During my reading week, Arm’s Length went on a weekend “mini-tour” starting on February 28th where we headlined Toronto for the first time.

I organized this event myself and managed to bring out about 70 people to come see the bands. The show was held at a newer dive bar called The Cavern, who reached out to us and asked us to play. The cap of the venue is only about 75, so we nearly sold the plane out.

For a band that has never played in the GTA before, we view it as a big win. We got out at about 11 p.m., loaded all of our gear into our van and crashed at our friend’s house in Burlington.

The following night we played Oakville, at Orrin from Exlcaim!’s house.

He regularly puts on shows in the Oakville region and some of them happen to be in his living room, which turns into quite the intimate experience. We had an interesting experience playing Oakville for the first time, as for the first time, nobody in the crowd really knew our band. We still gave it all, but it felt odd when spectators weren’t singing our lyrics back to us.

After our Oakville show, Arm’s Length drove back home so we could make it to our last show of the weekend in Kingston. When we play Kingston, we view it as our homecoming even though we’re from the Quinte region. This is honestly just because there aren’t really places to play in Belleville.

Our show Sunday night The Mansion was a blast. All of our friends from back home in Quinte made it up to see us and they made us feel super special, sining all of our words. We also had a group of fans who travelled from Ottawa to catch us play their favourite song, Blank Slate. I dedicated the song to them before we played it. Although The Mansion is quite a big venue, the show was super intimate, and some of our fans even made it on stage with us to sing along.

While only three dates, it was my first experiencing playing music three consecutive nights in a row, all in different cities. There are only going to be more shows from here as our next album, recorded with reputable producer Anton Delost, is set to open several doors for us. The rest of this year is huge for Arm’s Length.

My band, Arm’s Length, announced yesterday that we are playing our biggest show yet on April 11th with industry giants Bearings, Heavy Hearts and Locket.

Talent recruiter Adam Clarke reached out to our band and says he really likes what we’ve been doing and said we’d be perfect to play this show.

We announced the show at 12 p.m. yesterday and the show sold out in a mere two hours.

The band and I are viewing this show and our net album as a gateway into getting signed to a major label, which we agree is a big goal for us. Although we’re just opening, we’ve been a band for less than a year and getting these opportunities while being based in Belleville is super neat.

We’re also recording in a week’s time with Anton Delost. As much as her an provide his own songwriting / producing proficiency to our established sound, we’re hoping that we can stay true to the elements that helped shape our first release.

My band, Arm’s Length, begins recording our second EP in a month’s time with producer Anton Delost in Toronto.

He’s worked with several reputable bands such as Cleopatrick, Bearings, Seaway and Selfish Things.

The single we begin recording March 12 is called “No Sleep”. I wrote this song in the fall and it’s definitely our heaviest, fastest song yet. Above is acoustic sample of the song.

Andrew Wright, 24, singer and guitarist of Belleville’s The Enrights and a seasoned veteran of almost 10 years in the Quinte music scene, says that you may not have heard of many of Belleville’s newer artists largely because local musicians don’t have as large a platform as they may have had in earlier years.

Andrew Wright has been instrumental in Belleville’s music scene over the last decade, releasing multiple albums and playing countless shows in the region. Currently a Long & Mcquade employee after graduating from Loyalist College in 2018, music is a staple in his everyday life. Photo by Allen Steinberg, QNet News

“There were around 20 active, young bands making original music in the area when I was in high-school,” says Wright. “Genres like post-hardcore, alternative and emo were big in the early 2010s. There would be 10 to 12 of those bands on one bill at Parkdale Community Centre. Because there were so many bands, if every band brought out a couple people to the show it would feel like there was a big audience.”

“Bands like Our Fiction, Hero For The Weak, Carpenteers, Theatria and bands that are bigger now like Long Range Hustle were bands that would play all the time,” says Wright.

Wright played in a handful of Belleville-based bands since he was 13. His first band, Iron Road, had their first show at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic School. Wright has also released albums and with his bands Music For Deaf People, Rabid Flowers, and currently, The Enrights. He also releases music under his own name. Multiple songs from The Enrights, as well as his solo song, “Knew You Best“, are featured regularly on 91xFM, Loyalist College’s campus radio station.

While Wright, in his adolescence, has released an abundance of music, he says that he’s an outlier of sorts. “There’s a lack of youth presence in the area … A big lack of young musicians making original music,” he says.

Bentwood Rocker and The Enrights have made music at very separate times in Quinte, but both say that today, Belleville’s music scene isn’t what it was in terms of artists creating original material: “In Belleville, there are quite a few cover bands, but very little in the amount of current bands producing originals. And nowadays, it’s easier than ever to produce decent music and to put it on a platform like Spotify,” says Wright. “There’s not a band that could be labelled as ‘Belleville’s band’, where I feel a lot of other cities have defining bands like that.”

Wright, often times, will resort to Kingston to play original sets. “We play The Mansion all the time in Kingston. They always have local bands or smaller Ontario bands playing with bigger, sometimes national bands. Belleville needs a venue like that, something more welcoming to new and local acts.”

He insists that local bands are an integral part of building culture in a city. “Music brings liveliness to a city and makes the place more fun, supportive and positive overall. Think of it like you’re supporting a small business when you go and see a local band,” says Wright.

The Enrights are gearing up to release a full-length album in 2020 with plans to record from Andrew Wright’s living room in Belleville.

By Allen Steinberg

You don’t have to be from the big city to produce that
big city sound. Plenty of Canada’s best known musicians
grew up in small communities all across the country.
Homegrown music from these small towns scarcely goes
unnoticed, and indie-rock band Long Range Hustle is
doing everything they can and more to make a name for
themselves.

Hailing from the communities of Stirling, Madoc and
Tweed respectively, the five piece is creating music that
defies the quaintness of their hometowns. By combining
energetic rhythms, lush melodies and passionate vocal
harmonies, Long Range Hustle seems to find the perfect
balance of sounds to formulate well-received alternative
music.

The group, who all attended high school at Centre
Hastings, has been a work in progress for years with
vocalists Paul Brogee and Jay Foster being staples
in the lineup for years. In 2015, Long Range Hustle
released their debut full length album From Seedlings to
Saplings, which earned them considerable local praise.
Therefore, if you were going to jump on the Long Range
Hustle bandwagon at any time, without a doubt, it
should be now.

This past summer, the band released Morning Clover,
the first single off of their upcoming 2020 album. The
track received immediate success amongst their southern
Ontario following. In a matter of a few months, the song
had over 10,000 listens on Spotify and it quickly became
the face of the band’s new direction. Morning Clover
features ambitious harmonies between Brogee and
Foster, a phenomenon that has become a signature of
the band, along with shouted gang vocals to contrast the
satisfying melodies positioned throughout. Their second
single off of the 2020 album, Crush You, was released
on November 9. While still being an earworm due to the
grabby vocals and piano playing by Jay Foster, the song
is more intimate and honest than Morning Clover, as the
softer percussion allows the self-deprecating lyrics to hit
closer to home.

Both works bring honesty, boldness and
excitement, themes that help solidify Long Range Hustle
as a genuine upcoming talent from the Quinte region.
With their latest music, Long Range Hustle carries a
refreshing sound that the Quinte music scene knows
and longs for. Tony Doogan, known for his work
producing acts such as Mogwai and Snow Patrol, is
partially responsible for this brand new vibe as the band
is recording their forthcoming record at his studio just
outside of Kingston.

Long Range Hustle is currently on tour supporting
Morning Clover, already making stops at The Mansion
in Kingston, The Tweedsmuir in Tweed, and Signal
Brewery in Corbyville before hitting various cities in
southern Ontario and the Maritimes. If you missed them
at these venues, keep an eye out. There are more dates
to be announced in wake of their upcoming album set to
release in February 2020.

Tune into 91X FM Alternative Radio for coverage, and
be sure to stream Morning Clover and Crush You on
Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Soundcloud,
Bandcamp and Youtube.

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