Canadian Recordings

Canadian Recordings began in Los Angeles, California near the end of 2001. Crammed into the upstairs bedroom of a turn of the century era duplex in West Hollywood, recording and production schedules revolved around rush hour traffic, fist fights and drunken bikers on La Cienega Blvd. Expanding from a then two-to- four track recorder, the fledgling facility specialized in rock, pop and R&B records as well as the inadvertent collecting of vintage recording equipment.

In 2007, six years and several permutations later, founder Davey James moved the company and studio to it’s current location in Toronto Canada. Lots of recordings have since been made in the comfortable converted 1890's studio homestead, located in the Art District off Queen Street West. With an ambience both artistic and professional, Canadian Recordings has become a regional institution for musicians working in many genres, and looks forward to new and exciting projects. Credits include everything from working for Juno and Grammy Award winning artists to beginning musicians wanting to learn how to strum a G chord. Please see our Discography for more information.

Part of making music for the 21st century also means respecting the Earth. We, as much as possible, reduce our carbon footprint by choosing public transportation, recycling and using recycled products. Recording in solar powered settings when possible and buying foods that are grown locally. A portion of money that is earned exceeding our expenses is given to charitable causes we find important. Some of these institutions are working to donate musical instruments to people in Canada and the world that cannot afford them. They are organizations that are taking concerts and musical instruction to new places. We at Canadian Recordings feel fortunate to have wonderful musical educations coupled with life experience and wish for others to have this same opportunity.

Canadian born founder David James is currently finishing his PhD in Ethnomusicology and holds a Masters of Fine Art in World Music from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). He also holds a Bachelors of Music in Jazz Studies from Loyola University New Orleans. Davey is a drummer and multi-instrumentalist whose background producing and engineering music, coaching artists and performing has led to his involvement in several bands, projects and performances. Davey has been involved in numerous collaborations fusing multiple genres and has been fortuate enough to work with some comercially successful artists. His peers regard him as a supportive accompanist and a musical drummer. He has performed and recorded with artists from Columbia, Wind Up and Capital records and is continuing to tour North American, Asia and Europe.

Raised in southeast Texas, Davey's first musical experiences began at a young age when his mother would bring him to local venues to watch blues musicians perform. As Davey got older he started to perform himself. Playing with different bands around Houston, the city he was raised in - that is when he realized music was his calling. His music education started at the High School of the Performing and Visual Arts and led him to study drumming at Loyola University in New Orleans. Education is very important to Davey because of being raised in an unstructured alcoholic home with no education on either side of his family. Despite a learning disability and the chaos of his troubled youth, Davey managed to get a master's degree and tour half the world with some talented musicians. The creation of his second music company: Canadian Recordings. will now allow him to be of service to the next generation of musicians and help preserve music that brought his dreams to reality. Davey says "There is something magical about performing, writing and recording music for others to experience, and I'd like to capture as much of that as I can. Music has truly saved my life, and given me and new found freedom".

Much of what Davey does at Canadian Recordings was learned by working as an intern, part-time runner and assistant while living in Los Angeles. He says “it’s not glamour work but you pick up all the things you need to know about the music business just by watching the pros”. He worked for music producers Rick Rubin and Michael Bienhorn and was an assistant to music manger Jeff Norskog (Pussycat Dolls). He was an intern for music supervisor Patrick Houlihan for the movies: Training Day, Bubble Boy and Sweetest Thing. He also built and ran a music studio affiliated with the Grammys in Malibu California.

Currently residing in Toronto, Davey is involved in many musical projects. On the local scene he is busy teaching at York University, coaching folk, rock and hip-hop artists and recording his own project. On the international scene he is touring Asia with bands Girl and the Machine and experimental rock group Turkey. He is also in pre-production with Los Angeles based guitarist Louis Lenard's (Boy Hits Car) meditation record and with Japanese Canadian singer Junzi's second album. Besides teaching and coaching under Canadian Recordings, Davey is currently mixing Bob Egan's (Blue Rodeo) latest solo project.