Wednesday & Thursday, March 11-12, 2009
the Music Gallery and Arts & Crafts present:

THE HAPPINESS PROJECT
New music project by Charles Spearin of Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene

With guests:
Laura Barrett (March 11 only)
Muskox (March 12 only)

Location: The Music Gallery, 197 John St.
Doors 7pm, concert 8pm
Tickets: $20 advance at Rotate This, Soundscapes, Criminal Records and www.galleryac.com
(General Admission only, on sale now)
Info: 416-204-1080 • www.musicgallery.org

The Music Gallery and Arts & Crafts are pleased to collaborate in presenting the live debut of The Happiness Project, a new music project created by Charles Spearin, a multi-instrumentalist who has been an active and influential member of Canada’s independent music community since the mid 1990’s. He is primarily known as a founding member of the instrumental post-rock ensemble Do Make Say Think and an original member of the indie-rock collective Broken Social Scene.

With The Happiness Project, Spearin blurs the line between speaking and singing — life and art — and writes music based on accidental melodies. With the help of some of his musician friends, Charles plays the instruments to match these natural neighbourhood melodies inspired by interviews with his own downtown city neighbours, all on their thoughts of happiness. He then arranges them as though they were songs. As Charles says, “All of the melodies on this album are the melodies of every day life.” This technique recalls the work of 20th century composers such as Harry Partch and Steve Reich (“Different Trains”).

The Happiness Project will be released in Canada and the U.S. on February 10, 2009 on Arts & Crafts. Performing with Charles for these events will be: Ohad Benchetrit (guitar, sax), Dave Clarke (drums), Julia Seger Scott (harp), Michael Barth (trumpet), Leon Kingstone (sax), Julie Penner (violin) and Tania Gill (piano). Performances will also take place in Montreal and New York.

Laura Barrett
A classically trained pianist, Toronto’s Laura Barrett was tinkering with electronic composition when she accidentally came across a kalimba — an African instrument also known as a thumb piano — on eBay. In 2005, she began composing wistful indie-pop songs on the instrument, and made her live debut at a tribute to “Weird” Al Yankovic at now-defunct College Street indie hangout, the Bagel. Her sparely recorded debut EP, “Earth Sciences,” followed a year later, with a standout track, "Deception Island Optimists Club," becoming a finalist for the SOCAN ECHO songwriting prize. Paper Bag Records signed Barrett and released her more lushly orchestrated debut album, Victory Garden, in 2008.