If you've been searching for a cred-oozing pop-punk band that
features a high-school English teacher, a Nickelodean TV star, four
long-time friends and former members of a grocery list of defining
bands from Southern Ontario's fertile rock 'n' roll grounds, you've
shown up to the right party. Toronto's the Artist Life have been
playing their suburb-raised brand of pop-punk across Canada for just
over a year, and they're already snagging attention from all the right
places for all the right reasons.
When Blackwood's tenure in street punk legends Jersey came to an
end, he and Richards got to work on the poppier style punk rock that
would comprise Living, the band's debut EP. A mix of Green Day's hooks
and Rancid's drive, Living was made available on the band's website for
free (we're talking pre-Reznor and Radiohead) and downloaded close to
10,000 times. Label-less and propelled solely by their own tireless work
ethic, the band hit the ground running, opening for artists like the
Loved Ones, A Wilhelm Scream, and Silverstein, picking up the hardware
for Best Up-and-Coming Band at Toronto radio station 102.1 the Edge's
Punkorama Awards, and shooting a video for "Waiting Room", currently
in medium rotation on MuchMusic. Oh, and there was a twenty-date
Eastern Canadian tour with the Swellers, Canadian dates with Polar
Bear Club, and the total radness of having the good folks at American
taste-maker Alternative Press name the band Unsigned Band of the
Month in September. Not bad for a year, right?
Oh yeah. And Blackwood is on this internationally syndicated TV
show called Instant Star. Richards just got his Bachelor of Education.
Leach was in Ontario hardcore legends At the Mercy of Inspiration, and
Parsonson owns his own drum company. All together, the band counts ex-
members of the Fullblast, Jersey, Always Outnumbered, Jude the Obscure,
and At the Mercy of Inspiration in its ranks. Plus, they're all sweet
young men who are polite to your mom.
With a batch of new songs brewing in the Artist Life rock
laboratory, plans to bring their raucous live show Stateside in the new
year, and a run of high-profile opening slots in Southern Ontario, the
Artist Life are probably having a better 2008 than you. Just kidding.
They love you and want you to be happy.
