District Avenue is a hard rock band hailing out of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada.
The band fuses together themes ingrained in their aboriginal culture and societal constructs with the vibrant, ear-piercing sound of hard hitting modern rock. Forming the core of the band is three former 'Kickin' Krotch' members Mike Bernard on lead vocals, the multifaceted instrumentalist Sean Nicholas on drums, Kipp Sappier on lead guitar and Corey Nicholas on rhythm guitar. The core of District Avenue fortifies the band with their experiences of touring across Canada and Northwest USA in 2014, which spanned 30 cities. Their repertoire includes several nominations during 2014 including an East Coast Music Award for ‘Aboriginal Recording of the Year’, Indigenous Music Awards for ‘Best Rock Album', and they scored a #1 hit on the National Aboriginal Music Countdown. In the following year, they were nominated for 'Best New Artist' in the Indigenous Music Awards.
The fall of 2015, marked the inception of District Avenue's first release after Sean and Mike met with Toronto based producer Vic Branco of Iguana Studios. The studio has a rich history of working with platinum selling legends such as Gene Simmons (Kiss), Nelly Furtado and Billy Talent. As the band's collaborative musical journey began to unfold, challenges in composing and lyric writing appeared, but with the ambition to accomplish new heights, the band pressed onward. Sean crafted and composed the majority of the music for the album with contributions from Kipp, while Mike tapped into his stream of emotions from past life experiences and psychosocial motifs, channeling that energy into the lyrics. Collaboratively, District Avenue and their producer settled on the top eight songs for their debut album, moved on to planning their trip to Toronto’s Iguana Studios where they recorded/mixed 'Epoch'.
The group's dynamic musical taste and endearing demeanor takes audiences through a journey of an emotional frontier and fervently rocks the inner being while at the same time instilling strong and heavy messages inspired by the band’s personal surroundings and way of life. With a mission to prove to themselves and to others in doubt that it is never too late to chase your dreams. The band holds the mindset that when you stop dreaming, you stop living, and set out to craft thrill-riding songs that could move people.
District Avenue plans to release their first single 'Revival' and present to the world their incredible animated video. The video will be submitted to several film festivals for ‘Animated Short’ including TIFF. The band is currently working towards securing summer touring dates in 2017 including a few festival stops both in Canada and the US. District Avenue's sound and well executed music incandescently welcomes and capture the fascinated attention of audiences into its world.
