LAURA PROCTOR
Photojournalist

Hana and Ken

Ken Yoshioka is a Toronto based blues musician originally from Kamakura, Japan. He started his career as a harmonica player and developed into a singer, guitarist and songwriter. Hana, Ken, and Hana’s mom live in Etobicoke, the west end of Toronto.

Greg and Brigit; Josh and Esmé

Brothers Greg and Josh Cockerill were raised in Alberta and now live in the west end of Toronto with their families. Their daughters were born within months of each other. Greg is a singer-songwriter as well as a sideman, session musician and arranger. He also has an acupuncture practice and black belts in brazilian jiujitsu and hapkido.

Josh is an accomplished singer-songwriter and frontman of Animal Parts and Runaway Train, a Shania Twain cover band.

Min, Joe, Xiu and Mike

Mike Timmins is a producer, label head of Latent Recordings, and songwriter and guitarist in the iconic alternative country/folk band Cowboy Junkies, who gained wide recognition with their 1987 record The Trinity Session. Mike resides in Toronto’s west end with his family.

Liam, Tyler and Nichol

Nichol Robertson is an accomplished guitarist, banjo player, singer, and songwriter. He performs in an old-style country duo called The Layrite Boys, amongst other bands, and is a popular sideman in the Toronto music scene. Nichol and his wife are raising their two sons in Etobicoke, the west end of Toronto.

Ahsènath, Ahdarhiyah, AHI, Ahtamh, Ahshatèn and Ahad

Ahkinoah Habah Izarh, known by his stage name AHI, is an indie-roots singer-songwriter. He has been a two-time Juno Award nominee for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year. AHI is originally from Brampton, but he and his wife and four children now live in Toronto.

Ahmed and Sina

Ahmed Moneka is a multi-talented performing artist, skilled as a vocalist, drummer, actor, and more. He is one of the founders of the band Moskitto Bar and the creator and leader of Moneka Arabic Jazz. Originally from Baghdad, he lives with his wife and daughter in the west end of Toronto.

Sona and Christa

Christa Couture is a Queer, disabled, Cree non-fiction writer, singer-songwriter, broadcaster, and filmmaker. Her memoir “How to Lose Everything” was included in CBC’s “The best Canadian nonfiction of 2020” list and received widespread praise. She and her family live in Toronto’s west end.

Ella and Andrea

Andrea de Boer is an indie rock and country-influenced singer-songwriter who goes by the name Civil Wray. She and her daughter live with Andrea’s mother in an early twentieth-century home in the east end of Toronto.

Lindy, Joni and Gus

Born in Manitoba and now living in Hamilton, Lindy Vopnfjörð is an Icelandic-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has been writing and releasing his music since 1995 and has a passion for human rights activism.

Lindsay, Pepper, Ian and Roxy-Jean

The Goodtimes are “part family band, part lifetime performance art project, entertainment engineers and ready to celebrate the joys of being alive with you.” Ian, Lindsay and their two daughters live in the west end of Toronto and lead a street party and a holiday party every year.

Laura and Sami

Laura Repo is a Toronto singer-songwriter and guitarist. She has released four full-length records, the latest of which was produced by Hawksley Workman. She has also started a a writing community called “Write On Mama!” The writing group is for all kinds of writers who are mothers and are looking for a way to reconnect with a creative practice. Laura lives in the west end of Toronto.

Sameer and Andrew

Andrew Cash is a singer-songwriter and former member of Parliament (MP) for the Toronto-area riding of Davenport (2011-2015). He’s from Toronto, still lives there now, and is a member of the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP). He and his friend and fellow politician Charlie Angus founded a punk band called L'Étranger in 1980.

Sameer Cash is a singer-songwriter born and raised in Toronto by his musician father Andrew and his music manager mother. He now resides in the city’s west end and plays guitar in singer-songwriter Jeremie Albino’s band.

Doug and Arlo

Doug Paisley is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter from Toronto, where he still lives with his wife and son. He has been releasing alt-country music, which features his guitar talents as well, since 2008.

Sebastian and Izzy

Izzy Ritchie is a violinist and violist, and a member of Juno-award winning alternative rock band The Strumbellas. Izzy plays classical, country, bluegrass, celtic, rock, and more. She lives in the east end of Toronto with her family.

Anna and Leni

Anna Ruddick is an in-demand session and touring bassist, performing with City and Colour, Fefe Dobson, Ian Blurton’s band Future Now, and more. She’s played on more than sixty records and works for The Unison Fund, a non-profit that provides counselling and emergency relief services to the Canadian music community. Anna lives with her family in Toronto’s west end.

Simon, Laura and Graydon

Graydon James and Laura Spink make up The Young Novelists, a Toronto-based roots-rock band featuring the couple’s harmonies and Graydon’s songwriting. In 2016, Laura quit her job as a scientist and they took the band on a North American tour with their son Simon in tow. The family lives in the east end of Toronto.

Julian and Ella

Julian Taylor is a Juno-nominated singer-songwriter who lives in Toronto’s east end with his daughter Ella. He has been a working musician for over 25 years, starting out in the band Staggered Crossing and now writing and recording as a solo act. Julian is of Mohawk and Caribbean ancestry.

Caroline, Wally and Annie

Caroline Brooks is a singer-songwriter and member of the critically acclaimed folk/country harmony trio The Good Lovelies. They’ve put out 9 releases since 2007 and toured throughout Canada. Caroline lives with her husband and two children in the west end of Toronto.

Ray and Dan

Dan Mock is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter, as well as the bass player for critically acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Jerry Leger. Dan is also an established sideman and session musician in the Toronto music scene and beyond. He lives with his son and his wife, who is a therapist, in the west end of Toronto.

Griffin, Olive, Jason and Hazel

Jason Kenemy is a keyboardist and teacher. He performs his own compositions solo, as well as performing as a member of The Uplifters, and as an occasional member of rock n roll band The Del Fi’s.