A couple years ago now we covered Precious by Depeche Mode on battery powered instruments, shot a video and posted it on YouTube. Since then it’s been, by far, our most popular video, climbing to over 3000 hits (I know, I know, not Beiber numbers but what can you do). It’s also been re-posted and discussed in a couple Depeche Mode fan forums.

So we thought we’d follow it up.

We decided to cover Joy Division‘s haunting tune Love Will Tear Us Apart. We found a cool location (climbed into an archway under a bridge by Mount Pleasant), set up our un-plugged instruments (yes, Steve is supplying the air for the Hohner Melodica keyboard) and went to work. We did it in one take – mainly because Kent couldn’t feel his hands by mid song – got some shots of the surroundings and headed home to warm up.

We sincerely hope you like it!

Hold Back Light Show was our debut album, recorded over the span of 2 years with Byron Kent Wong, and released in October of 2008.  (Some of you may remember our release party at The Rivoli in Toronto).

The tracking, mixing and mastering of this album took us to many strange and wonderful places (Shogun Labs, Homework Studio, Canterbury Music Co., Jao Carvahlo Mastering) and introduced us to equally wonderful people.

If you would like to get a copy of this record for your very own you can do so in a couple of ways.  Hold Back Light Show is being sold at Soundscapes in Toronto.

To download a digital copy or order a CD online use these links:

Enjoy!

People can joing our mailing list by visiting www.winhara.com and entering their e-mail address at the bottom of the page.

Last night we had the honour of playing Toronto’s North by Northeast music festival as part of the Random Science showcase. We had the opportunity to share the stage with some of Toronto, Montreal and New York’s best artists including: The Clear, Hexes and Ohs, NLX, Airheart and Purrr.

We met a heap of great people, sold some Hold Back Light Show albums and got some great press (more on that still to come).  Thanks to everyone who came out, lent us your energy and made the night a huge success!

Click this link to see Winhara’s chat with excellent entertainment blog, OntheGOinTO.

These songs can be streamed on our MySpace page.

Hold Back Light Show is available on iTunes.

Tom Thomson's famous painting The Jack Pine. Oil on canvas. 1916.

It’s the stuff of Canadian legend.  Artist and avid outdoorsman, Tom Thomson, paddles out into Canoe Lake just as he has done countless times before.  This time he disappears.  After days of searching, his body – bloated and bruised – surfaces.  It doesn’t make any sense.

More on the extraordinary story after these extras we’ve put together for you.

_________________________

Official Version:

Download the full studio version of Tom Thomson at www.winhara.com.

Additional Blog:

After researching the painter’s mysterious death I had to see the locations for myself.  Click here to read about my solo trip on Canoe Lake along with pictures of Tom Thomson’s Algonquin park (including the cairn and totem pole that are now standing at his favourite camping spot).

Behind the scenes video:

Acoustic version:

Lyrics:

While the official coroner’s report claims that Thomson’s death was accidental there are many conspiracy theories – and for good reason.  Tom was a strong swimmer and experienced outdoorsman, he even had a license to guide in Algonquin.  It seems quite unlikely that he just fell out of his canoe and drowned on a clear day.  In addition he had a bruise on his temple and there was a piece of fishing line wrapped around his ankle no less than seventeen times!  There also wasn’t any water in his lungs, an indication that he died before he drowned.  These facts, and many others, have raised questions surrounding his death.

Tom was just entering his prime as a painter and was starting to get recognition for his work.  He grew up in Owen Sound but had moved to Toronto to pursue his career.  He spent his summers in Algonquin park doing small oil sketches that he would transfer into larger works at his studio in the section of Toronto now known as Rosedale.

The best site I found for research is Death On A Painted Lake if you’d like to do some of your own digging.  For a more entertaining read you can check out ‘Canoe Lake‘ by Roy MacGregor.

Go to winhara.com

Winhara in mid Hugh-hazing about to hit up Toronto's Resevoir Lounge

Last weekend we took our best friend and bass player of over 5 years out for his exit hazing.

Hugh dropped the bomb on us as soon as we had all regrouped from New Years. He told us that while he loved making music, for many reasons (all of which make complete sense), he is moving on. I can’t say we weren’t shocked. The four of us sat around our kitchen table in complete silence until Steve said “I feel like you guys are listening to me chew.”

It is one of many massive changes that has happened in the last month, and while we’re sad to have Hugh leave, we are extremely excited for what is coming up.

So what is coming up?

• A new website is live right now.  Go to winhara.com to check it out.
• A new album that we’re going to give to you while we write it!  (More on that later, make sure you sign up for our mailing list at the bottom of this post to get updates).
• We’re putting the finishing touches on the first song, Tom Thomson, which will be available for download next week.  (Again see winhara.com).

Needless to say, Kent, Prevost and I are going to continue fighting the good fight.  We won’t be getting a new bass player – the dynamic wouldn’t be right and we don’t have money to hire someone.  So how are we going to play live?  We’ve done it once already and let’s just say we get pretty creative with samplers and trading instruments!

We’re about to head up to Kent’s cabin, nestled into the woods beside the Muskoka River, for a focused four day writing session.  One thing’s for sure… moving forward won’t be the same, but we absolutely wish Hugh all the best with his future endeavors.

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You can barely walk through it, but we're getting things done. (click to enlarge)

I will be the first to admit it.  I like it when things are neat, organized, logical.  But there is a sense of finality to organization.  You clean up.  You say “There, I’m done”.  And then you go watch TV.  Progress, I have learned, is varying levels of chaos.  The same can be said for Creativity.  Now maybe this is not universally applicable.  I am quite certain that my university lab instructors would disagree.  But I can tell you that our ‘band room’ has been in a state of barely navigable flux for the last month and we have written more songs, come up with more creative and ambitions ideas and learned and programmed more MIDI than we have in ages.  If you are trying to make the song lyrics look pretty instead of just getting them down, you’re missing the point.

August has been, and will continue to be a crazy crazy month.  We are not playing any shows until September, but are busier than ever working on the set, live show, writing and all sorts of thing I don’t want to tell you about.  Just come to a show in September.  I promise it will be worth it.

H.