Blair Packham bio 2009
Acquiring a varied skill set has never frightened Blair Packham. A singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, producer, engineer, writer, broadcaster and educator, each of Blair’s life and work experiences inform the others, and he has many stories to share.
In cover bands right out of high school, Blair had the urge to play and sing his own material, but this wasn’t encouraged on the northern Ontario bar scene in the late 70s. Offered a job as an apprentice engineer at a Toronto recording studio, Blair opted to stay in the city and hone his studio chops as well as learn how to write good songs. The time was well spent at Comfort Sound, where Blair engineered live (and some studio) recordings for the likes of Bryan Adams, Stevie Ray Vaughan, REM and many others. He also began recording his own songs during evening downtimes and, along with high school pal Dan Levy, decided to form his own band as a vehicle for those songs.
Influenced by the punk and New Wave sounds of Elvis Costello, the Clash and XTC, Blair and Danny called their band The Jitters, and in October of 1981 they played their first gigs. Attracting the attention of legendary producer Bob Ezrin (“The Wall”, Pink Floyd, etc) after a year's slugging it out in bars, the band recorded demo after demo but failed to land a recording contract. Finally, Ezrin having moved on, Capitol Records signed The Jitters in 1987. During The Jitters’ ten years together, Blair wrote several Canadian hits, including “Last of the Red Hot Fools” and “’Til the Fever Breaks”. The band’s second album was co-produced and co-written by Jules Shear (“All Through The Night”, Cyndi Lauper; “If She Knew What She Wants”, The Bangles) and Blair still considers this experience most formative in his songwriting growth. The Jitters sold almost 80,000 copies of their two albums, won several local awards, were Juno Award-nominated (Best New Group, 1988) and toured constantly until their split in 1991.
Immediately upon the breakup of The Jitters, Blair began composing music for film and television. Via his production company, Blare! Music, Blair has built a flourishing career creating music for four feature films, plus Global Television, Discovery Channel, MuchMusic, YTV, The Sports Network/ESPN, Oxygen, CBC and CTV. A recent theme song, for the animated series Spliced!, has proven to be a hit in Argentina (!) where kids are uploadeing their own versions of the opening to YouTube. The show will air in Canada in January 2010.
Still itching to have his songs heard, Blair released his solo debut, called Everything That’s Good, in May 2001. The Toronto Star called it “superbly-crafted...tuneful, honest, sharp-witted, and performed with style and confidence”. Written over Blair’s post-Jitters decade, friends like Ron Sexsmith helped out, and songs from the collection appeared on TV soundtracks for shows such as “Dawson’s Creek”.
In late 2003 Blair wrote and recorded the followup disc, Could’ve Been King, in Vancouver with pals Craig Northey, Doug Elliott and Pat Steward (ex- of the much-lamented Odds). Together with ex-Doug and the Slugs’ Simon Kendall and engineer Colin Nairne, they created a “live band” album, which was released to critical acclaim in 2004.
In 2005, Blair co-produced, with Ron Sexsmith, “What Ever Happened to Christmas” for Andy Kim (“Sugar, Sugar”), and the song hit Number Five on the national AC charts.
Finally, in addition to his other professional activities, Blair has been a longtime supporter of the art and craft of songwriting. working for years with the Songwriters Association of Canada leading seminars, booking concerts and national tours.
This passion led to his founding, with Rik Emmett (Triumph), the Humber College Songwriting Summer Workshop. At the end of the fourth summer session, Humber decided to not renew the program, despite its resounding success, so Blair and Rik decided to take it downtown, to the campus of Ryerson University. Re-named SongStudio, the 2009 workshop was a continuation of their work at Humber: an intense immersion in the art, craft and business of creating words and music. Guests have included Ron Sexsmith, Murray McLauchlan, Ed Robertson (Barenaked Ladies), Steven Page (ex-Barenaked Ladies), Lindy, Jenny Whiteley, Dan Hill, Emm Gryner, Ember Swift, Shari Ulrich, Lynn Miles, Grieg Nori (Sum 41), Jules Shear, Andy Kim and many other notables. As Program Co-Ordinator and co-Artistic Director, Blair sets the agenda, books the guests, and runs hi.s own daily workshop.
Blair is currently beginning work writing and recording his third full-length CD, as well as co-hosting Rock Talk, his weekly music-oriented radio show, heard Sundays 6-7 in the Toronto area on Newstalk 1010 CFRB.
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