Archive / 2009 / FEBRUARY

Happiness Project featured in the Globe & Mail
As a piano-trumpet duo skitters around her, a person with a pleasant professional accent talks about her work with "challenged young women" who tell her "all the time" that they're happy. "Some of their expectations are so simplistic - not to say simplicity because they're challenged ... "

Then the thought strikes: "It's like they don't ask beyond of what's present." Immediately the voice repeats: "It's like they don't ask beyond of what's present." And again: "It's like they don't ask beyond of what's present."

At which point the music makes its own breakthrough. Keyboard and horn link arms with bass and drums and kick out a chorus to the precise tune and tempo of the woman's words. You can almost see her with brass band and challenged charges on parade through New Orleans, fanfaring their be-here-now anthem - sing it, sister! - It's Like They Don't Ask Beyond of What's Present!

Read the rest of the story at the Globe & Mail Site

Tour Dates. Experience the Happiness Project
Hi everyone, we recently announced four tour dates in Toronto, Montreal and New York. Some of you may have seen Charles and Leon performing a few songs at Broken Social Scene shows this past year and now we are very excited to be bringing the full show to a few select cities. Check out tour dates page for ticket information.

Charles Spearin interviewed on Georgia Straight's Website
Charles Spearin's first solo release, The Happiness Project, is an experiment in making soundscapes out of speech. It's also a tribute to his Toronto neighbourhood-and to the kind of "one for all and all for one" spirit that animates Broken Social Scene, the best known of Spearin's several bands.

Unlike that indie-pop collective's releases, which have featured such indie notables as Leslie Feist, Jason Collett, and Emily Haines, there's no singing on The Happiness Project. But people-Spearin's friends, neighbours, and kids-speak on every track, and from their musings he's extrapolated musical settings that range from whimsical to soulful to slightly unsettling.

Read the full story at Georgia Straight's Website