Blog

Hey all, we had a great day near St. George, Ontario on Sunday with our Golden Ticket Concert hosted by winner Jean...

I go through phases when I get sick of my iPod selection despite there being over 3000 songs on it and I go in search of new stuff.  New to me that is.  This happened recently and here are some of the vibes I’ve started to dig. 1. Ron Sexsmith – Although he’s an established artist and he was already on my iPod, I recently saw a documentary on him on HBO so I had another listen from a different pe...

A legend has fallen. I don't mean some fairytale knight on a horse. I mean a real legend in the music industry - Jack Richardson. Jack was the producer for The Essentials’ first two albums, Oh What A Night! and ...And Then Some.  Sadly, he passed away on Friday, May 13, 2011 at the age of 81 in our old stompin' grounds of London, Ontario. We were introduced to him through our manager at the ti...

I got a gig outside of The Essentials! This Saturday night I'll be performing as half of "PB & J" the fearless acoustic duo that only knows one song and has had zero rehearsals. I'm the J of course. PB is an ol' pal of mine named Patrick Boydell. Patrick has been a friend of mine since Grade 9. He was the first kid I met on the first day of high school 17 seconds before the start of Mr. ...

We’re on tour on the East Coast of Canada. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before. It’s beautiful out here and the people are very friendly and musical. Well, it’s all true. And pictures and words never do it justice. We started in Halifax, then performed north of there on Cape Breton Island, and then took the 12 km Confederation Bridge to PEI. Despite a snowstorm in PEI, the crowd showed up an...

When I first started in the music biz, I started reading Canadian Musician magazine. Every Canadian recording studio you walk into seems to have copies arms-length from their lavatory thrones or in a reception area. I liked it because it wasn’t just focused on one aspect of the music industry. There were articles on live sound, recorded sound, vocals, guitars, drums, or even just the business in...

In my continuing interview series with some of my favourite people, I interviewed my cousin Daniela, who is also in the music industry. She founded the Toronto Independent Music Awards (TIMAs) at a very young age and is now studying law in the U.S. to possibly be an Entertainment Lawyer. JO: So Daniela, you're not only my cousin, but the founder of the TIMAs and you're also in law school with an ...

I was awake at 2:00am when I saw Nicky Kitchen online.  We started chatting.Nicky's a really fun teenager that comes to our shows on occasion. So I decided to interview her as part of a new series of Jo3-Blogs called "Some of My Favourite People". It’s my way of only having to do 1/2 the writing of a normal blog while showing you some of the cool people we know. JO: So Nicky, how long have you ...

The Essentials have an Annual General Meeting (AGM), just like a corporation.  We had it earlier this week. You might think "Blech! How boring and stuffy and businessy can you get?" Well our AGM isn’t boring at all. We meet at a restaurant with our manager as early in the new year as we can and talk about the last year (which was awesome) and then talk about what we’re going to do in the upcomi...

We flew from Toronto to Calgary this week. Calgary was pretty cold when we got there and was sitting in the minus 20’s range the entire time with tons of snow on the ground. But as a Canadian, I’ve learned not to focus on cold weather. It eventually goes away. We went to Cowtown to perform at a special conference on Thursday and ended up staying until Saturday because we performed a public sho...

Just getting in from a show at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener-Waterloo.  Well, more accurately: just getting in from the after-party. ;) I don't know what it is about the Tri-Cites area but they just love the arts, which of course, is awesome! The audiences are always a little on the crazy side, which suits us just fine because we're a little wacky ourselves. So, thanks to everyone who came ...

We're about to go to radio with Floating Away from Nothing But Blue. After analyzing lyrics, contemplating grooves, considering a whole bunch of other factors, drinking a few beer (whiskey neat for Janet) and then discussing the problem of how best to divert an asteroid if one veers towards earth, we chose Floating Away to hit radio with. It's tough to pick just one. And you can't just push the...

Last night I had dinner in Italy. I had the best seafood pasta dish ever, outside of the homemade stuff. Just to show you how authentic it was - they didn't even offer any parmesan cheese with it. Italians put cheese on every pasta dish imaginable, but on seafood it's traditionally considered to be a backhand to the chef. So, I just decided to drive to Italy, have dinner, go for a stroll by th...

Ah, Justin Bieber. We mocked you in our June 25th blog when our CD performed better than your CD in our hometown of London, Ontario. Since that time, we can only presume that you have focused every waking minute of your existence in getting your revenge on us in Toronto. I'm sure that Bieber, Usher, L.A. Reid, and other powerful people like Brangelina, the guy that does the "Koodo" sound in the...

So, The Essentials charted at #7 in the London area this week. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU LONDON! We always feel the love from our hometown!In doing so, we knocked this Justin Bieber fellow off his high horse. Sure, nationally or internationally he royally kicked our butts, but in our hometown of London, Ontario you will not beat us Bieber!Here's how the whole thing started.The Essentials start...

Many people have been asking me why my stage name recently morphed from Joe to Jo3 as evidenced in the liner notes of Nothing But Blue. Don't worry, just the spelling has changed – the pronunciation remains the same. The answer is really simple and ridiculous. I found it quite comical went Prince went to that symbol and then to The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. I know his reason had to do w...

It's Easter weekend. I thinking of writing a blog about rebirth and how The Essentials were sort of reborn since we introduced Janet to the group culminating in the production of our album which will be released soon, but I fell asleep at the computer. Not a good sign. Then I thought of writing a blog just about the album and thought - it's almost out, why bother? All y'all will just hear it s...

Two music-related events have collided for me recently. First, The Essentials have been planning our next album, and in doing so, have had to do some soul searching and exploration as to what is so appealing to our audience about our music, so we can capture it in the studio. Second, I'm reading a book called This is Your Brain on Music. I guess it was first published in 2006, so I'm a little b...

"What's an album?" That question will come from some 12 year old kid in about 5 years. He and/or she is just 7 years old right now and all they know is their iPod and begging their parents to download certain songs that their friends have from the internet. When he and/or she will ask that question, we'll laugh at them and show them CDs with actual artwork and liner notes longer than 140 characte...