Bloomistry
Bloomistry is an Ottawa-based pop-rock, indie music project established in 2004 in Canada’s National Capital Region by Wayne K. Spear, a musician whose first band, The Shade, was active during the mid-to-late 1980s in the Niagara region of Canada. The name “Bloomistry” was inspired by H. H. Bloom Sound Enterprises, past whose shopfront window in downtown Ottawa Spear would walk every day on the way to work. Hy Bloom, born in Ottawa, July 15, 1921, was a builder of amplifiers and public address systems as well as the owner-operator of a recording studio. He quickly gained a reputation which led to his becoming the sound engineer of choice for successive musicians, Canadian Prime Ministers and dignitaries.
Band Members
Current (2009) band members include Terry Calder, Dmitri Koev, and Wayne Spear.
Discography
- 2005: Galetta Street Wharf
- 2006: Ça Marche
- 2007: Late Bloom
- 2008: All I Know Is The Skin Of The Earth
- 2008: At The End Of A Difficult Day
Bloomistry’s first release, “Galetta Street Wharf,” came out in August 2005. Other albums are: “Ça Marche” (2006), “Late Bloom” (2007), “All I Know Is The Skin Of The Earth” (2008), and “At The End Of A Difficult Day” (2008). The first title refers to a fictional street which eventually came to be represented in the album’s artwork by Cardero Street, in the West End of Vancouver. The second album’s French title (which means, literally, “it moves”) reflected the band’s studio relocation from Ottawa to Hull, Quebec and the large amount of traveling which Bloomistry was doing at the time. “Late Bloom” is a play on the name Bloomistry and a reference to the fact that it was recorded when Spear (born December 8, 1965) had entered his forties. “All I Know Is The Skin Of The Earth” was taken from a Pablo Neruda poem, “Too Many Names,” as a replacement of the working title "O:nen, Royaner" (meaning "Goodbye, Chiefs" in the Mohawk language). Bloomistry is currently (March 2009) recording a sixth studio album, under the working title “Broken.” For this project, Bloomistry is posting entries from the studio logs as well as commentary on the recording process on the band's blog.
Collaborations, affiliations
Bloomistry sometimes collaborates with Miche Jetté, aka Flecton Big Sky, of Kelp Records. Although never formally affiliated with Kelp Records, Bloomistry was part of the social and musical circles which included Ottawa Kelp artists such as Jim Bryson, Camp Radio, and The Acorn before withdrawing to pursue a new creative direction. Bloomistry has also acknowledged the role of Flecton Big Sky in initially inspiring the project. Jetté returned from Chicago in the Fall of 2004 with the mixes for an album “Never Took a Wife,” which was recorded with members of The Grifters and Califone. After listening to this album, Spear took his studio out of storage, where it had been since the 1992 break-up of his last band, and started writing the songs which eventually constituted the 2005 record, “Galetta Street Wharf."
In addition to being friends and musical collaborators, Jetté and Spear have been co-workers since 1999 at the Aboriginal Healing Foundation in Ottawa, Canada, a not-for-profit Aboriginal-run funding agency which supports community-based healing initiatives addressing the intergenerational legacy of physical and [...] abuses suffered in Canada’s century-long Indian Residential School System. Spear is a Kanien'kehake (Mohawk), and Jetté is an Ojibwe. In addition to his musical projects, Spear has published works of fiction and non-fiction and has been a ghost writer and speech writer for several prominent individuals, most recently Georges Erasmus.
Bloomistry records and mixes at The Underground in Hull, Quebec and with Phil Bova (Bova Sound) and Dave Draves (Little Bullhorn Productions) in Ottawa. These are the same studios where many Ottawa musicians, including Flecton Big Sky, Jim Bryson, and Kathleen Edwards, have recorded.
Songs
Bloomistry has recorded and released approximately sixty songs since 2005. Singles include: Galetta Street Wharf, North of Wasomee (a song set in Iqaluit, the title of which was suggested by the slogan "North of Awesome" in the Iqaluit Visitor's Guide), Fountain of Light, Come Down Easy, Sault Ste Marie, Hook and Eye, Higher Cloud, I Guess I'll Need A Miracle, My Meija, and River-Wide Road.