The Wilderness of Manitoba

 As the return to the live music landscape weaves through its peaks and valleys, Popguru Sound & Vision is bringing fresh sights and sounds for all to experience with an engaging new event series. Today, the fully integrated, Toronto-based music company is thrilled to announce The Popguru Revue – an immersive full-production livestream concert series featuring performances from an array of the company’s diverse and dynamic artist roster. Kicking off on October 9 with sets performed at Revolution Recording in Toronto, the showcase intends to provide an engaging audio and video experience every Saturday night hosted from the Popguru YouTube channel. 

Popguru Sound & Vision Founder, Graham Stairs, reflects on the company’s history: “When I started Popguru, my mandate was to make a difference for me, for my artists and for my community. It has been fulfilling to see artists like The Wilderness of Manitoba and Grand Analog that I took from scratch and helpedthem develop into critically acclaimed and successful artists. They’ve performed and toured North America, the UK and Europe. They’ve both been nominated for Sync Artist of the Year, and The Wilderness of Manitoba has been nominated for a JUNO. We’ve become friends over the years and that bond has strengthened the sense of community.” 

“Odario has guested on a Ghost Caravan track. John Orpheus’ producer, Mike Schlosser, is working on tracks with new signing, Sam Casey. The collaborations are something that I encourage and something that was a part of the fabric of great labels like Motown and Island in their heyday, both of whom drew on their communities. The Popguru Revue, our livestream concert series, was envisioned in the same spirit and will bring the various artists’ music to an international viewing audience. It will also be a great way for people to spend their Saturday nights in October and November!”

The first performance will be delivered by acclaimed singer, songwriter and author, John Orpheus, on October 16 at (9:00 PM EST). Combining hip-hop swagger, Afrobeat energy and dancehall charisma to create a sound built on big catchy hooks, John is known for his rabble-rousing live shows filled with audience participation, chanting and impromptu dance-offs that feel more like Caribana road parties than concerts.

In addition, performances will include: an additional acoustic set by John Orpheus, who released his latest album Saga King via Popguru’s label imprint, The Confidence Emperors, in July, and an accompanying memoir this year; Toronto’s The Wilderness of Manitoba, who will share recent works from their upcoming album, Farewell To Cathedral (out October 29 on Popguru Sound & Vision); hip hop artist, DJ and CBC Music radio personality Odario; emerging Toronto-based singer-songwriter, Sam Casey; the multidisciplinary indie pop laden sounds of musician-actor-filmmaker, Simeon Ross, the empowering songs of Ghost Caravan, a group of collaborators lead by singer/actress, Shaina Silver-Baird; indie pop duo TANDM and larger-than-life glamster Alex Exists.

See the full schedule lineup and learn more about the artists below. 

Founded in 1998 by A&R maverick Graham Stairs, Popguru Sound & Vision is a fully integrated music company that makes a difference. Its core business is artist management, but, as a diversified company, Popguru is involved in music publishing, two record label imprints and providing music for film, television and other media.

Prior to starting his own company, Stairs was a partner in Intrepid management and did A&R for Intrepid Records, Latitude Records and EMI Music Canada. He was involved with such seminal Canadian artists as Martha and the Muffins, the Rheostatics, National Velvet, Chalk Circle, Damhnait Doyle and Sandbox. He was also behind the soundtrack album for the film, Highway 61, and the Bruce Cockburn tribute album that gave the Barenaked Ladies their first national hit with Lovers In A Dangerous Time. To this day, it is still one of the most played songs on Canadian radio. More recently, Stairs did A&R for True North Records where he signed Catherine MacLellan, Hunter Valentine and Australian band, the Audreys. 

The strength of any company is its artists and repertoire. Popguru subscribes to the philosophy of building a community and long-term careers for its artists. The company’s mandate is to develop content for the Canadian and international marketplaces. The business model uses diversification as a strategy to create and monetize content for the existing and next generation uses of music. Since reactivating Popguru in 2009, Stairs has signed Martha and the Muffins, Odario, Grand Analog, the Wilderness of Manitoba, John Orpheus, Ghost Caravan, producer/songwriter, Mike Schlosser, and Sam Casey for management. Stairs’ vision of the interdependencies between record labels, music publishers, management companies and licensing agencies is the reason that Popguru organizes all of them within the same company. This is Popguru’s response to the needs of artists today and into the future.

Popguru Revue Performance Schedule – stream via Popguru’s YouTube Channel

October 16 – John Orpheus (electric set)
October 23 – Simeon Ross
October 30 – Sam Casey
November 6 – The Wilderness of Manitoba
November 13 – John Orpheus (acoustic set)
November 20 – Ghost Caravan
November 27 – Odario

December 4 – TANDM + Alex Exists

We acknowledge the support of FACTOR and the Canada Council for the Arts in funding these livestream concerts.