Label headquarters (1997-2017), on Wilson Street, downtown Hamilton, Ontario
Formation
Sonic Unyon was founded in Burlington, Ontario in 1993 by Mark Milne and Sandy McIntosh, guitarists of the band Tristan Psionic.[1][2] (The label’s name was inspired by the title of a Guitar Player magazine interview with My Bloody Valentine guitarist Kevin Shields.[3]) Sonic Unyon's ownership expanded six months later with the addition of partner Tim Potocic, the band’s drummer. Each put up $2,000 and the company took its first steps.[4]
Early Years (1993-1998)
At first, Sonic Unyon exclusively released Tristan Psionic's music, but the label soon began releasing and promoting music by other local bands.[5][6] Sonic Unyon's first eight releases were issued on individually dubbed, hand-packaged cassettes. The label's first vinyl pressing was a 7" sampler released in 1994. A compilation, the label's tenth release, followed later that year on compact disc.
Sonic Unyon regularly organized concerts in traditional and non-traditional spaces featuring artists on the label's roster, but became increasingly ambitious as momentum behind the young label grew. The label’s first large-scale event, Woolsock,[7] was a one-day festival held in a farm field south of Campbellville, Ontario on August 20, 1994. The lineup included Change of Heart, Gorp, Shallow, Smoother, Spool, Treble Charger, 13 Engines, and Tristan Psionic. Woolsock ’95 was staged a year after the initial Woolsock, this time at a rural property in Pelham, Ontario. Following logistical hurdles, the festival ultimately relocated to Hamilton’s X-Club.[8] The event featured Another White Male, Choke To Start, Gorp, Hayden, hHead, Hip Club Groove, Kittens, Kottmeier, The Mercury Men, Monster Voodoo Machine, The New Grand, Poledo, Project 9, Rheostatics, Shallow, Sianspheric, Smoother, Sparkmarker, Treble Charger, and Tristan Psionic.
In honour of the label’s second anniversary, Sonic Unyon rented the 44-meter yacht Captain Matthew Flinders for a floating party tour of Toronto’s waters on September 17, 1995. Bands playing that party included Change of Heart, Die Cheerleader, and Huevos Rancheros.[7][8]
By 1995, Sonic Unyon had grown to be one of the largest independent labels in Canada.[9] In 1996, Sonic Unyon’s partners purchased a three-storey commercial building at 22 Wilson Street near James Street North in downtown Hamilton thanks in part to a friendly relationship with then-owner Sam Manson, whose namesake sporting goods store had just closed at the same address.[10] The label, which had been operating out of a warehouse in Hamilton’s Corktown neighbourhood, moved in the following year. The basement of their headquarters often held shows, and many local musicians got jobs working for the record label and some would go on to operate their own record labels out of the building.[11]
On October 3, 1998, Sonic Unyon marked the label’s fifth anniversary with a celebration that included the release of the Now We Are 5 compilation, the grand opening of the Sonic Unyon Record Store (located on the main level of 22 Wilson Street), an all-ages show at its headquarters, and a licensed concert in an upstairs hall of the nearby Fortune Village restaurant. The latter concert featured sets from Blonde Redhead, Danko Jones, The Mooney Suzuki, The New Grand, Bill Priddle, Julie Doiron, Thrush Hermit, and Tristan Psionic. The concert’s lineup had initially included The Flaming Lips’ Boombox Experiment, but the band ended that series five nights earlier in Boston, Massachusetts and did not appear in the final lineup.
Sonic Unyon also ran hardcore label Goodfellow Records (active 1997-2009), as well as the more mainstream imprint Labwork Music (a joint effort with EMI Canada[14]), which released Wintersleep's Welcome to the Night Sky, the album that earned them a JUNO Award for New Group of the Year.[15]
Operating out of a retail space on the main floor of Sonic Unyon’s headquarters, the Sonic Unyon Record Store showcased the thousands of independent titles stocked in the label’s distribution warehouse, located in the same building. The shop opened in October 1998 and remained in business for almost a decade, closing in spring of 2008.[16] The label continues to operate an online storefront.[17]
Complementing the building's basement hardcore shows and in-store pop-ups, between 2002 and 2007 the label’s third floor space hosted concerts from dozens of bands including Alexisonfire, Frank Black and the Catholics, Converge, Cursed, The Evens, and Voivod.
The Events Era (2009-present)
In 2009, Sonic Unyon returned to event production at scale by organizing Supercrawl,[18] a free annual multi-arts festival dedicated to showcasing the arts scene in the James North region of Hamilton. The three-day event has featured hundreds of national and international touring artists in a range of artistic disciplines. In 2015, the festival received an Ontario Tourism Award of Excellence for Tourism Event of the Year.[19] It was also a finalist for Event of the Year at the 2017 Canadian Tourism Awards.[20]
Sonic Unyon has since broadened its events-based business to include the annual Because Beer Craft Beer Festival, and the opening of multi-use cultural events spaces Mills Hardware and Bridgeworks in 2014 and 2020 respectively.[21] The label left its Wilson Street offices in 2017 and is now headquartered within the Bridgeworks venue.
Sonic Unyon has produced JUNOfest 2015 and 2022, JUNO Songwriters’ Circle in 2019, and Hamilton's 2015 Pan Am Games closing celebrations. Sonic Unyon also produced the 2021 and 2023 Grey Cup Festivals, the 2023 Polaris Music Prize Gala and the 2023 edition of CBC Toronto's Sounds of the Season.
In 2011, roughly two decades after the term “metal” was stripped from the JUNO Awards (following the retirement of the Best Hard Rock / Metal Album category after the 1991 awards), a new category was created: Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year, the result of a two-year CARAS lobbying campaign by Sonic Unyon.[22][23]
The Sonic Unyon building also housed the recording studio of Junior Boys’ Jeremy Greenspan[25] prior to relocating to his own Barton Building Studios in 2019.
In September 2024, the label announced a new event space called Sonic Hall in downtown Guelph, Ontario.[26]
Critical Recognition
Sonic Unyon’s roster makes up three of CBC's 50 best Canadian songs of the '90s[27] and eight placements on Noisey’s 2016 ranking of the 60 Best CanRock Songs Ever.[28][29] Singles from Sonic Unyon artists represent three of CBC Music’s 50 Best Canadian Songs of the '90s[30] and three of Indie 88’s Top 150 Canadian Songs of All Time.[31]
Two Sonic Unyon releases ranked on Chart Magazine’s Top 100 Greatest Canadian Albums of All Time. Thrush Hermit’s Clayton Park has been named as one of CBC Music’s 100 Greatest Canadian Albums Ever[32] while Sianspheric’s Somnium was named as one of Chart Attack’s Top 50 Canadian Albums of All Time.[33]
Commercial Success
Hayden’s Everything I Long For has been certified Gold by Music Canada.[34]
Awards & Nominations
JUNO Awards
Julie Doiron, Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars (Sappy/Sonic Unyon) - Winner, Best Alternative Album, 2000
Thrush Hermit, Clayton Park (Sonic Unyon) - Nominee, Best Alternative Album, 2000
Tricky Woo, Sometimes I Cry (Sonic Unyon) - Nominee, Best Alternative Album, 2000
Wintersleep, Welcome to the Night Sky (Labwork) - Winner, New Group of the Year, 2008
Wintersleep, Welcome to the Night Sky (Labwork) - Nominee, Alternative Album of the Year, 2008
Terra Lightfoot, New Mistakes (Sonic Unyon) - Nominee, Adult Alternative Album of the Year, 2018
Strongman, No Time Like Now (Sonic Unyon) - Nominee, Blues Album of the Year, 2018
Danko Jones, Power Trio (Sonic Unyon) - Nominee, Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year, 2022
Danko Jones, Electric Sounds (Sonic Unyon) - Nominee, Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year, 2024
Polaris Music Prize
Final Fantasy, He Poos Clouds (Blocks Recording Club/Sonic Unyon) - Winner, 2006[35]
Terra Lightfoot, New Mistakes (Sonic Unyon) - Long List, 2018
Thrush Hermit, Clayton Park - Short List, Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, 2020
Terra Lightfoot, Healing Power (Sonic Unyon) - Long List, 2024[36]
Selected Artists
The following artists have made at least one release through Sonic Unyon.
Rob Benvie is a Canadian musician and writer who has performed with alternative rock acts Thrush Hermit, Bankruptcy, Camouflage Nights, and The Dears. He also records and occasionally performs live as Tigre Benvie.
Eric's Trip is a Canadian indie rock band from Moncton, New Brunswick. Eric's Trip achieved prominence as the first Canadian band to be signed to Seattle's flagship grunge label Sub Pop in the early 1990s.
Paul Hayden Desser, who records as Hayden, is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Thornhill, Ontario.
Danko Jones is a Canadian hard rock trio from Toronto, also adopted by Barcelona. The band consists of Danko Jones (vocals/guitar), John "JC" Calabrese (bass), and Rich Knox (drums). The band's music includes elements of hard rock and punk,
Thrush Hermit was a Canadian alternative rock band active in the 1990s, known for their "highly energetic, humorous, and unpredictable performances," as quoted by Vice News.
William Joel MacDonald Plaskett is a Canadian rock musician and songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was a member of Halifax alternative rock band Thrush Hermit in the 1990s. Plaskett performs in a number of genres, from blues and folk to hard rock, country, and pop.
Wooden Stars are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1994. The band, from Ottawa, consists of vocalist and guitarist Julien Beillard, guitarist Michael Feuerstack, bassists Josh Latour and Mathieu Beillard, and drummer Andrew McCormack.
Tristan Psionic was a Canadian indie rock band. The band members also founded the music label Sonic Unyon.
Camouflage Nights is a Canadian electronic rock band from Toronto fronted by Rob Benvie and Ian McGettigan.
Wintersleep is a Canadian indie rock band formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2001. The band's original lineup consisted of vocalist and guitarist Paul Murphy, guitarist and keyboardist Tim d'Eon, and drummer Loel Campbell. In 2002, Jud Haynes joined the band as bass guitarist until 2007. In 2005, Mike Bigelow joined on keyboards until 2006, after which he played bass, until 2016. Since 2006, Jon Samuel has served as a backing vocalist, keyboardist, and guitarist, while Chris Bell has served as a backing vocalist and bass guitarist since 2016. Bigelow returned to the band in 2021. In 2005, Wintersleep opened for Pearl Jam for two shows in St. John's, Newfoundland at the Mile One Stadium. The band received a Juno Award in 2008. To date, Wintersleep have released seven studio albums.
Clayton Park is the second full-length album by Canadian rock band Thrush Hermit. It was released on Sonic Unyon in 1999, and is the last album they released as a band. The album produced two singles and videos for the songs "From the Back of the Film" and "The Day We Hit the Coast".
Smoother was a Canadian rock band from Hamilton, Ontario, headed by lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Andrew Franey. Members included Beau Cook on bass and vocals, keyboardist James Flemings-Strange, drummer Adam Benning and Todd Knight on guitar and vocals.
Chore were a Canadian post-hardcore band from Dunnville, Ontario.
Wilson Street is a Lower City collector road in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It starts off at James Street North and works its way East and ends at Sherman Avenue North. The section between James Street and Ferguson Avenue was a one-way road, but was converted to a two-way street at 10 am on December 10, 2010.
Sianspheric is a Canadian space rock and shoegazing band originally from Hamilton, Ontario. This group were early signees to the Sonic Unyon label.
Shallow North Dakota was a Canadian noise rock/sludge metal band from Hamilton, Ontario. The band was known for its loud, aggressive music and live shows, which often included destroying stage equipment.
Dale Morningstar is a Canadian rock musician and recording engineer and producer, originally from Chippawa, Ontario.
The Inflation Kills (TIK) were a band from Hamilton, Ontario, featuring founding members of prominent Southern Ontario independent bands Kitchens & Bathrooms and Hoosier Poet. Members of the band were: Phil Williams (vocals/guitar), Matt Fleming (guitar), Nicholas Daleo (drums) and Adrian Murchison (bass). After indie-math-rockers Kitchens & Bathrooms disbanded, Williams went on to start The Inflation Kills in 2004 with the intentions of demonstrating an aesthetic shift from more complex time signatures, toward a rock and roll inspired approach, and reestablishing a long commitment to an independent approach to musical creation. The Inflation Kills had two albums. Their self-titled, debut, full-length album released through the now defunct TikTokTikTok MUSIC! collective and distributed in Canada through Sonic Unyon. Their second album, "GROUNDS FOR TERMINATION", released in 2016 on bandcamp and other platforms.
Terra Lightfoot is a Canadian musician and singer-songwriter from Hamilton, Ontario who has released four albums with the independent music label Sonic Unyon Recording Company and is distributed by Universal Music Group in Canada and The Orchard outside of Canada. She performs in a folk and roots rock style known for bold vocals and electric guitar riffs.
Basement Revolver is an indie rock band from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Formed in 2016 by guitarist and vocalist Chrisy Hurn, bassist Nimal Agalawatte and former drummer Brandon Munro, the band has released two EPs and four singles, with their first album, Heavy Eyes, being released in 2019. While the band largely plays in Southern Ontario, they have toured the UK and have played in the Midwest USA and New York. Known for their alternative dream pop style of music, Basement Revolver has enjoyed success on both sides of the Atlantic, and signed onto British indie record label fear of missing out in 2016.
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