Sled Island Rock Lotto album launches
![calgary, music, indie music, sled island, rock, fe The Sled Island Rock Lotto album features music from 45 musicians from all over Canada. (Supplied)](/content/dam/ctvnews/en/images/2021/8/6/calgary--music--indie-music--sled-island--rock--fe-1-5537913-1628293789153.jpeg)
Sled Island is one of Western Canada's largest independent music and arts festivals and is well known by Calgary music lovers as a celebration and showcase of the best emerging and established local talent alongside international sensations.
This year due to the pandemic, Sled Island organizers made the unfortunate but uavoidable decision to postpone the annual five-day festival. In an effort to continue to support the musicians and their fans, organizers came up with an idea.
Sled Island Rock Lotto which has been a highlight of the festival in previous years makes a triumphant return in a new format. A press release from the Sled team spells it out:
"Like the annual live tradition it's based on, these bands were formed by drawing the names of the 45 participating musicians from across Canada at random, but this time they were tasked with writing and recording a brand-new song solely by sending ideas and tracks to each other from afar. Many of these brave and fearless bands will have released a song together before ever meeting each other in person!"
CTV News met up with Marlaena Moore, one of the rock lotto participants to get her take on the ambitious project.
"The fine folks at Sled just reached out (to me) and said, ‘We can't really do sled this year, so let's try something different.’” Moore said. “They reached out to a bunch of different musicians and asked if they'd be interested in meeting up with strangers over the internet and somehow making up bands and releasing a song to be released on a comp and it sounded just wild enough to work, you know?”
Moore said this was the first time she had ever attempted to write a song with remote collaborators but the whole process proved to be fun.
“We were meeting like once a week over Zoom and it was very sweet because it was so collaborative in the sense that, like, each piece of the puzzle of the song was fully contributed by someone.”
It's no secret that touring musicians were hit hard by the pandemic and the restrictions that caused a complete shutdown of most, if not all live music venues. Moore reflects on the time as being difficult but also eye opening.
“It was nice in some ways to have time to be creative, but at the same time, a pandemic does not equal a residency,” she said. “I think that kinda tripped a lot of people out too, that you have to be creative if you’re given a lot of time and not factoring in that this pandemic causes so much anxiety and depression and stress.”
Despite those struggles Moore and her collaborators Matthew Cardinal, Jamie Radu, Thomas Englund and Nick Schofield formed the supergroup ‘Casual Fridays’ and in the course of one month produced an indie-pop song Sure Thing, which is now featured on the Sled Island Rock Lotto Album.
Moore says the group wanted to do something fun and dancey and drew influence from bands like Talk Talk and Blondie.
“The appeal is being able to make something that you wouldn't normally make with people that you may not normally jam with.”
The full album was released on Aug. 6 and is available to stream or purchase on the Sled Island Webpage, and on Bandcamp.
Sled Island organizers have also recently announced Camp Sled Island, a three-day event taking place at Beltline’s High Park (340 10 Ave. S.W.) running Aug. 19 to 21.
Details can be found online.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6979388.1722030190!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
Celine Dion delivers stirring comeback performance at Paris Olympics opening ceremony
Against the rainy Paris night sky, Celine Dion staged the comeback of her career with a powerful performance from the Eiffel Tower to open the Olympic Games.
Jasper wildfire: 'Several weeks' before residents can return, premier says
Premier Danielle Smith said Friday afternoon in Hinton while weather conditions are cooler, the Jasper fire is still considered out of control and that Jasper residents can expect to be away from their homes 'for several weeks.'
Missing 3-year-old boy found dead in creek in Mississauga, Ont.: police
A three-year-old boy has been found dead a day after he went missing in a park in Mississauga, Ont., Peel police say.
Irish museum pulls Sinead O'Connor waxwork after just one day due to backlash
An Irish museum will withdraw a waxwork of singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor just one day after installing it, following a backlash from her family and the public, it told CNN in a statement on Friday.
Winnipeg senior's account overdrawn for $146,000 water bill
A Winnipeg senior is getting soaked with a six-figure water bill.
Turpel-Lafond won't sue CBC over Cree heritage report that took 'heavy toll': lawyer
The lawyer for a former judge whose claims to be Cree were questioned in a CBC investigation says his client is not considering legal action against the broadcaster after the Law Society of British Columbia this week backed her claims of Indigenous heritage.
Driver charged after flashing high beams at approaching police
Orillia OPP arrested and charged a driver with impaired driving after flashing their high beams.
Major Canadian bank experiences direct deposit outage on payday
Scotiabank says it has fixed a technical issue that impacted direct deposits on Friday morning.
FBI says Trump was indeed struck by bullet during assassination attempt
Nearly two weeks after Donald Trump’s near assassination, the FBI confirmed Friday that it was indeed a bullet that struck the former president’s ear, moving to clear up conflicting accounts about what caused the former U.S. president’s injuries after a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally.