Here are the show’s featured artists, in order of appearance:
Jackie Pirico is a comedian and actor who regularly performs with the Toronto comedy collective, Laugh Sabbath. She’s currently taping her first Just For Laughs comedy special, and makes her feature film debut in Sundowners, which will be released in 2017.
Ata Kak is a Ghanaian-born musician who came to Canada in the 80s. In 1993, he recorded and self-released a Hiplife cassette called Obaa Sima in his apartment, but only a handful of people bought it. In the late 1990s, after his wife had immigration issues, he was deported back to Ghana, and copies of the cassette disappeared from Toronto. In 2002, Brian Shimkovitz found a copy of the tape in Cape Coast, Ghana, and thanks to the popularity of a re-issue, he’s currently touring Europe. Here’s the whole story.
Laurice is a Welsh singer-songwriter, who immigrated to Canada in the mid 70s. While he’s been mostly known for his dance and smooth jazz hits, he started off recording rock songs as a session singer in London.
Both Laurice and Ata Kak were immigrants to Canada, and their tracks were selected by Daniel Vila, who made a playlist of music by artists who are Canadian immigrants. Listen to it here.
Kara Stone is a videogame artist who makes games about feelings. Her work has been featured in The Atlantic, Wired, and Vice, and you can read about them and/or play them here. The episode’s featured image is from her game, Cyber Sext Adventure.
BizZarh are Teoni Smith & Aminata Mathews, an R&B outfit who have been making making music together since they were 14, right before hitting high school. Their music draws from a diverse set of influences, including the Wiccan religion and Erykah Badu. Listen here.
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