Talk about Awesome, have you heard of the Peak 100.5 FM’s “Peak Performance Project” administered by Music BC? A few months ago they put a call for entries out to bands who have to send in their demos, etc, then they chose the top 20 of those which they’ll send to a boot camp/workshop thing. After that there’ll be a concert series that the bands play and in the end the best 3 artists/groups will share $275,000 (!!!) for sustained career development. They’re basically taking the best bands and giving them an amazing helping hand. And the program runs for the next 7 years, doling out 5.29 MILLION DOLLARS to 21 different artists. This is one more reason why the Peak is my favourite local station.

And I was pretty stoked to see that friends of V.I.A., Bend Sinister, were chosen out of the 450 bands that applied to participate in the inaugural year of the program. Yeah, Bend Sinister!

Bend Sinister. Photo by Justin Tyler Close of the STUDIO

Here’s a link to the announcement page. And in case you’re wondering the top 20 are:

TÉA from Vancouver – www.myspace.com/teasmuse
The Painted Birds from Vancouver – www.myspace.com/thepaintedbirds
Jackson Cook from Kelowna – www.myspace.com/jacksoncookmusic
Danny Echo from Burnaby – www.dannyecho.com
Familia from Maple Ridge – www.myspace.com/familiaband
Freeflow from Vancouver – www.freeflow.ca
Garrett Kato from Port Coquitlam – www.myspace.com/garrettkato
Bodhi Jones from Vancouver – www.myspace.com/bodhijones
adaline from Vancouver – www.adalinemusic.com
Adrian Glynn from Vancouver – www.adrianglynn.com
Alexandria Maillot from Nanaimo – www.myspace.com/alexandriamaillot
Ben Sigston from Vancouver – www.myspace.com/bensigston
Bend Sinister from Vancouver – www.myspace.com/bendsinisterband
Kuba Oms from Victoria – www.kubaoms.com
Run The Red Light from Vancouver – www.runtheredlight.ca
We Are The City from Kelowna – www.wearethecity.ca
TV HeartAttack from Vancouver – www.myspace.com/tvheartattack
Wassabi Collective from Nelson – www.wassabi.net
Sweetheart from Vancouver – www.myspace.com/iheartsweetheart
The Left from Langley – www.myspace.com/thelefttheband