Giant Hand - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Sitting at home in January 2008, Kirk Ramsay found himself watching The Devil and Daniel Johnston, a documentary about the famous outsider artist. Like many people in that situation, he found himself inspired to make the same kind of honest, unprocessed folk music.
At the time, Kirk didn't own a guitar -- nor, in fact, did he even know how to play one. But where most people would let that be the end of a brief flirtation, for Kirk it was the first step in his transformation to Giant Hand. Gathering up a few belongings, he walked down to his local music store and traded them in for an acoustic guitar. He spent the next few weeks teaching himself how to play a few basic chords, wrote a few songs (after finding it too difficult to learn other people's), and recorded his first demo on a old microphone he happened to have lying around his apartment.
Things started happening fairly quickly after that. A few weeks later -- just two months after picking up a guitar for the first time -- Kirk had adopted the name Giant Hand, and was playing his first ever show, opening for Vancouver band, Immaculate Machine in the basement of a record store. A month later he found himself opening for Born Ruffians. And then a few months later, he played his third show ever at the prestigious Ottawa Bluesfest.
Over the year since, Kirk has garnered opening slots for a number of high-profile Canadian acts, including Handsome Furs, Human Highway, Bruce Peninsula and Azeda Booth. On the strength of his demo, influential Canadian music blog i(heart)music raved that "Giant Hand might just be one of the most interesting, unique and exciting artists to come out of Ottawa in a very long time", while a reviewer for Exclaim! said of his live show that "(his) songs pierced the audience with innocence, clarity and a vulnerability that lesser artists often fake". Giant Hand was also given an Honourable Mention in the Ottawa XPress "Best of '08 Readers' Poll" for best new artist.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 24/01/2008
Band Website: gianthand.ca
Band Members: Kirk Ramsay
Influences: Daniel Johnston
Sunset Rubdown

Sounds Like:

Booking:
[email protected]

Record Label:
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Radio:
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Record Label: Empty Room Records (Canada)
Type of Label: Unsigned

My Blog

Q and A with Jarah Riley

Hello,I had a little Q and A on a great blog straight out of Minneapolis. I think it's pretty neat!Here's the link: jarahriley.tumblr.comBest wishes,KIRK
Posted by on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:18:00 GMT

Giant Hand CD Release Party

Hosted By:Giant HandWhen:June 12, 2009Where:Raw Sugar Cafe692 Somerset St WOttawaDescription:Giant Hand CD Release Party with Leif Vollebekk!Click Here To View Event
Posted by on Thu, 14 May 2009 15:02:00 GMT

Time for an Update

Hello,The offical Giant Hand Website will be up and running on May 4th. on the site, you will be able to do pretty much everything you can here, except it will look nicer, and it will have much more ...
Posted by on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:37:00 GMT

My first scandal!

Well, not really a scandal, but none the less... I was informed recently that I was playing a "monday night showcase" at Zaphods with 2 other bands from Ottawa on March 23rd. I never agreed to playi...
Posted by on Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:23:00 GMT

Started a new album and more!

I have just started working on a full length album. I don't know what it's going to be called yet, but I put a demo of one of the songs up on the music player thing. Also, My EP was rated number 25 ...
Posted by on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:24:00 GMT

Ottawa Xpress Best of Ottawa List

So I am some how in the Ottawa Xpress' Best of Ottawa list.I'm in the category 'Best new musical artist/group'if you want to vote for me, you can go to the website.http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/dossier...
Posted by on Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:41:00 GMT

New Song/Show in Kingston

Hey,I made a new song. It's called "down by the river". I also have a show coming up in Kingston. So if you're in Kingston on November 28th, please come.Here's a link to the facebook...
Posted by on Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:17:00 GMT

I(heart)Music Review!!!

www.iheartmusic.net I'm normally not one for anti-folk. Too much of the time, it sounds overpraised and pretentious to me, as if the artists in question are trying their hardest not to try, and then ...
Posted by on Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:11:00 GMT

New Song and 2 new shows!

Hey everyone,I'm back from Paris with 2 shows. you can check under the song playing thing where the shows are at. I also made a new song. It's about the catacombs in Paris. I a...
Posted by on Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:52:00 GMT

NEW SONG!!!

So I made a new song for the EP I'm working on. If you want one, let me know and I'll make an extra one for you.KIRK
Posted by on Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:52:00 GMT