About Me
From CleavageRocks, a fansite
The band 'Cleavage' has been together musically for 7 years according to their official info, and has performed well over 350 live shows. They're come a long way, and in the last couple of years have really made progress in getting to the ultimate goal of making it big. Winning the 2000 North By Northeast Music Festival's 'Best Canadian Unsigned band' award certainly helped things along, but what will the next couple of years hold? Good things we're sure, because this is a band blessed with talent, a unique & varied sound.. and most importantly, definite potential.
Cleavage is made up of the Jamieson brothers, Bill and Jon (Bill being the elder), Lukas(Luke) Rossi, and Jeff Smith. The band members grew up in the same neighbourhood in Toronto and have been friends practically their entire lives. Though the band has been through a couple of different lead guitarists since its inception, they came back to Jeff when the position became vacant in 1998, and the band has remained unchanged since. The Jamieson household has over the years been home to many, many noisy days & nights whilst the band practised away, dreaming of stardom.
CleavageRocks does not currently have detailed info on each of the band members, but can tell you that the band's member's average age is just 24, that Luke is a former choirboy who went has trained at the 'Royans School For the Musical Performing Arts' (whose voice-students include Raine from 'Our Lady Peace', Edwin, and Canadian dance-music artists Sarina Paris and Monika Garo), and that the Jamieson brother's father (Bill Sr.) was himself a drummer, and that their grandfather was a Big-band-era sax player - a fact which no doubt influenced their love of music.
Cleavage entered the 2000 NXNE Music Festival in Toronto, as they had done in previous years, but this time they took home the coveted 'Best Canadian Unsigned Band' award. Voting by festival attendees was done through HMV.com's website, and with over 400 bands at the Festival from all over the world, this award was truly earned! The prize-pack included 3 days of studio recording time at Umbrella Sound, CD-manufacturing by Universal Music Canada, and distribution through HMV. Cleavage worked in the studio with Rush's Alex Lifeson (who was apparently extremely impressed with their work) and Edwin's Ruben Huizenga. Having written well over 30 songs, it's hard to know which ones to cram onto your first 'legit' CD, but on May 29th, 2001, Cleavage's 6-song debut CD, self-titled 'Cleavage', was released - with guaranteed shelf space & (limited) distribution at HMV stores across Canada. The distribution contract was recently extended, meaning even more exposure and increased availability of the CDs at stores across Canada.
In the meantime, Cleavage had joined up with SunDog Films to produce the music video for their track 'Riddled'. It was shot at a partially-demolished house in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, the concept being that the band is performing in the house whilst the upstairs sinks & bathtubs overflow, leaking down the stairs & through the ceiling onto the band, who carry on uninterrupted. Thankfully, the video shoot was made possible by the fact that some (rather expensive) 35mm-film left over from a Watchmen video was made available. The 'Riddled' video was put on MuchMusic's rotation in the summer.
To make a great summer even better, Cleavage got the chance to open for The Tea Party at the Dardanella (or simply 'the Dard') up at Wasaga Beach at the end of July. Though the concert stage is upstairs at a beach bar, the place was packed (900 capacity?), and as the veteran live show performers that they are, Cleavage did a phenomenal job of pumping the crowd up in anticipation of the Tea Party. For many in attendance it was their first exposure to Cleavage, but judging from the reaction, all left impressed.
2002 should be another great year for the band. They kicked it off with a college & university campus tour across Ontario, and with their ambition and talent, are set to break out and make a name for themselves. 'Canada's Best Unsigned Band' is currently working towards a few new projects and ideas, and CleavageRocks will be here to keep you updated as things happen, so stay tuned...
Videos= Just riddled as far as I know
