Huntsville's Bronwyn Boyer has debut CD on new local record label.

Local singer/songwriter and musician Bronwyn Boyer, a Bracebridge native living in Huntsville for the past 10 years, is releasing her debut CD on a newly-formed record label, Ear Candy Records. Her debut album, titled "Release," was 'released' on April 29th, with a morning appearance on Sean Cotton's "Talent on the Bay" show, on Hunter's Bay radio, featuring several album cuts as well as a live performance of one of the songs. During the interview, she revealed that "Release" was the first volume in a trilogy of albums that have been in the works for several years, in collaboration with her father, musician/producer Imre de Jonge, who owns The Barn Studio in Huntsville, where all the production is done. Altogether there are some 90 songs in the works, with "Release," comprising eleven of them. They thought it fitting to give the albums a label, and so Ear Candy Records was born. De Jonge admits that he was greatly inspired by the American label Candy Rat. “It’s an amazing outfit, with a roster to die for,” he says

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So far, Boyer is the only artist on the roster, but that is likely to change soon, as de Jonge is brewing up a release of his own, and is also looking at other artists to release on Ear Candy. But de Jonge says "We'll take on other artists as funds permit; it costs money and a ton of work to put out and promote a record, and we don't want to take on a project that we can't finance and push, otherwise we'd be useless as a label. There has to be a lot to offer an artist, otherwise why bother with us?" alluding to the plethora of methods and means in this digital internet age for self-releasing one's own music. "And from our standpoint, we have to be very judicious in our choices... it's a gut gamble you really have to believe in. We're not profit-motivated, but we're not naive either. The investment plus some has to come back eventually if you want to stay afloat. But you never know how far into the future you'll break even, if you even do, so it's a long-haul proposition, but with a possible long-term payoff."

He says he looks for potential in an artist, not necessarily their current standing or popularity, and is drawn to innovative, "outside the box" music. "It's all about seeing into the future," he says. His taste obviously plays a huge role, he admits, adding "You can't effectively sell something you don't love and believe in. Ear Candy will never be the home for the next pop diva, rap sensation, or country crooner... we're not about mass appeal, which is dominated by mediocrity anyway, and those genres don't interest me. It has to have a very high musical and artistic merit, and please the ears, like candy pleases the mouth."

De Jonge says he wants to break the old industry mold by offering artists an equitable 50/50 split on revenues while the label absorbs all the costs. "As a musician, I realize that by far the biggest contribution to any deal is the music itself; that's the product, without which there is no business at all. That can't be under-valued, or over-exploited as it has been in the past. It has to be a symbiotic relationship, with equitable mutual benefit," he explains. “The artist should always get the lion’s share, not the other way around.”

For her part, Boyer, who also did the jacket design and the Ear Candy logo, says, "I feel like I've just given birth to a child I've been carrying for ten years. It's a huge watershed for me. The songs have been piling up for many years, but I just wasn't quite sure how I wanted to present them until now. It feels good to finally grab the bull by the horns and make up for lost time...and I fully intend to do just that, because I've got a lot up my sleeve. Ear Candy Records is a platform for my vision of no-holds-barred, balls-to-the-wall creativity that is tasty to listen to. I'm not interested in popularity, and I don't believe in dumbing down for an audience. There are no boundaries here."

Her album is now available online at bronwynboyer.com, and at earcandyrecords.ca, with CDs to follow in June, when it will also launch on iTunes. You can stream the entire album three times for free, and you can download it for $10.