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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In life we all have good days and bad days. It can be affected by weather, like a rainy sunday afternoon will leave you bummed out and feeling like shit.  Sometimes your feelings can be the direct result of a change in your day to day life such as a new apartment or a vacation somewhere warm.  Sometimes you will hear a song that takes you back to when it meant everything to you and you’ll have a little three minute flashback of the “good old days”. Your feelings and emotions might not be what guide you down the long term path of life but they sure as hell fuel the tank that moves you on a day to day basis.

Some people go through life trying to enjoy every moment and appreciate what they have.  Bad times are often softened with good family, kind friends and lots of distraction. Some people go through life sad or angry and often pointing out the obvious flaws in our messed up world, only elongating the down time.  Many of us are both of these people and we’re just trying to make sure that we steady the wings on this f$#%ed-up plane so that we don’t fly off into the atmosphere or crash into the ocean.

Writing music is not one of my favorite things to do.  I enjoy the end result of writing a song and I even enjoy moments of putting a song together.  For the most part writing a song can be mentally and emotionally draining, that is if you’re working hard on it. Where your head is at when you’re creating and assembling a song usually directly effects what you’re doing with the song and where you want to take it.  Writing a song with another person or a group of people is really a helpful way to bounce ideas around and reassure each other about vocal melody, drum beat, key changes, song structure and all the rest of it. The downfall to writing with other people is pride.  Good constructive songwriting comes from working together, knowing how to approach suggesting change to the song and knowing how to accept change to the song. Pride enters the picture when one person is unwilling to change something or they want something done there way.  Good songwriting chemistry is hard to find…overly proud songwriters are not hard to find.

Some say music is art but what’s art if the artist is the only one who wants it?  If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear, does it make a sound???  If a shitty song is written and no one listens to it, is it really art???