Cover Photo : Antoine Ryan Cover Design & Concept : Denise Audette Cover Special Thanks: Yan Bleney / Studio 428 You could say that Bars & Tone is a Canadian alternative hip hop group with a folk rock/p-funk twist — but even a statement as vague as that would pigeonhole this diverse trio. Bars & Tone is the result of the merging of two budding projects. In high school, while Joe Nativv and Sean Blake experimented laying rap verses and Beatlesque melodies over funk riffs and rock progressions, Blake was also starting an artist collective with Gruw Raw called DeadRinger. Blake and Raw would sit in the back of high school accounting class and compare rhymes, dreaming of careers in music. From the very beginning, the intent was to make a living with it. To give them a kick start, Raw’s parents helped them build a makeshift studio in their home in a community housing project in Ottawa, Ontario. Blake brought Nativv in to record a few songs together as Bars & Tone. A few songs quickly turned into an EP and Raw was a feature on half of the songs. It was only logical that he become a member. Since then, the room-turned-studio has seen a few upgrades and DeadRinger has grown by a few artists. The guys have been honing their craft, recording song after song while doubling as a production team for the rappers and singers on the collective. Each artist has their own sound so for Bars & Tone, versatility and openness is compulsory. Working with others has also created a competitive atmosphere that has contributed to the progress they’ve made since their last release. The self-mixed, self produced-Aboard the Floating Palace of a Good Time Billionaire is miles ahead of their previous material. They spent more time crafting each record, the performances are tighter, the songwriting is more fluid, the recordings are higher quality and the production is more consistent. But for them it’s only the beginning. The team keeps busy — by the time one project is being released, another is being recorded. You can expect several more releases from the DeadRinger camp in the near future.