Local band to participate in CBC Searchlight contest

 

By Liam Higgins

A local band is participating in a contest held by CBC to find Canada’s next great new artist.

CBC’s Searchlight contest consists of various bands from around Canada competing for a chance to win $20,000 towards Yamaha Canada Music, a feature in a CBC music video session and to play at one of Toronto’s prominent music showcases with all expenses paid.

Emerald Seas is one of the 67 Windsor region acts entered in the competition. The alternative rock band was created in January 2012 and consists of guitarists Justin Dow and Michael Petrino, bassist Marko Rozic, drummer Eric Noble and lead vocalist Sam Breault.

Petrino said the idea of entering the contest came from his sister who had heard about it on the radio. After Petrino was given the information, he told Dow about it, who then searched online to find more information.
“I also saw Mike (Holmes) and Dave (Nisbet) from Falling with Glory post about it on Facebook, and it just came up on my news feed,” said Dow. “I was like, ‘Oh that’s kind of cool, I wonder how to get on there.’”

Each person can vote for their favourite band or musician once a day, with separate heats of voting, eliminating bands that fail to place accordingly with the contest requirements for each heat.
“It’s a pretty wide competition,” said Dow.

The band said they feel one of the things that makes them unique from other bands around Windsor is their vocalist.
“There’s not too many female bands around,” said Breault. “I mean there was Perpetuate, but they’re not really a band anymore.”

Additionally, Noble said the individual influences of each member of the band also makes them different than an average alternative rock band.
“Sam is into pretty much everything,” said Noble. “Me and Justin used to play in a death metal band, Mike is into everything I guess, lots of like older stuff. So, we get influence from like every single genre.”

The band said they feel every act has an equal chance of winning, and they hope everyone does well. Voting is open for the next two months.