Bio

When I was 11-years old, my family moved from a small community just outside of Toronto to the suburbs 40 minutes away. Though the distance to my new home felt like hours away, the music culture was in fact vastly different. Whitby, Ontario was a sleepy town, dominated by skateboarding and punk rock. I fell in love. I remember a few weeks into moving, meeting a neighbourhood kid who lent me a record that would drastically change my musical trajectory. Tagging along to watch my older brother’s baseball games, headphones blasting, I remember the smirk on my face when The Offspring’s ‘Bad Habit’ first came on. I felt like I had transported to a yet to be discovered universe, with that dirty bass line and hi-hat, ready to count in the rest of the band. And hearing genuine profanity for the first time in that context? I was in my glory, and it was all mine. I soaked it in. 

This would ultimately set me on my path: learning to sing, play guitar and get in the room with friends to start jamming out our favorite songs. Quickly, I would join a band that I would be in for 12 years, writing, recording and playing live wherever we would be welcomed. Honing my skills with friends and other musicians along the way, I now find myself writing and recording music at a pace I’ve never experienced before. Older, now with more life-experiences along with the erosion of a young and sometimes narrow ego and vision of what my music ‘should be’, I feel way more in control of who I am as an artist and writer.  

As a 90’s kid, heavily influenced by indie, alt-rock bands like Radiohead and Weezer, I continue to mix my love for acoustic and electric tones, taking aim at social and personal challenges we face, in a time where taking care of one another and the places we call home, seem like fleeting concepts. Those who know me and my writing, know this is my wheelhouse. However, in seemingly dark times, I now more than ever, revel in tapping into my 90’s influences, by finding ways to create something for the 2020’s that not only challenges our values and perspectives, but also makes us feel and wonder what it could be like to be in a space where you can be the best version of yourself.

- RICH