Barry Seymour

Music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Before I started playing the drums, when I was five, I was a singer/songdancer. hahaha. There are tons of videos and pictures of me as a toddler with a microphone in my hand, dancing around the room to my dad's old records and tapes.
When I was roughly four, I became competent enough to realize that my dad was in a band. Chapter 4 was their name. I used to sit on our basement steps and watch them practice every week, listening, learning and eating apple pie. mmm… pie.
When I reached grade six and the option of joining the school band came around, I jumped on that bandwagon right away. The funny thing was I didn’t sign up for percussion, which would have seemed like a no brainier. I picked up the Alto-Saxophone. A few rounds of “Hot Crossed Buns” later though, I knew the Sax’ was not for me and I ached to get back to my drums and learn more about percussion, and that’s what I did. :)
From then on I played in many different school bands and garage bands as the backbone. I was playin’ genres like rock, pop, blues, jazz, folk and orchestral. The problem was that I could never find anyone else that wanted commit to a band as seriously as I needed. My cousin, Ruth Webster and I were pretty much the two constants. She played bass. We had a pretty mean rhythm section since we stuck together for so long.
My next chapter began when I started to show an interest in songwriting. It brought with it the need to learn a “musical” instrument though. Sure, drums are great but it’s definitely a challenge to write a melody on them. hahaha. Luckily… old Daddio once again came through. Guess what else he had tucked away? That’s right, an old Fender Acoustic Guitar. I love it. It’s from 1978 or something so it’s got a really old soul and a great warm, dry sound. I’m pretty proud of it.
I think I actually wrote my FIRST song in grade three. The song was about my “swim-up” from Beavers to Cubs. hahaha. It was called “I’m A Little Bit Nervous”. It started off pretty nice, but eventually just turned into “Surf City” by Jan & Dean with my own lyrics. hahaha! Luckily for you, my writing got better and I started writing originals… that were... completely original.
By this point I had joined a boy band called Out Of Sync. We were HORRIBLE but had a pretty solid fan base of girly girls that adored us. hahaha! We sang Backstreet Boys, Nsync songs and just about any other pop group's music you can think of. It was hilarious and a lot of fun! The biggest thing I took from that experience was the vocal practice. If you haven’t noticed, as poppy as that music is, those groups can REALLY FRIGGEN’ SING!!! I always pushed myself to hit the notes they hit and would try to reach their level of professionalism. I wouldn’t be HALF the singer I am today if it wasn’t for bands like the Backstreet Boys and Nsync. I actually still pull on their records once in a while and belt out a tune or two.
By the time all that silliness was behind me, I was even more passionate about creating music. Along with my song writing abilities growing stronger and stronger, my horizons were widening as well and I began looking at all the different angles of the music industry. I became very interested the recording process and was quite sure at that point that that was what I wanted to do with my life. So I started looking at schools. I found this Recording Arts course in Shelburne, NS through the NSCC that was right up my alley, but at that point in my life, I wasn't ready to live that far away from home on my own. So I checked out another course that focused on Radio & Television . It was in Kenvtille, NS. By this point, besides being heavily involved with audio production in junior high and high school, I was really getting into video production. The Radio & Television Arts program gave me the opportunity to expore both fields rather than just the one. So I packed my bags... and I off I went to Kentville.
When I started my course I became very interested in the radio side of the program. (Check out my old college radio station, CCKC 88.9 "The Platypus" , streaming online.) I met a few guys there that I started a band with. Unrendered was our name. Rock, blues and pop were our game. We did pretty well for ourselves up there playing at college talent shows, and socials. It was a great opportunity for me to play my songs with a band too. It was when we started recording our music in the radio studios that I came to the conclusion that I probably would have benefited more by taking the Recording Arts program through the NSCC instead. It was where my heart was. No regrets though... I made lots of great friends there and Unrendered still gets together and plays music quite often too.
When I graduated I went to work for CBC Radio-Halifax as an audio technician. I still work there casually teching shows like, “Information Morning”, “Maritime Noon” and “Mainstreet”. Talk about a sweet gig on the side, eh? I also work for Skid Mark Productions located in Kentville, Nova Scotia. I’m an audio producer there where we create and package syndicated radios shows that are heard right across North America. Once again... SWEEEEEET!!! Some of the shows I work on are “The Blues Own”, “Sounds Canadian” and “Country Gold”.
Now… running completely parallel to my radio gigs, is a company that a friend of mine, Garry Dalrymple , and I created called, Array Entertainment . We specialize in artist management, radio production and album production. It’s still in the early stages of development, but it’s our baby and we love it.
With these few paragraphs about myself, I hope you’ve gotten a good idea of who I am. Music has been a passion of mine for a long time. I’ve finally arrived at the point in my life where it’s time to start chasing this dream a lot harder than I have. I’m beginning to leave Barry shaped footprints all over the music industry, in many different ways. This makes me so happy and excited for my future because of what I’ve accomplished so far in these twenty-one short years. I hope that with the years to come my footprints eventually turn into many well-beaten paths across the industry. I want to create, produce, engineer, write, make babies to and perform AMAZING music for the rest of my life.
Thanks for checking out my profile. Feel free to drop me a line sometime and maybe we'll get chatting about music, life and the whole crazy thing. Cheers!
/BS