Hot Damn! This is Fazer’s fattest issue yet! Even chopping an issue in two has not helped to keep this fourth issue to around 40 pages. I’m not complaining at all!! It’s great to be seeing so many quality bands coming through our area. Yves and I can’t keep up with it all. Even as we put the wrap on this issue - we find ourselves attending shows separately, to accomodate interviews and photography we want in the magazine. Last night, Yves drove into Hamilton to see Bayside at the Underground in Hamilton, while I stayed in London to photograph MCR at the John Labatt Centre. Normally, we would have seen both of these bands together.

Yep. We really have it rough! You should all feel really sorry for us. :-)

We both want to send out a big electronic bear-hug to everyone who has allowed us access to interview and photograph the musicians that have appeared in Fazer over the past seven months. Fazer would be a pretty stale looking rag if it wasn’t for the access we get through music reps and industry-types to garner content for the magazine. With the limited insight we have gained putting Fazer together – I can safely say the music industry is rife with individuals who spend their working days fielding last minute schedule changes and lots and lots of emails and phone calls. Behind the scenes, there’s a tonne of work that goes into putting something like Fazer together.
As a creative director, I used to lament that advertising was full of silly deadlines and last minute emergencies. I now know that advertising has nothing on the music biz.
Everything in music schedule-wise can change, and often does. I didn’t find out I could take pictures of MCR last night until 20 minutes before their set started. This seems to be the nature of the beast.

Copy editor and contributor Becky Hurren and her husband recently relocated to Seattle for work. Becky continues to support Fazer, and proofs our articles as text files prior to Yves and I flowing them into InDesign. Becky will likely be reviewing shows in the Seattle area for Fazer. Which means we can offer an even tastier perspective on live music, as she will see bands that won’t make it over the border to play the Toronto area.

Cool stuff: Jesse Malin’s new CD Glitter In The Gutter is a fine piece of music. Mute Math’s recently released live DVD Flesh and Bones Electric Fun totally captures what it’s like to see these guys play live on stage. Stereophonics UK released Rewind 2xDVD set documents the band’s rise to fame in a 2 hour feature film that’s well worth watching.