Find The Others

Award-winning Toronto artist Andy Sheppard releases his new music and visual project as Find The Others on November 1, 2011 and starts touring for the project almost the same day.  Find The Others aims to stretch the boundaries of songwriting, drawing in contemporary rhythms, live looping, and ambient noise clips to create a mesmerizing new sound.

“I’ve played jazz and folk music and rock and electro-acoustic music,” Sheppard said. “I think, as I get older, the aim is to bring those things all together, whereas in the past I’d try and keep them separate. I feel like, for the first time, I’m starting to get there. It feels right.”

The album explores the contrasts between Sheppard’s quiet childhood in Southwestern Ontario’s tobacco country and his adult life in the city. “It just seemed to be something that was ripe for visual imagery,” he said. “Part of the project was me thinking back about life in the country surrounded by tobacco fields, of all things, and the kind of beauty of that and the pastoral nature, but also the awfulness of it. Tobacco is being grown and sold overseas, and people knew at the time that it was giving people cancer.”

“Living in the city, I really miss the country, and living in the country I miss all the culture and life and pace of the city. So I find that I’m kind of in-between and I find that difficult – it’s something I grapple with. It’s one of those conflicts that I’m not ever going to solve, but it’s interesting to play around with.”

Collaborations on the Find The Others project include an A-List set of contributors, including Isabella Rossellini, Andy McNeill, Snowblink, Mark Duggan, Jorn Andersen, and Olivier Alary. The live show also includes videos by Sheppard himself, Matt Hilliard-Forde, and his brother, Graydon Sheppard and others are synchronized with the music to create an immersive concert experience.

“I really wanted to experiment with how I could add a visual element to it,” said Sheppard. “I remember seeing The Books a few years ago at Danforth Music Hall and just being really blown away with how mesmerising the visual experience was when it was really married to the video. And so I started experimenting with how I’d be able to do that but also be able to change things on the fly, while it was live. I’ve come up with a system where I can actually trigger the videos myself while I’m on stage playing guitar.”

“I like the effect of it. As an audience member you can focus on the video and enjoy the music, kind of like a movie experience, that’s the long-term idea, that it feels like going to a movie but with the energy of a live music show. It’s just playing with that intersection between film and music.”  

Fans are invited to create their own original videos for "And The Bells They Rang", downloadable on his website, for the chance to win $750 and a feature video spot during Find The Others 2011 Canadian Tour.  For more information on the contest, visit www.findtheothers.com.

Find the Others Tour Dates:

Oct 22 HALIFAX NS St. Matthew's United Church (Halifax Pop Explosion)

Nov 2  LONDON  ON Aeolian Performing Arts Centre

Nov 9 QUEBEC CITY QC L'Agitee

Nov 10 WAKEFIELD QC Black Sheep Inn

Nov 11 MONTREAL QC TBA

Nov 12 GUELPH ON Dublin United

Nov 16 VICTORIA BC Victoria Event Centre

Nov 17 DUNCAN BC The Duncan Garage Showroom

Nov 18 FORGET SK Happy Nun

Nov 19 SASKATOON SK The Bassment

Nov 25 STOUFFVILLE ON Lebovic Centre for Arts & Entertainment

Nov 26 KINGSTON ON The Artel

Nov 30 TORONTO ON Hugh's Room

Dec 1 WINNIPEG MB The Park Theatre

Dec 2 BRANDON MB TBA