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Paul Myers (musician)

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For other people with the same name, see Paul Myers (disambiguation).

Paul Myers
Born (1960-11-11) 11 November 1960 (age 63)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
GenresIndie
Occupation(s)Songwriter, musician, journalist, author

Paul Myers (born 11 November 1960 in Toronto)[1][2] is a San Francisco-based indie rock songwriter, musician, journalist, and author. Until 2006, Myers worked as a musician and journalist in Toronto and Vancouver, where he became a Canadian television and radio personality. He is the older brother of comedian and actor Mike Myers.

Biography

Musical career

Myers was the front man and songwriter for the band The Gravelberrys, which had a Canadian alternative hit in the early 1990s with "Wonder Where You Are Tonight."[3] The group, which took its name from a reference in The Flintstones,[4] disbanded in 1995, after several complete lineup changes.[5]

Myers continues to write, record and play sporadic shows, appearing since 2014 as The Paul & John, a duo formed by Myers and John Moremen, performing with drummers that have included D. J. Bonebrake and Dawn Richardson.[6][7] The Paul & John have released one album, Inner Sunset (2014).[8]

Broadcast journalism

Between 2001 and 2006, Myers was omnipresent in the media scene of Vancouver, British Columbia, holding a variety of positions during this time. Myers was the musician judge on the Canwest Global reality TV series, Popstars: The One, and blogged about his experience for the Vancouver Province.

Myers and Patrick Maliha were known to viewers of Shaw TV's Urban Rush as The Movie Guys, appearing in a popular weekly segment which ran from 2003 until 2006, when Myers left Vancouver for the San Francisco area. Myers was also briefly a regular cultural pundit on CTV's The Vicki Gabereau Show, a national daytime program which taped out of Vancouver.

For one year (from 2003 to 2004), Myers hosted a talk radio show on CHMJ (then branded as "MOJO Radio") in Vancouver. The show was first known as One, Two, Three with Paul Myers (after its 1:00 to 3:00 time slot), before being rechristened The Paul Myers Show. The show attained cult status, and Myers played host to diverse guests such as They Might Be Giants, Matthew Sweet, Seth MacFarlane, Errol Morris, Randy Bachman, and Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick, as well as local musicians and touring authors. CHMJ, a Corus radio station, abandoned broader talk radio in 2004 in favour of an all-sports format. Myers joked that despite his acquisition of a Vancouver Canucks jersey, his culture- and music-based topics no longer fit on the sports channel.

Writing career

Since the mid-1990s, much of Myers' time has been devoted to his journalism career, which began in 1995 in Toronto. Since that time, he has written for a wide variety of periodicals and newspapers, including Canadian outlets The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, The Vancouver Province, and Canadian Musician, and American publications including Mix, Electronic Musician, Crawdaddy!, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Myers' first long form book, in 2001, was the authorized biography of the Barenaked Ladies, Public Stunts, Private Stories, published in Canada by Madrigal Press and in the USA by Simon & Schuster's Fireside Books imprint.[9][10]

His second book, a biography of Long John Baldry called It Ain't Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues, was published by Greystone Books in Fall 2007.[11]

While researching the Baldry book, Myers met Vancouver filmmaker Nick Orchard, who enlisted him to write the script and appear in his documentary Long John Baldry: In The Shadow Of The Blues.[12] The film has received repeated airing on both the Canadian Bravo network and BBC 4 in the UK. In 2008, Myers was personally nominated for a Gemini Award (the Canadian Emmy) for Best Writing in a Documentary Program or Series, for his work on Orchard's film.

In 2010, Jawbone Press published Myers' third book, A Wizard, a True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio, a detailed history of the record production career of the Philadelphia-born guitarist and producer.[13] The book featured interviews with Rundgren and many of his production clients, including Patti Smith, XTC, Meat Loaf, New York Dolls, Cheap Trick, Psychedelic Furs, Grand Funk, and Hall & Oates. The book was critically acclaimed and received four star reviews from the British magazines MOJO and Record Collector.

On 23 October 2018, House of Anansi Press published Myers' 4th book, "Kids In the Hall: One Dumb Guy."[14] The book's release was preceded and followed by a promotional speaking tour discussing the history of the comedy troupe, Kids in the Hall, featuring some members of the cast. On 21 September 2018, Myers was joined at the Crows Nest Theatre in Toronto by Bruce McCullough and Scott Thompson as part of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.[15] In January 2019, Myers was joined in conversation about the book by 4 of the 5 Kids in the Hall: Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson.[16]

Bibliography

  • Myers, Paul (2001). Barenaked Ladies: Public Stunts, Private Stories. Madrigal Press. ISBN 978-1-89416-002-5.
  • Myers, Paul (2007). It Ain't Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues. Greystone Books Ltd. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-55365-200-7.
  • Myers, Paul (2010). A Wizard, a True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio. Jawbone Press. ISBN 978-1-90600-233-6.
  • Myers, Paul (2018). Kids In the Hall: One Dumb Guy. House of Anansi Press. ISBN 9781487001834.

See also

References

  1. ^ Myers, Paul (12 November 2012). "Thanks to all..." Facebook. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  2. ^ "Bowl of globes [sound recording]", Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 13380675, retrieved 3 May 2011
  3. ^ "The Gravelberry Pie King". The Flintstones. Season 6. Episode 149. 12 November 1965.
  4. ^ "Five Questions With… Kevin Hearn of The Cousins". fyi music news. 16 March 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  5. ^ Derer, Andy (28 July 2014). "Get To Know: The Paul & John". Empty Lighthouse. Archived from the original on 28 April 2015.
  6. ^ Kopp, Bill (10 September 2014). "Everything Comes Together: The Paul & John Interview, Part One". Musoscribe. Archived from the original on 26 August 2015.
  7. ^ Mystery Lawn Music (2014). "The Paul & John: Inner Sunset".[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ Staff, CHARTattack (14 June 2001). "Barenaked Ladies Tell-All Book Coming Soon". Chart. Toronto: Chart Communications. chartattack.com. ISSN 1198-7235. Retrieved 3 May 2011. {{cite news}}: External link in |agency= (help)[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ Staff, CHARTattack (3 August 2001). "Barenaked Ladies Want You For Their Next Album". Chart. Toronto: Chart Communications. chartattack.com. ISSN 1198-7235. Retrieved 3 May 2011. {{cite news}}: External link in |agency= (help)[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ Myers, Paul (2007). It Ain't Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues. Greystone Books. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-55365-200-7.
  11. ^ "Paul Myers". IMDb. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  12. ^ Myers, Paul (2010). A Wizard, a True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio. Jawbone Press. ISBN 978-1-90600-233-6.
  13. ^ "The Kids in the Hall". House of Anansi Press. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  14. ^ "One Dumb Guy & Two Kids in the Hall". The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival. 21 September 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  15. ^ "SF Sketchfest 2019: Four Kids, One Dumb Night: Dave Foley, K..." sfsketchfest2019.sched.com. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
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