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The Making of a Medley
Photo of Colin Medley by Ken Craine.
Long before Colin Medley was the budding-star director of the Torontoist (and some website called “Pitchfork”)-approved Diamond Rings video “All Yr Songs,” he was planting his scene documentarist roots in his Oshawa stomping grounds. “I was hanging out [at local venue The Dungeon] a lot, so I sort of naturally fell into making show posters and artwork for some local bands. Near the end of high school I started running a [local music] website called Durhamrock.com, and I think I was still seventeen when I first went to the (now-closed) Velvet Elvis, which was this old house that had been converted into a venue. It was really amazing to discover a place like that in Oshawa. I really felt a stronger connection to the music that I was hearing there.”
Parlaying that restless over-fan syndrome into a college radio show, then into a video podcast that he shot on a borrowed camera, Medley was setting up exclusive acoustic performances and interviews with your new favourite bands like The Wooden Sky, Evening Hymns, and The Burning Hell before the internet was full of their mugs and mini homemade music docs/performances. He further fostered his scene bond through an internship producing Soundcheck for the National Post, and after moving to Toronto, quickly turned from full-time fan to a go-to source, doing occasional correspondence for CBC Radio 3 and running a new website called Morning Noon Night under the straight-shooting mandate of “documenting the music around me, whenever and wherever.”
Tomorrow night, Medley will share his seasoned advice and his new-guy enthusiasm as part of Toronto Public Library’s Make Some Noise series with a workshop geared towards young, non-lazy documentarians in waiting. “I work at Soundscapes, and all the local music that the library carries is purchased there. My boss/store owner Greg Davis helps choose the bands and organize the series’ concerts, and when asked if he knew anyone who could do a workshop, he asked me.” For Medley, being part of Make Some Noise is the best employee-of-the-month award. “I used to sign CDs out of the library all the time when I was younger, but it was very rare to find anything too current, especially independent Canadian bands. The fact that a kid can read about Timber Timbre and then walk down to the library and sign out their album is pretty damn cool.”
Colin Medley will speak at the Kennedy/Eglinton branch (2380 Eglinton Avenue East, in the Liberty Square Shopping Plaza) on Tuesday November 24 at 7 p.m. Admission is free.