Hearts on Fire: Six Years That Changed Canadian Music 2000-2005

(Hardback)

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Description

Hearts on Fire is a history of five years of triumph for Canadian music and a celebration of the innovative new artists that rose the profile of Canadian music on the international stage. Everyone from The Be Good Tanyas to Broken Social Scene to Feist to Arcade Fire is celebrated in this triumphant tale of unparalleled creativity.

An authoritative, unprecedented account of how in the early 2000s Canadian music finally became cool

Hearts on Fire is about the creative explosion in Canadian music of the early 2000s, which captured the worlds attention in entirely new ways. The Canadian wave didnt just sweep over one genre or one city, it stretched from coast to coast, affecting large bands and solo performers, rock bands and DJs, and it connected to international scenes by capitalizing on new technology and old-school DIY methods.

Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Feist, Tegan and Sara, Alexisonfire: those were just the tip of the iceberg. This is also the story of hippie chicks, turntablists, poetic punks, absurdist pranksters, queer orchestras, obtuse wordsmiths, electronic psychedelic jazz, power-pop supergroups, sexually bold electro queens, cowboys who used to play speed metal, garage rock evangelists, classically trained solo violinists, and the hip-hop scene that preceded Drake. This is Canada like it had never sounded before. This is the Canada that soundtracked the dawn of a new century.

Featuring more than 100 exclusive interviews and two decades of research, Hearts on Fire is the music book every Canadian music fan will want on their shelf.

Reviews

"Hearts on Fire is an ambitious project from an accomplished journalist, a wellspring of anecdotes and testimony wrought from more than 100 exclusive interviews and two decades of research ... While Hearts on Fire spends a portion of its vast length looking at industry trends, the majority is made up of seventeen thematic chapters, each of which displays the research and scope of a master's thesis, but with better storytelling ... This is a bible: an extensive catalogue of who worked in which bar, who slept on whose shabby couch, or which chance encounter ultimately resulted in a generational classic ... a time capsule of optimism and creativity, and a reminder of what's possible." -- Literary Review of Canada
"Hearts on Fire is a love letter to a seminal time in our country's collective music history sometimes forgotten. At nearly 600 pages, ample space is devoted to revealing the rich sonic landscapes these artists created and painting a vivid picture of their divergent paths to success." -- Toronto Star
"Sets out the when, why, how and magnitude of the change, with reams of granular details and an eye for practicalities." -- Maclean's
"A thorough and intriguing history made no less appealing by its length. For pop music historians and fans, particularly of Canadian bands from 2000 to 2005, whether they know it or not." -- Library Journal

Author Bio

Michael Barclay is the author of the 2018 national bestseller The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip. He is also a co-author of Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-95, to which this book could be considered a sequel. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.