson then took the tapes from the studio.

Anka told TMZ that he called the lawyers who repped both singers and threatened a lawsuit if he didn’t get the tapes back. Anka got them back, but believes Jackson made a copy and used the track with his voice from “I Never Heard” — and simply retitled it, “This Is It.”

Anka revealed that the people handling Michael Jackson’s estate apologized Monday for the “rip off” and offered “anything you want” to resolve the situation.

Lawyer John Branca reportedly told TMZ, “We acknowledge that Michael and Paul wrote this song together.”

According to Anka, John McClain, the co-Special Administrator for Jackson’s estate, said Monday, “Michael couldn’t have written this song alone. It’s not his style.”

Anka says McClain now acknowledges that “This is It” is really Paul’s song, and said, “We’ll give you whatever you want, whatever it takes we’ll do the right thing.”

Anka says he’s not trying to hold the estate up but he wants them to be fair.

The estate certainly isn’t shy about acknowledging his involvement. Anka says McClain asked him to do promotion for the song.

An AOL poll on Monday found that 85% of voters love “This is It,” with Daily News Music Critic Jim Farber describing it as “vintage King of Pop.”

By Mike O’Brien
Daily News Staff Reporter

tsn.ca, October 12th -There’s big news for Canadian football fans and Canadian music fans: Blue Rodeo is going to play this year’s Pepsi Max Grey Cup Halftime Show and you get to play producer.

”I’m thrilled to announce that one of the truly great Canadian bands will take centre stage at Canada’s largest single day sporting event, in front of a sold-out McMahon Stadium in Calgary, and a television audience of millions more watching on TSN,” said CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon.

Pepsi is once again looking forward to its entitlement of the Grey Cup Halftime Show, especially the unprecedented fan engagement that is being introduced this year in partnership with the CFL and Blue Rodeo.

”Pepsi Max is pumped to be the title sponsor of the Grey Cup Halftime Show; but what’s even more exciting is how we’re going to kick it up a few notches to make the fan’s Grey Cup experience even more enjoyable,” said Dale Hooper, Vice President Marketing, PepsiCo Beverages Canada. ”This year’s show is going to take halftime entertainment to an entirely new level, enabling fans - for the first time ever - to participate in the show’s programming. It’s this kind of innovation that ultimately connects with our fans – making our brands accessible to the everyday consumer.”

”We’re equally excited that Blue Rodeo and Pepsi Max have agreed to continue our league’s tradition of reaching out to our fans by asking Canadians to select the band’s Grey Cup play list in a national, online vote,” added Cohon.

Fans can visit http://www.greycuphalftimeshow.ca to choose three of their favourite Blue Rodeo songs from a list of ten of the band’s famous hits from their incredible 30-year-career.

”I’ve been watching the Grey Cup all my life and it’s really exciting to be playing the Half-time show,” said Jim Cuddy whose partnership with Greg Keelor has evolved into one of the most storied songwriting teams in Canadian music history.

While music is undoubtedly the duo’s bond, football also brought them together – literally.

”I was the quarterback of the junior team at our high school, and Greg was a senior defensive end, and somehow he missed the memo about not rocking the quarterback during a scrimmage,” Cuddy joked.

”To this day, I tell Jim that I knew back then: as quarterbacks go, he was going to be a great musician. It’s funny to think that 30 years later that we’re actually playing the Grey Cup,” Greg explained.

In total, Blue Rodeo has sold more than four million records and won 10 Juno Awards, including an unprecedented five Group of the Year Awards. Their thirteenth album, The Things We Left Behind, is slated for release later this Fall. From their 1987 debut album, Outskirts, and its breakthrough single ‘Try’, through sold out shows at clubs and concert halls alike, to Five Days in July, the biggest album in the band’s career, and a host of other successful recordings, Blue Rodeo has been a leader in Canadian music.

As part of the Pepsi Max ‘Name Your Playlist’ Contest, which runs until November 20th, fans can win great weekly Pepsi Max and CFL Blue Rodeo Prize packs by choosing three Blue Rodeo songs from the following hits:

Lost Together
Hasn’t Hit Me Yet
Rose Coloured Glasses
Heart Like Mine
Diamond Mine
Trust Yourself
C’mon
Til I am Myself Again
Walk Like You Don’t Mind
Head Over Heels

”Like the Grey Cup itself, Blue Rodeo is an authentic Canadian classic that remains full of energy, passion and excitement,” Cohon said. ”Our teams are battling to make it to Calgary. We’re pleased that, with this announcement, Blue Rodeo is all set to share the national spotlight with them, come the best day in Canadian sport.”

Blue Rodeo is: Jim Cuddy (vocals/guitar), Greg Keelor (vocals/guitar), Bazil Donovan (bass), Glenn Milchem (drums), and Bob Egan (pedal steel).

The 97th Grey Cup game will be played November 29th in Calgary, and broadcast nationally on TSN and RDS. Kickoff is set for 6:30pm et/3:30pm pt. The game, Canada’s national pro football championship, is already sold out.

SOURCE: www.tsn.ca

October 7th - On Tuesday, Canada’s largest media empire took its first step toward a historic breakup, as debt-laden CanWest Global Communications Corp. sought court protection from creditors to shelter some of its most crucial assets.

It was a move the company’s chief executive officer, Leonard Asper, tried desperately to avoid over the past year, agonizing in private that the business founded by his late father, Izzy Asper, 35 years ago would be forever tainted by the stigma of a filing aimed at staving off bankruptcy.

The restructuring, which includes the National Post newspaper and the Global Television network, will now lead to what would be the biggest sale of media assets the country has ever seen, including the potential selloff of a national newspaper chain and the auction of a major television network.

How will CanWest’s restructuring change the Canadian media landscape?

Chris Waddell, associate professor and director of the Carleton school of Journalism and Communication, will be online Thursday at noon ET to take your questions in a live discussion.

Professor Waddell is the first occupant of the school’s Carty Chair in Business and Financial Journalism, the first chair of its kind in Canada.

His career highlights include serving as CBC Television’s parliamentary bureau chief in Ottawa, and various positions at The Globe and Mail, including ROB reporter, Ottawa bureau chief and national editor. In his journalism career, he has won two National Newspaper Awards for business reporting, and programs he supervised at CBC Television won six Gemini awards for television excellence.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

October 7th - For as long as Leonard Asper has been at the helm of CanWest Global Communications Corp., the media company has been dogged by questions about its debt – a criticism he often confronted by insisting defiantly the matter was under control.

But as CanWest sought court protection from its creditors Tuesday, the chief executive officer of Canada’s largest media company was forced to acknowledge that the $4-billion debt CanWest has amassed over the past decade was a financial hole too deep to emerge from.

The filing marked the conclusion of more than two years of wrangling between Mr. Asper and the Bay Street analysts following CanWest, who often raised concerns about the perils of such a debt load should the economy start to slow.

CanWest never heeded those warnings. When the economy began to falter last year, gutting the advertising revenues CanWest and other media companies rely upon for their survival, the company simply couldn’t keep up with interest payments to bondholders.

CanWest is the most dependent of any broadcaster and newspaper organization in Canada on advertising dollars, with 77 per cent of its revenue coming from ad sales. When those customers tightened their budgets, the leverage Mr. Asper had for so long insisted was manageable became the company’s undoing.

Though all media companies have been confronted by the same forces in the past year, CanWest was the worst-case scenario, analysts suggest.

“CanWest was too highly leveraged, too advertising focused, and then you have the economy” said Chris Diceman, an analyst with bond rating agency DBRS. “This was a company that was not properly capitalized for a downturn.”

Mr. Asper, who took over as CEO of CanWest in 1999, inheriting the reins from his father Izzy, acknowledged Tuesday that the recession has been deeper and much worse than he expected.

Mr. Diceman noted that since taking over from Izzy, who died in 2003, Leonard Asper had never seen a downturn, and the company appeared ill equipped for one.

Dominion and other debt rating agencies began to raise concerns last November, when CanWest began tripping its lending covenants with banks. This was greeted with a rebuke by Mr. Asper, who said the company was managing the situation and striking deals with its lenders for breathing room.

Much of the debt was amassed through Izzy Asper’s $3.5-billion purchase in 2000 of the Hollinger Inc. newspaper chain, and the subsequent $2.3-billion buyout of Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. in 2007, which Leonard engineered.

Though Leonard Asper always bristled at the debt criticisms, he admitted Tuesday the leverage weighed upon the company.

“Because we’ve had debt for so many years, it’s been the story for CanWest,” Mr. Asper said. “I think [seeking creditor protection] in many ways is the beginning of something new and the right thing for the company to start with a fresh balance sheet.”

CanWest filed for court protection from creditors for its holding company CanWest Media Inc., which includes the National Post newspaper, the Global Television network, and several cable channels the company owns.

The stable of profitable cable channels CanWest purchased with Goldman Sachs in the Alliance Atlantis deal are not part of the filing. The company’s newspaper division, CanWest LP, is also not part of this filing, but is expected to seek protection from creditors in the coming weeks as well, once terms are worked out with its senior lenders. CanWest LP includes newspapers such as the Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald and Vancouver Sun.

Several media companies are now dealing with high debt loads, including CanWest’s primary competitor CTVglobemedia Inc., which is carrying just under $2-billion on its books and has been jettisoning small assets to pay that down and stay within lending agreements. CTVglobemedia owns CTV and is also the parent company of The Globe and Mail.

Despite the broader industry landscape though, analysts question whether CanWest did enough to shore up its business.

In the wake of the Hollinger deal, CanWest was carrying $3.8-billion of debt, a hefty sum for a company of its size, but the management team believed those interest payments could be maintained as long as revenue stayed strong.

Over the next two years, CanWest paid down half a billion dollars of that figure. The debt was reduced even further to $3-billion, helped in part by CanWest selling a quarter of the newspaper division as an income trust, raising about $500-million.

However, even at $3-billion, the debt raised concerns on Bay Street as far back as 2006, and calls emerged for the company to sell large assets to raise cash. Instead of divesting its Australian TV network, a solution analysts favoured, CanWest held on to that business and later spent several hundred million dollars to buy back the newspaper income trust in Canada. Those moves did not help the books.

By 2007, in the wake of the Alliance Atlantis deal, for which CanWest had to rely upon Goldman Sachs to provide most of the financing, the company’s debt was back up to $3.8-billion. By this spring, when CanWest could no longer meet some of its lending requirements and the economy was turning sour, that figure had climbed above $3.9-billion.

“If we look over this in history, what you have is a cyclical media company, well diversified in different forms of media, but they hadn’t seen a real downturn in the economy,” Mr. Diceman said. “Management that took over continued on Izzy’s expansion strategy and weren’t focused on paying down debt and getting this company properly capitalized.”

Grant Robertson, The Globe & Mail

OTTAWA, September 17th - The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) has responded to a Copyright Board decision earlier this week to allow the society to collect from some but not all internet sites streaming music in Canada.

“We are encouraged by the Board’s decision,” says Paul Spurgeon, SOCAN’s VP Legal Services & General Counsel. “On behalf of our songwriter and music publisher members we are glad that a decision has been rendered. This decision will provide a foundation for the management of performing rights royalties for online music use for the period it covers.”

However, there is disappointed that the Copyright Board declined to approve a tariff for all of the Internet uses that SOCAN requested. “As the Internet continues to change – and indeed has changed since the hearing began – SOCAN will address this and other issues when the Board considers SOCAN’s tariff proposals for ‘07 and subsequent years,” Spurgeon added.

The first part of that tariff (Tariff 22A) was issued on Oct. 18, 07, and dealt exclusively with online music services. The second deliberation sets rates for other music uses over the Internet as they relate to Commercial Radio; Non-commercial Radio; Commercial Television, Non-Broadcast Television, Pay Audio Services, Satellite Radio Services; CBC, TVO, Télé-Québec; Audio Websites; and Game Sites.

Under the new decision, SOCAN can collect licence fees as follows:
- Commercial radio stations will pay 4.2% of their Internet-related revenues and 1.5% if they are a low music use station. The base upon which these rates are calculated is reduced by at least 50% to account for the fact that not all of a radio station’s web pages contain sounds and therefore all of the revenue earned by those sites is not associated with music.

- Non-commercial radio pays a rate of 1.9% of its expenses associated with their websites. The minimum 50% reduction of the base also applies to non-commercial radio.

- For commercial television, non-broadcast television, pay audio services, satellite radio services the rates are 1.9% for television and 12.35% for pay audio services. The rate for satellite radio has yet to be set. The rate bases are also reduced.

- CBC, TVO, Télé-Québec will pay a proportion of the amounts they already pay to SOCAN.

- Stand alone audio websites that play music will pay a rate based on the amount of music they use: 1.5% with music use of 20% or less, 4.2% if music use is more than 20% and less than 80%, and 5.3% if music use is 80% or more. The base upon which the tariff applies is also reduced to no greater than 50% of the website’s entire revenue.

- The starting rate for game sites that use music will be 0.8% of 10% of the revenue generated by the website.

For the full Tariff 22 B – G decision, link to the pdf file below.

http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/decisions/iir200810240062008-b.pdf

SOURCE: www.fyimusic.ca

OTTAWA, September 16th - Musicians, fans and supporters of non-mainstream music in Canada are venting their outrage against recent arts-funding cuts in an online petition addressed to Heritage Minister James Moore.

In less than 24 hours, nearly 2,000 people signed the petition, at PetitionOnline.com/a6y3L9eR/petition.html, calling for the minister to reinstate the Canada Council’s recording grants for specialized music.

“Without this grant, only commercial music will exist in Canada,” Vancouver- based musician Jesse Zubot wrote when he signed the petition. “Without this grant, no new forms of music will be created in Canada and we will become closer to only having candy-coated formula product by the likes of Nickelback, Shania Twain, Hedley and others existing in this country. What a depressed nation we would be.”

Even some mainstream musicians, including Blue Rodeo drummer Glenn Milchem, weighed. “As a member of Blue Rodeo and a person with 26 years of experience in the Canadian music business, I know how essential the support of our government is for the survival of our culture,” Milchem wrote. “Please don’t pull the rug out from under our artists. They are the people who shape our identity.”

Part of the Canada Music Fund, the musical-diversity component has been in operation for more than 20 years, providing money for recording and distribution to artists, distributors and labels working in specialized genres, including jazz, folk, world, electroacoustic, contemporary classical and Aboriginal styles.

In August, at the same time Moore announced that the federal government’s support of the Canada Music Fund would increase to $27.6 million per year for five more years, plans to restructure the fund included the elimination of the diversity component.

The diversity program handed out about $1.35 million per year, usually in grants ranging from $10,000 to $20,000.

Canadian jazz musicians Jane Bunnett and Brandi Disterheft are grant recipients who have won Juno awards for their recordings.

Toronto musician Nilan Perera says he was incensed when he heard the recording grants for specialized music would no longer be available.

A musician who specializes in abstract improvisation, he describes the program as “one of the most fundamentally important programs in Canada.” He launched the petition on Monday.

A spokeswoman for Moore said the decision was made after “broad consultations were held with the Canadian music industry,” and noted that the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Record (FACTOR) would continue to be one of the administering partners of the Canada Music Fund.

FACTOR president Heather Ostertag said 19 per cent of her organization’s budget, or about $2.8 million, is awarded to artists representing cultural diversity.

For artists such as Perera, though, FACTOR is a dead end.

“I’ve not heard anybody getting support from FACTOR for anything remotely resembling our music,” Perera said.

“FACTOR is a commercial music organization that caters to the commercial music industry.”

By Lynn Saxberg, Canwest News Service
SOURCE: www.canada.com

Toronto, September 10 - Neil Young has pulled out of his appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Young, who was to make an appearance at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square on Sept. 14 for the screening of Jonathan Demme’s new documentary, The Neil Young Trunk Show, withdrew from the festival on Thursday morning, according to CBC News. It had been rumoured Young would also give a free performance at the event.

No reason was given for his cancellation, but a TIFF spokesperson told CBC News a “spectacular” performer will replace Young. An announcement will be made in the next few days.

Joan Baez is still scheduled to appear at Yonge-Dundas Square as part of TIFF. She’ll be on hand on Sept. 18 for the world premiere of American Masters — Joan Baez, a new documentary which will be shown on PBS later this year.

Pilot Speed have announced a free show at Yonge-Dundas Square that will take place at 10 p.m. the same day. They’ll play in support of this year’s Wooden Bones.

If you have to get your groove on at some point before cold(er) weather descends on Toronto, you can take in a free DJ Champion set at Yonge-Dundas Square on Sept. 10 as part of TIFF’s opening night.

A complete list of all TIFF-related events happening at Yonge-Dundas Square can be found here.

Young has these dates scheduled:

Sept. 12 Vancouver, BC @ Ambleside Park (Summer Sessions At Ambleside)
Oct. 4 St. Louis, MO @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (Farm Aid)
Oct. 24-25 Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre (Bridge School Benefit)

SOURCE: by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

OTTAWA, September 10 - Canadians have until Sunday to give their two cents on how best to protect intellectual property at a time when words and music can be uploaded and downloaded in seconds around the world.

Liberal and Conservative governments have spent the better part of the last decade reviewing the Copyright Act, which was penned long before the Internet existed.

“There is no question this is one of the toughest files the government faces,” Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, said yesterday.

Referring to the threat of a fall federal election, Geist said the input collected at town hall meetings across the country and from almost 5,000 submissions should survive a change in government.

The 1921 act has undergone numerous updates, being amended as recently as 1997.

The Conservatives put forward a bill in June 2008 to change the act, but were roundly criticized for not consulting Canadians. The government went back to the drawing board.

This time, anyone who wants to comment on how copyright law should be revised can do so by visiting copyright.econsultation.ca.

While the Copyright Act was once considered something for commercial enterprises to worry about, the Internet has brought it right into the homes of most Canadians.

The responsibility for canvassing Canadians has been shared by Industry Minister Tony Clement and James Moore, minister of Canadian heritage and official languages.

“The current copyright legislation took place in the world of vinyl records and cassette tapes, and nothing like a DVD player or iPods existed … so it is certainly far behind the times,” Clement told the Star.

He said the trick is to ensure new protections for intellectual property withstand the test of time.

“How do you create something that makes sense today but will also make sense 20 years from now?” he said, adding he’d like to see a bill this fall, but is content to put it off till February or March if necessary.

Clement said the amended law must avoid being technology-specific and instead apply basic principles to technology as it evolves.

Canada is a signatory to the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty, which calls for protecting the rights of authors to their literary and artistic works while maintaining a balance with the public interest.

By Richard J. Brennan
SOURCE: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/693447#survey

RICHMOND HILL, August 31 - Does anyone really understand how the record industry promotes new music to the public? If you knew, perhaps it would help you understand why the major record labels are in the trouble they are today.

A watermarked compact disc (the file is embedded with the individual’s identification) is delivered from a mastering studio to a couple of key executives at the record label headquarters, most likely in New York or Los Angeles.

These CDs are then duplicated and again watermarked with the identities of additional key executives, and distributed to them in order to get their feedback on the album, and to begin the process of choosing the first single to be released to radio. This process takes time and money as these watermarked CDs are created at specialized labs.

These additional discs are then distributed, within the label headquarters and in many instances to regional promotion offices throughout the country, all by secure courier at significant expense. When a consensus is arrived at as to what should be the first single — the one that the label will promote most heavily — a release date is chosen, and literally thousands of promotional singles known in the business as “CD Pros” are pressed and readied for distribution to radio, press, consultants, concert promoters and other individuals that are influential within the music business.

How do these people now receive these CD Pros? These physical CDs are sent to them by next day or, in some instances, same-day courier. They are packaged in plastic jewel cases, inserted in bubble wrap packs with bios and photos, they are labeled, and finally Fedexed, UPS’d, or Purolated to thousands of destinations across the nation. How many get lost, stolen, or are mislabeled and never reach the destination? How much non-biodegradable materials are used? How much diesel and jet fuel is wasted? How much time does this take?

And how much does this all cost? The answer is very simple.

A lot.

Amazingly, all this can all be done digitally in literally minutes at a fraction of the cost. Since 2005, the entire Canadian music industry has led the world in moving to a total digital workflow. That industry has virtually eliminated the use of CD Pros to promote new music to radio stations, internally within the labels, and to other destinations with great savings of time, effort, and money.

Stopping leaks

These songs/digital files are delivered securely and are watermarked to the individual that downloads the file, so that not only is it much faster and more efficient, saving in many instances weeks of time and tens of thousands of dollars, but is more secure as well. Security is important when superstar releases are concerned as pre-release ‘leaks’ can undermine an expensive promotional campaign.

The songs are delivered digitally in full wave uncompressed broadcast quality and the record label promotion person has the ability to access real time reporting letting them know who received the file, when they received it, if they listened to it and when, and if and when they downloaded it, making their job promoting this music to radio much more effective and efficient. The Canadian major label groups have evolved this digital workflow, while the US labels continue to lag.

While the US labels have dabbled in digital delivery, many digital adopters also send out CD Pros –just to be safe. This quasi-commitment is simply not enough to make it work, especially because digital delivery has just taken another evolutionary leap into video. Recently, Sony Music in Canada, a unit of Sony Corp. (SNE), announced the digital delivery of the new Shakira video to Musique Plus in Montreal. The fact that the US-side of the industry has yet to fully adopt digital delivery to radio stations will make it even harder for them to adopt this next important phase.

The music industry has long been reluctant to embrace new technologies, but with the Canadian industry already having demonstrated digital distribution’s benefits, the US should take notice.

By Cliff Hunt, chairman, Yangaroo
SOURCE: http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/08/31/no-wonder-the-major-record-labels-are-in-trouble/

PRINCETON, August 26 - Here’s the dirt on the 20 top talents sweating it out with guitar picks and microphones at this week’s Peak Performance Project boot camp:

Name: Adaline

From: Vancouver

Album: Famous for Fire

What: Vampire-oglers aside, local singer-songwriter Adaline has yet to emerge from the shadows of the indie music scene.

“Not a lot of people know who I am at this point, like I’m still kind of putting the word out as far as my music [goes],” says Adaline, speaking by phone last week while nursing a summer flu with a cup of NeoCitran.

But the quirky singer-songwriter - she describes her sound as “pop noir” with a dramatic side - has had a significant boost thanks to a brush with Twilight-mania.

After she met actor Robert Pattinson at a Juno after-party, she went home and wrote about it on her Twitter account. She went to bed with five “followers” and woke up to 1,000 messages, smack in the middle of Twi-hard scrutiny.

She was new to Twitter, she says, so she had no idea how viral her post would go.

The mostly-female Pattinson followers headed to her website where they found her darkly pretty music. They must have liked what they heard because, she says, she ended up getting more than 75,000 plays in three weeks, as well as countless new fans.

“Here I am, like this motion picture soundtrack artist, that creates like soundscapes and moody music and I happened to tap into a fan base that loves that type of music,” says Adaline, reflecting on the flurry caused by her brush with Pattinson. “It was so funny.”

But the 28-year-old, who works as a server at a downtown hotel restaurant, says she’s still got a long way to go.

She’s pleased to get a chance to take part in this week’s music training boot camp, one of the 20 acts competing in the Peak Performance Project.

“I know I don’t know everything. And I think that as much as I might be keen, and I might work really hard learning about the music industry - it’s different to actually talk to people who’ve lived it,” she says. “Getting hands-on personal experience.”

Name: Adrian Glynn

From: Vancouver

Album: Self-titled EP

What: Goosebump alert. Glynn’s song, Ballad of a Christian Man, showcases a voice that works its way into your soul, lingering well after the song ends.

His music has been on shows like The Guard, as well as Exes and Ohs.

Name: Alexandria Maillot

From: Courtenay

Album: Not yet

What: It’s hard to believe singer Alexandria Maillot is just 16 years old.

The Courtenay teen - who has already finished high school - speaks with a maturity well beyond her years.

In a telephone interview, she covers everything from learning to sing at age seven to her love of poetry and the importance of spirituality in her life.

The only hint of her young age is a low giggle that creeps into the edges of her conversation every once in a while, like when she’s asked about her future.

“I want to be everything,” Maillot replies. Giggle.

For now, she says, she plans to park the university scholarships she’s received aside (”I’m a music nerd,” she says) and focus on earning her chops as a full-time performer.

She’s well on her way. Already she’s showcased her creamy vocal style, reminiscent of Norah Jones, to audiences in far-reaching places like Egypt and Romania. In 2006, her vocal power caught the attention of impresario David Foster, earning the teen a spot on stage with singer Jann Arden during a televised concert. That same year, she took the top prize in Victoria Idol.

Right now, she’s awaiting a royalties cheque for a song she wrote, Revolution, that helped Swiss singer Stefanie Heinzmann hit the Top 10 in Europe.

There’s also her current Oh-factor, since you can head to Oprah.com and see Maillot belting out a song, part of Oprah Winfrey’s talented kid feature.

Even with her list of successes to date, she says, she was surprised to be shortlisted for the Peak Performance Project.

“I was completely blown away,” she says. “I think it’s going to completely change how music is going for me right now.”

Sounding more than a little bit wise, Maillot adds: “I’m basically ready for anything to come at me. I’m ready to learn from it all and grow from it.”

Name: Ben Sigston

From: Vancouver

Album: EP, Free Now

What: Sigston’s one of those acoustic guitar-toting hunks who can belt out a song, like the expansive ditty, Free Now, that is moving but not mushy. His tunes have been featured on TV shows too, including Word Travels on National Geographic.

Name: Bend Sinister

From: Vancouver

Album: Through The Broken City and Stories of Brothers, Tales of Lovers

What: Bend Sinister frontman Dan Moxon says he prefers an honest critique of the group’s instrumental rock sound over simple praise.

“It doesn’t make you a better artist if somebody comes up to you at a show and is like ‘oh great show’,” Moxon says flatly, adding he learns a lot from the reverse.

“What’s a good critique, is when it’s trying to make you a better artist - not slagging you in a vindictive way.”

The bearded rocker is in luck, since this week’s Peak Performance Project boot camp includes plenty of opportunity for earnest musical feedback.

The 20 acts attending the week-long camp will each have a chance to perform and get evaluated by their peers.

Moxon is also serious about Bend Sinister winning the Peak’s top prize of $150,000, to be announced in January after a series of challenges.

“To me the exposure from winning is probably almost as key as the money itself, you know?” the 26-year-old says, sipping an iced tea at a cafe, after finishing a shift working as an audio-visual tech at a downtown Vancouver college.

“It will sustain us as a band for the coming years because you can pay yourself a salary for being on the road.”

But Moxon grins, boot camp won’t be that easy.

“It’s actually pretty deadly as a boot camp because it’s very strict. Every band member has to participate at the boot camp,” Moxon says.

“And then there’s like a mandatory 7:30 a.m. wake-up call every day. You can’t miss any seminars. And there’s no alcohol or drugs permitted, which I think’s going to be a disaster for 20 bands to try to function.”

Moxon laughs and shrugs: “It’s a boot camp. It’s strict.”

We think he’ll survive.

Name: Bodhi Jones

From: Vancouver

Album: Self-titled

What: Scratchy-smooth vocals and strong guitars made us listen to his song, There’s Not Much Time, over and over again. He’s a big talent, stripped down and raw.

Name: Danny Echo

From: Burnaby

Album: Self-titled album

What: These suburban rockers are one of those bands that you stumble on and immediately like thanks to a melodic sound that’s just plain fun. They’ve been featured on shows like Cold Squad and Show Me Yours.

Name: Familia

From: Maple Ridge

Album: Golden Lies

What: Listen to their song Cripple Crow loudly. The do-good progressive poppers - they’ve spent time volunteering in HIV/ADS orphanages in Thailand, teaching music - have a lot of range.

Name: Freeflow

From: Vancouver

Album: Self-titled

What: Guys who long for a Sublime substitute will love this local gang’s up-tempo drinking tunes, like their song Sunny Days. With six bandmates, they pack a lot into their performances.

Name: Garrett Kato

From: Port Coquitlam

Album: Lion in the Snow (up-coming)

What: If you like breathy vocals that feel like a glass of cold water on a hot day, grounded by quiet acoustic riffs and mixed with sensitive lyrics, go online and listen to Kato strum through his song, The Wilderness. Very pretty stuff.

Name: Jackson Cook

From: Kelowna

Album: Working on new album

What: At just 15 years old, this young man is already a serious musical force with a gritty style that gets him compared to greats like Tom Petty. Last year he wrote and performed the song, Follow Your Dreams, at the BC Summer Games.

Name: Kuba Oms

From: Victoria

Album: How Much Time

What: Oms makes groove-heavy music with plenty of depth, like in his song, Come Undone. He’s also got plenty of funk up his sleeve, like in his moody, Never Meant to Hurt You.

Name: Run The Red Light

From: Vancouver

Album: EP upcoming

What: We think they’ll go far with their Brit-poppy sound. Their song, In Too Far, was recently awarded a Lennon award for rock song of the year in the international category in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

Name: Sweetheart

From: Vancouver

Album: Map of the Human Heart

What: These pop-punk rockers have been busily touring since their 2006 album release, opening for the likes of The Stills and Hey Ocean!

Name: TÉA

From: Vancouver

Album: Method to the Madness

What: Her skip-along jazz song, Don’t You Worry, shows off her swinging vocal range. But this singer has also proven her songwriting skills, taking first place in the R&B/Hip-Hop category at the 2008 International Songwriting Competition with the song, Fire & Flame.

Name: The Left

From: Langley

Album: Imitatianity, Collide, Day One, Roses Aren’t Good Enough

What: If you don’t know this foursome yet, you will. The group, who show off their melodic strength with the song, Love Don’t Work, has already opened for the likes of Blind Melon and Hedley.

Name: The Painted Birds

From: Vancouver

Album: So Much For The Rain

What: Dominique Fricot says he would prefer to keep competition out of music.

At the same time, the frontman for The Painted Birds says that getting shortlisted for the Peak Performance Project gave the Vancouver indie rock band a much-needed boost.

“We’d kind of hit the wall and we didn’t know where we were going,” Fricot says, of finding out about their participation in June. “It came at a point when we weren’t really, when great things didn’t seem to be happening.”

The hardworking band - including Fricot, bassist Shawn Berke and Josh McNorton on guitar - played 80 shows last year, says Fricot. They took part in Canadian Music Week, JunoFest and this summer’s SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Tex.

But their drummer recently left the group and Fricot says, “We were all broke and it was kind of like, are we done?”

The recognition by the Peak felt awesome, he says: “It was like, oh so we are still valid in some way. It felt great that like, we weren’t forgotten.”

That doesn’t mean he’s big on going elbow-to-elbow against his peers.

“I’m just not really keen on the whole aspect of competition in music. It’s already there,” he says. “I wish it weren’t there. It shouldn’t be there.”

Even if there’s money on the line?

“I’m not against winning, but I don’t want to think about it,” Fricot says, of what the group would do with the top prize of $150,000, to be announced in January.

“I don’t like looking forward to things. I don’t like getting my hopes up for things because that creates disappointment,” he says. “If I just start thinking about winning the money, I won’t be doing things with integrity.”

Name: TV Heart Attack

From: Vancouver

Album: Self-titled

What: These mod-looking rockers are already attracting buzz, having opened for acts like 54-40 and The Von Bondies. We’re looking forward to their new music on the upcoming Lost In the Sway.

Name: Wassabi Collective

From: Nelson

Album: Stories Not Forgotten

What: Like their name implies, their tunes blend everything from pop to jazz and funk. They’ve opened for Bedouin Soundclash, Hot Hot Heat and Randy Bachman.

Name: We Are the City

From: Kelowna

Album: In a Quiet World

What: With their song, Astronomers, this trio of youngsters - inspired by stadium rockers like Coldplay and Radiohead - delivers a nice dose of piano rock that sticks in your head.

SOURCE: By Chantal Eustace, Vancouver Sun