Long before I was spending my days thinking about marketing campaigns, websites and creative direction, I was booking concerts, working with bands, helping put on festivals and spending a lot of time around music venues. I loved that world. The late nights, the people, the posters, the excitement of putting something together and hoping people would show up.
But I think the part I enjoyed most was discovering things.
Finding a band that nobody around me seemed to know about yet. Hearing about a show in a tiny venue. Coming across an artist, a record shop or some strange little corner of a city that made me feel like I'd stumbled onto something special. There was something satisfying about following your curiosity and ending up somewhere you hadn't planned to be.
I've carried that with me through the years, even as my career moved further into marketing and design. I've spent time in Toronto, San Francisco and Vancouver, and one of the first things I like to do in any city is figure out what makes it interesting beyond the obvious attractions. Where the good music is, which neighbourhoods are worth wandering through, where the independent shops are, and what's happening that I might otherwise miss.
I've never been particularly interested in seeing a city exclusively through its most popular restaurants or the ten things every travel website tells you to do. I want to find the places that give it some character. The small venues, galleries, independent businesses and people making interesting things without necessarily having a huge audience.
And I still love the feeling of finding something good before I knew I was looking for it.
The trouble is that discovering those things has become strangely difficult. Not because there's less happening, but because the information is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. A concert announcement on Instagram, an exhibition buried in a gallery newsletter, an interesting new business mentioned in someone's story that disappears the next day.
For years, I've had this idea in the back of my mind: what if there were one place that made finding those things a little easier? Something that combined the usefulness of an events calendar with the personality of an independent music blog or city guide. Somewhere that felt like it was put together by people who genuinely liked the places they were writing about.
I finally decided to build it.
That project is SIGNAL, a new local discovery website for music, art, events, independent businesses and interesting things happening around you. It starts with three cities that have been part of my own story: Vancouver, San Francisco and Toronto.
It's now in public beta, and while there's still plenty I want to improve, I'm happy to finally put it out into the world.
In a way, it feels like coming back to something I've always enjoyed. I'm still trying to help people discover good music, interesting places and things worth experiencing. I'm just approaching it from a slightly different direction these days.
Finding Things Used to Feel Different
I have a particular nostalgia for the era of independent music blogs, local culture websites and city guides that actually felt like somebody was paying attention.
