Concert News

Shane Koyczan Playing in London

5th Mar 2014

Shane Koyczan is playing one date in London:
Friday 18th April @ 100 Club, London

Winter Olympics introduced us to Shane Koyczan. With a collective “wow” across Canada, we found the poet of our generation. And we weren’t even looking for one. The world took notice when Shane’s influential, anti-bullying, To This Day Project video went viral in early 2013 with over 8.6 million views and counting. Powerfully engaging and authentic in attitude, his explorations are relevant to our times in the way that Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Downie and Leonard Cohen are to theirs. But unlike the musicians that he’s often compared to, poets rarely infiltrate pop culture. Koyzcan emerges in a new wave of 21st century poetry that dares to belong to the people and speak directly to them in their own voice.

Shane Koyczan is both a writer and spoken word virtuoso. His first published collection,
Visiting Hours, was the only work of poetry selected by both the Guardian and the Globe
and Mail for their Best Books of the Year lists in 2005. Destined to become a future classic,
Visiting Hours is now in its third edition, and includes We Are More, the powerful and moving poem that defines a nation often too humble to define itself, the piece was performed by Shane at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Koyczan followed up on the success of Visiting Hours with Stickboy, a novel in verse that
chronicles the dark and lonely journey of a bullied child gripped by helpless rage. Koyczan
shines a light into the bleak world behind some of the most incomprehensible acts in our
culture, and also shows the healing power of love. Written for anyone who has ever been a child, Stickboy continues to be hailed by teachers, academics, and mental health experts
alike for its deft handling of the subject of bullying.

Shane has returned to his roots with a collection of poetry titled, Our Deathbeds will be
Thirsty, which was released in 2012. This book features the piece, To This Day, a poem
about bullying that was made into a video by collaborating animators. That video soon
received worldwide recognition when it went viral on Youtube by receiving over a million
views in a matter of days. It was released as a project to acknowledge anti-bullying day.

The band is a quartet (Olivia Mennell, Maiya Robbie, Jordie Robinson and Jesse Lee) whose musical range stretches from folk to funk, from ambient to rock, showcasing all of the beautiful in between. Along with Koyczan they have created a whole new style of song/verse. Winning “Best New Artist” at the BC Interior Music Awards in 2009, as well as Best Spoken Word Album and Best Spoken Word Piece in 2012 for CDBaby’s Just Plain Folk Awards, receiving standing ovations at festivals across Canada, and selling out theatres, the band is turning heads on the Canadian independent music scene. With a number of high profile festival dates for Short Story Long and a recorded collaboration between Shane and Dan Mangan, Koyczan is establishing himself in yet another unique way.