Toronto-based singer-songwriter and guitarist, Stephen Stanley may most immediately be known as a founding member, lead guitarist and vocalist with acclaimed, early 90’s alt-rock band, The Lowest of the Low. The groups undeniable and “genuinely timeless album” (Exclaim!), Shakespeare My Butt…, earned gold record status and saw the band share stages with the likes of Billy Bragg, The Violent Femmes, amongst many others. Fame took the band on a relentless, highly pressurized and ultimately, band-fracturing tour schedule. Stephen was featured in the group’s recent documentary, Subversives that was released in September of 2023.
Stephen ultimately, had his own mark and music to make and The Stephen Stanley Band became his focus. He’s assembled a collection of trusted players and has gone on to log monumental shows with the likes of, 54•40, Bob Mould, Cracker, Lee Ann Womak, Jake Clemons, Willie Nile, The Jayhawks, and Lloyd Cole. He’s played festival stages in Germany, and toured across the UK and Ireland.
GRAVEN (Matty McKechnie) is an independent folk-rock singer-songwriter from Ottawa, Canada. An innovative Nepean-born songmaker with a key focus on cultivating joy and wonder in Canadian geography, Matty (Graven) is a wiley wordsmith whose passion is to create a highly accepting and inclusive community of music lovers.
Although exposed to classical tunes with piano lessons during childhood and playing the alto sax in Grade 9 - none of that moved the needle. Hearing his dad spin endless vinyl through the floorboards to the tune of Lionel Richie, Kenny Rogers, Whitney Houston, Neil Diamond and many others in his childhood, however, was the spark in Matty's musical fire. In his preteens, he was enthralled by the rhymes and rhythms and wordplay of Hip Hop and rap music, with Run DMC, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and the Fat Boys kicking open a door in his subconscious mind. Lyrics have always been Matty's true north and they provide the canvas for the rainbow-coloured paint spatter of his heart-sleeve songs. Whether he's firing up the machine with his ferocious five piece band, playing in a trio or duo with his talented side-players (AKA Tom Thompson on pedal steel and baritone electric guitar and Gideon Yellin on atmospheric electric lead), or completely exposed in a solo setting, Matty is a versatile performer who brings an earnest and passionate thunder and lightning along with somber ponderous post-storm thought-drizzle to every live setting.
With 24 albums, EPs and singles under his belt, Nepean, Ontario-born Matty (Graven) is an innovative, imaginative and passionate wordsmith of song who wears his heart on the sleeve of his melodies. Graven’s newest self produced album “Always Everything” came out in July 2024 and has been his most streamed and downloaded to date. It debuted at #15 on the NACC streaming charts. Recorded mostly in his own basement studio and partially at Raven Street studios in Ottawa, the 8 songs soar softly and sweetly with some heavy layered cinematic soundscapes and overtures, focusing on the societal pressures of relationships. Graven’s last album Simple Complex (2022) was recorded at Fang Studios in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and mixed by Joel Plaskett. Bouncy, jangly and thick with chunky acoustic strumming and fuzz layers, SC charted across many college radio stations in Canada and the USA and was #3 on CKCU FM’s top 50 albums of 2022 (and he was also nominated for a FACES Ottawa award for “Country Artist”. )
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