Colin Munroe

This is the official bio of Colin Munroe, as written by me, Colin Munroe. I’m not a writer per se – except for song lyrics – so I’ll be brief and to the point. Otherwise, I make no promises. Don't think less of me. Don't Think Less of Me is the name of my first album. The record started as a bunch of demos that I recorded in my attic apartment. Then I recorded them for real in Metalworks Studios with a proper engineer. I've kind of always done things on my own, so I wrote and produced the whole thing and played all of the instruments myself. Sort of like a one-man band man – drums, keys, guitar, bass, glockenspiel etc. Don’t get me wrong - I'm not the best player, and I don't have every production trick in the book, but I have this way of putting all the pieces together that just sounds different and D-I-Y. I like to think it sounds raw and idiosyncratic but ambitious. It's probably simpler to say it sounds like...me. Once the songs were recorded, the tracks were sent to L.A. to be mixed by Mark Needham. Mark mixed The Killers’ first disc, Hot Fuss, including the Mr. Brightside track and has worked with everyone from My Chemical Romance, to Bloc Party, to Fleetwood Mac. First thing’s first. Music has been a force in my life for as long as I can remember. I was born in North Gower, a tiny town outside Ottawa on Paul McCartney's birthday, in the same year that John Lennon died. I don't know what to make of that fact but I'm a big Beatles fan, so I thought it was pretty cool when I found that out. My earliest musical memories would probably be of my mother's childhood lullabies - I couldn't fall asleep without one for the longest time. Around eight years old, I started teaching myself drums while listening to vinyl by Chicago, Dylan and Ry Cooder. I remember writing songs on the upright piano in the basement at age ten. I even played snare drum in a bagpipe marching band for a little while. Eventually the small house in the small town was just not enough. I left - told my parents that I was going to study Film and Philosophy at University, and moved to Toronto. Soon after that, I started producing for local Hip Hop and R&B artists. It was sort of an accident that I fell in with the urban crowd, but they really saw something in me I guess. That was how I discovered two of my other biggest influences: J Dilla and Lewis Taylor. Anyway, I co-wrote and produced ten songs on Ray Robinson's Juno-nominated album, What It Is, and have cuts on the new Brassmunk CD (including How 'Bout feat. Moka Only) and on upcoming releases by Divine Brown, Saukrates and Frank n Dank among others. Recently I got to work on a project on Busta Rhymes’ imprint with Universal/Motown and logged studio time with acclaimed NYC MC, Sean Price, for an upcoming Duck Down Records project. Somewhere while I was producing records for other people's projects, I started writing songs for me. I had always written songs for myself. I never really liked learning other people's songs even when I was young and just learning how to play. I only wanted to write my own. But I guess I'd forgotten that there was something special about them. And it was at that point that I realized that I had to give them a chance. I kept going, and before long it had become an album. Interestingly enough, my music doesn't sound much like the urban production I do. Instead, it's got lots of blocky piano chords, jangly guitars and hooky melodies. It probably owes more to my love of Van Morrison and Tin Pan Alley than Dr Dre. Overall I'd say it's an album of songs about trying to figure things out: life, love, leaving home…there’s even a song about writing songs. The first single is called World of Pain: driving and insistent, it’s a bit of a sing-a-long anthem of a tune that sets the tone of the rest of the disc. So that’s my bio…for now. There isn’t a whole lot to it yet but I have a feeling this is only the beginning. So stay tuned, and don’t think less of me.