In January 2001, Marc Garniss of Kingston Punk Productions, then an upstart local live music promoter hosting weekly shows at Kingston's Club 477 (now a bicycle shop), called in a bunch of favours from his favourite Canadian bands and assembled a music compilation of previously released songs on CD to mark his first year of business. Garniss sold the CD at concerts and Kingston shops like Brian's Record Option, and he was pretty proud of it. 20 years and " over a thousand shows later," says a statement on KPP Concerts' website, Garniss is at it again. Now one of Ontario's top concert and event promoters, Garniss has plenty more to be proud of. So, he's rounded up a handful of Kingston-based bands and artists to mark two decades by recording and releasing their new, original songs. And he's footing the bill too, with the some help from the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Kingston. "It's a way we could do something meaningful for the local artists," explained Garniss in a recent Kingston Live interview. A few months back, KPP Concerts put out an open call for song submissions from local acts in and around the Kingston area. "I think we had around 150 applications," Garniss recalled. "Our committee had a really hard time narrowing it down, but they finally chose ten artists to participate." That participation looked like a private audio and video recording session inside The Spire—also known as the Sydenham Street United Church—a historical Kingston landmark built in 1851 with an interior designed specifically for acoustics. Over two days, Garniss invited each of the Kingston acts into the church for an exclusive and private recording session led by sound engineer Aaron Holmberg, former house engineer at The Tragically Hip’s Bathouse Studios.

Over two days, Garniss invited each of the Kingston acts into the church for an exclusive and private recording session led by sound engineer Aaron Holmberg, former house engineer at The Tragically Hip’s Bathouse Studios.

To accompany each audio recording, Brent Nurse of bnice Films and longtime collaborator, Steve Spencer, captured each intimate recording on video with the aim of producing a high-quality music video for each song. Each band or artist played a total of three songs, but Garniss said only one each will make the final cut for his KPP@20 collection. Garniss has intentionally kept the participating artists a secret. "We want it to be a bit of a surprise," he added. And it will stay a surprise until Garniss releases the songs in late September 2021, when music videos for each recording will be published to YouTube in succession. "We're trying to press a vinyl record too, but the pandemic has created a massive backlog." Once it's out, the vinyl record will be available at all of Kingston's record stores, and Garniss suggested followers should watch KPP Concerts' Instagram account @kppconcerts and check their website for updates and announcements. Posted: May 3, 2023 Originally Published: Jul 31, 2021