Bryan Potvin's Website 2005

Solo Project

Heartbreakthrough is so far Bryan's only solo album, released on July 18th 2000 (Klementine Music). It contains 10 tracks and gained Bryan a nomination for Rock/ Alternative Best New Solo Artist at the Canadian Radio Music Awards during the Canadian Music Week in 2001.

Scroll down to know more on this record, its songs, lyrics, clips, and press articles.

Bryan about Heartbreakthrough

"I really, really tried to be honest with this thing, as honest and as dignified as I could. I tried to make a humble, dignified, honest recording. Those were my mandates, and I think that I succeeded, and I think that if I started thinking about who was going to listen to it and how they were going to perceive it and what the marketplace wanted and all that bull, it would have been a mess. It would have been an absolute disaster and mess, and I probably would have well, it wouldn’t be out because I would probably be horrified with the results and it would have sucked."

Bryan Potvin

(Lowdown Interview on 2kool4radio.com, Broadcasted

on March 31, 2000. Hosted by: Karen Bliss)

About the songs For lyrics and audio clips go CATALOGUE-HEARTBREAKTHROUGH

1- Read Between The Lines (4:15)

I lived on the main floor of a house with the landlords living up stairs. They would fight like I’ve never heard a couple fight before... really screaming at each other. That coupled with my own marriage dissolving a few months earlier became the backbone for this tune. I wanted the rhythm to make my hips swivel. Our programmer (Jim McGrath) added the sitar, which I love.

2- Too Late (3:58)

I wrote this and "Darling, You Live..." in my underwear on a Saturday morning in about 2 hours. Any writer will tell you they live for those times. It is like I didn't even have to try, it just came out. Simply put, the tune is about just keeping your mouth shut. Whatever you may say is going to piss-off her or him and before you know it you are fighting and the hole just gets deeper and deeper and deeper....

3- Heaven Is What You Leave Behind (4:14)

Heaven is often mentioned not only as a place where one goes after their time on earth but also as a metaphor for a desirable place to be on earth. I like to think that it can also be a by-product or the legacy one leaves behind after they leave here. The core of the tune is older than any other song on the album. David Baxter helped put together a bridge and Terry Brown and I tried our best to 'orchestrate' the vocal in the chorus. Leslie Stanwyck is an old friend who lent her wonderful voice to this one.

4- If Memory Serves (3:34)

This was a true co-write. Baxter and I wrote this thing from the ground up, finishing each other's lines. He's great at writing 'hobo' tunes, a less-is-more mentality. The lyric is pretty straightforward and needs no further explanation. The clearest memory I have of recording this one is plugging in a very inexpensive guitar into the same amplifier I used almost exclusively for the album and this killer slide sound came out. Bryan Potvin Heartbreakthrough

5- You'll Just Have To Wait (4:03)

Patience, the world seems to be spinning way to slow for some people. This is one of those 'stop-and-smell-the-roses' type messages, set against a romantic backdrop. The chorus came first and I was immediately hooked and set about finishing it pretty quickly. It was also a bitch to sing. I was a little leery about guitar solos or any other elongated noodling on this album. This collection of songs didn't seem to want that sort of treatment. I think Reed Shimozawa is a great guitarist and a genius at sub-melody and I knew instinctively that he'd put something down that would be chunky and chordal and play along side the melody.

6- Darling, You Live In A Dreamworld (5:57)

I think Sara Slean is a gifted artist and I'm very grateful she decided to participate in this piece. In conjunction with the great piano we asked her to also sing improvisational in the middle section. It sounds like angels flying to me. Lyrically this song is by far the least obvious of the bunch. A very epic, stream-of-consciousness thing that I'm not completely sure about but suspect is about basic family dysfunction and the dysfunctional decision making process that goes with it.

7- Free As A Bird (3:08)

I had the verse melody in my head for months in 'la la' form. I was driving on a freeway in Toronto and the words just came out of my mouth. This tune was initially meant to be a very stripped down, 'unplugged' sort of thing yet as I continued to chisel away at the arrangement it began to demand other colours. Right until the very end of the recording I thought this would probably be the opening tune on Heartbreakthrough. Then I felt it might not make it on the album at all. It’s a pretty vulnerable piece of music and I was frankly a little scared of people hearing it. I wanted to write something that would help defend me from criticism, critique and harsh opinion which seems to be chronic in this business..."high above the empty words that people will speak forever".

8- Red Summer Sun (4:21)

When you listen to the words in this tune its not surprising that I wrote this at a cottage in the Muskoka's north of Toronto during a blazing hot summer. It’s a hybrid of subjects: a bit of myself, a bit of a friend who is a sun worshipper who seemed to be growing increasingly disinterested in his work. I simply wanted to share the bliss I was feeling that week, the air, the water, and the summer sun

9- What Will I Do? (4:02)

This was written with Naoise Sheridan. I guess no matter how practical a gift is, if it's given to you by someone who dumped your ass its probably something you don't want in the house for obvious reasons. I thought Terry and I achieved the best guitar tones on the album in this song.

10- Heartbreakthrough (3:13)

This was written at the eleventh hour of recording the album. I knew I needed something to tie it all together and Blaise Pascal and I was able to come up with this. The title came from a book called "Callings" by Gregg Levoy which states that 'heartbreakthrough' is when we "realise that our deepest nature, the centre of ourselves, or God within, is the source of callings."

The Musicians

Joel Anderson - drums & percussion (all tracks)
Mark Shannon - bass (all tracks)
James Grey - organ (tracks 1,2,4,5,8,9)

accordion (track 3)
Jim McGrath - programming (tracks 1,3,4,5,7,8,9)
Sarah Slean - piano (tracks 6,10)

background vocals (track 6)
Leslie Stanwyck - harmony vocal (tracks 3,5,7)
Reed Shimozawa - guitar solo (tracks 5,6)
Martin Soldat - keyboards (tracks 7,10)
David Baxter - rhythm guitar (track 4)
Blaise Pascal - harmony vocal (track 10)
Ed Krautner - violin (track 8)
Emma Brown - harmony vocal (track 9)
Bryan Potvin - vocal & guitar (all tracks)

The Production Team

Producer - Terry Brown

(Rush, Blue Rodeo, Moist, Cutting Crew)

Basic tracks recorded by Ed Krautner at Metalworks

Assisted by Joel Kazmi

Additional Recording at Lucky Studios & Turn-Down-That-Noise Studios

Additional engineering by t.b. & b.p.

Mixed by Terry Brown at Metalworks

Assisted by Joel Kazmi

Digital editing by Dave Townson at Town Music Studios

Mastered by Peter Moore at The E-Room

Press Articles