JayBodner

I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4A prairie boy through and through, I cut my music-biz teeth the old fashioned way, by touring relentlessly throughout Canada with top-forty acts back in the very late 80’s and very early 90’s, which I credit as giving me an education on how to handle crowds and talk my out of things if necessary. While this provided great fun and adventure for a young man, I discovered that having to eat ketchup soup…(= starving)…and changing school bus tires in the middle of the night in minus 20 degree C weather…(= starving and freezing)…on top of having to play crappy top-40 songs to unappreciative drunken audiences while bar owners burned down their bars with all our stuff in it…(=starving, freezing and no insurance)….as fun as it was, it was time to do something else.Putting the top-forty circuit behind me I joined up with Winnipeg funk-rock pioneers Soul Scatter and for three years was one of the top bands in the city. Major spike in the learning curve here and two valuable lessons began to emerge: the art of songwriting…and the art of keeping a band (the team) together. Unfortunately, despite Soul Scatter placing well in the local leagues, we contracted a terminal case of the “serious musician” disease and died a quiet death. When the team folded, I did what every good (unemployed) singer/songwriter/defenseman does. I went “solo.” Recorded a three song demo which attracted the attention of exactly no-one, but did get featured on the flash page of CBC’s internet site New Music Canada for a year. (yee haw)In 1998, (around the same time I was going solo) I signed on with Winnipeg rockers Eagle & Hawk on their upcoming European tour. What was supposed to be one tour turned into 8 seasons, 4 albums and many aeroplan miles. Including our most recent release “Life Is…” each record has either won or been nominated for numerous music awards in Canada and the U.S. Stuff like; 1 Juno, 4 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, 1 Native American Music award, 3 Indian Summer Music Awards, 2 Aboriginal People’s Choice awards, and 4 Western Canadian Music award nominations. Awards are not why the game is played, but hey…you think Gretzky didn’t have fun winning those scoring titles? There’s way too many awesome stories to share here…we’d have to do it over drinks…but if I had to pick a couple things about this team it would be 40,000 people on Canada Day, and getting called up for two appearances on defense for Coach Cuddy’s musician’s “All Star” team at the Juno Cup. (4 assists) Plus I got a cool endorsement with Godin guitars.Right now with E&H in-between seasons, I’ve hooked up with a couple friends and we’ve created a great new band called Machine. Our EP will be out in the new year…you’re gonna love it.