DEE

ol, he formed his first group, in which he was both singer and guitarist. His roots were in rock, his inspiration was pop, and DEE couldn’t be stopped: he knew where he was headed and had no intention of straying from the course he’d charted. In the latter half of the 90’s, techno music was exploding and DEE jumped into the thick of things. While staying true to his rock-and-roll roots, DEE added new sounds to his repertoire and founded The Urbanauts, a collective in which electronic music played a key role. Pioneering the live fusion of instrumental rock and digital beats in Canada, The Urbanauts quickly gained recognition for their innovative sound and earned a place among the leading lights of Montreal’s up-and-coming underground scene. Around the year 2000, the group released its first maxi single, Crank, followed in quick succession by the album Stereo Tonic, which drew rave reviews from critics and was warmly received by the public. The Urbanauts’ fluid organizational makeup —which mirrored the relatively disorganized nature of the nascent electronic music scene—also proved to be its Achilles heel, and the group dissolved in 2003. A firm believer in the DIY approach, he was soon fully engaged in the making of his first solo album, which he produced himself in his home studio. DEE composed, sang, and played most of the instruments on the album, which bore an
unapologetic pop sensibility. The precocious child had become an accomplished professional, and his newfound maturity was evident for all to hear on this debut eponymous album released in 2004. Hailed by national media as an emerging artist to watch, DEE garnered praise from critics and the public alike, selling more than 20,000 copies. He drew comparisons to Beck, given their similar styles and self-produced approach, and was recognized in his adopted city of Montreal as a unique figure in the Anglophone pop scene. Soon, there was international confirmation of his rising star: DEE’s song Miles and Miles (Living
On The Edge) was chosen as the soundtrack for a worldwide Ford ad that was broadcast during the Super Bowl. Thanks to this high-profile exposure and positive buzz from the track itself, Universal Music signed DEE with plans to reissue his album internationally. However, the distribution timeline was not fast enough for the album to ride the wave of buzz created by the Super Bowl ad, and the album’s success was moderate. Undeterred by this missed opportunity, DEE had other tricks up his sleeve. Turning to YouTube, which at the time just was gaining popularity, he uploaded a self-produced music video of a new song parodying the Internet phenomenon that was lonelygirl15. The video was an immediate sensation, quickly amassing hundreds of thousands of views that have since passed the one million mark. Another of DEE’s self-produced videos, Filter Factory, also has enjoyed a spectacular run on YouTube, with more than 1.6 million views to date. YouTube acknowledged DEE’s creative use of the medium by inviting him to perform at promotional events in Toronto and in Moscow, where he was on hand for the launch of YouTube Russia. DEE’s next endeavour was the release of Day By Day, a second solo album that revealed a maturing talent, with songs like Hot! and Uh Oh that offered arrangements of a rare finesse. While limited distribution prevented the new album from truly taking off, DEE’s compositions continued to reach a large audience. His music was featured on leading TV shows in the US, such as Six Feet Under, Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order, Ugly Betty and several more. His work also appeared in numerous Canadian TV ads, as well as the movie soundtrack of Quebec director Ricardo Trogi’s feature film, Dodging the Clock. His remix of Rustie’s song, After Light, was heard across the planet in an Adidas ad broadcast during the London 2012 Olympics. After a stint as a guest musician in Cirque du Soleil’s 2011 summer production of Kingdom of Tin in Quebec City, DEE returned to the studio to begin a new creative cycle. The fruit of that effort is the concept album The Space Between Us, whose narrative evokes the interstellar expanse between an astronaut on a mission and his fiancée back on Earth. Evidently, the time has come for DEE to launch into the stratosphere. The Space Between Us is scheduled for lift-off November 18th 2014.