www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, August 1, 2012 · 16 Hip-hop musician gets in on Olympic action By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Oakville's Chad Morgan may not be competing as an athlete, but he's very much a part of the 2012 London Olympic Games. CTV's Olympic Media Consortium, which consists of 21 channels, has picked up his Aspektz band's hip-hop track Gametime for use on their Olympics television and online coverage. "This is amazing," said the 26-year-old, who now lives in Toronto. "As far as the opportunity to do this goes, its incredible. It's an honour that while the athletes are putting in their all for Canada, it's going to be aligned with a project that we've had a ton of people working on. We're all putting in our all for this. To be able to pair with something as prestigious as the Olympics on the Canadian broadcast side, it's an amazing thing." Morgan, an Oakville Trafalgar High School graduate, recently graduated from York University with a Master of Business Administration. While studying at York, he was vice-president of the school's marketing association. As part of his role with the group, he recruited speakers to talk during student events. One of those speakers was a highly-placed individual on CTV's Olympic Media Consortium, which was not only educational and entertaining for students, it also gave Morgan a networking opportunity. Morgan, who goes by the alias Mr. Thoro, and his producer on Aspektz, Andrew Andriyashev, who goes by Triple A, created the track Gametime with the intention of Artscene North Country Realty Inc., Brokerage Muskoka on your mind? Buying or Selling in Muskoka? Independently Owned and Operated 705-783-9066 Sales Representative frank@frankvanderstaay.com www.frankvanderstaay.com Call Frank van der Staay submitted photo music for the games: Former Oakville resident Chad Morgan and his hip-hop band, Aspektz, signed a deal with CTV's Olympic Media Consortium to use the group's Gametime track during coverage of the 2012 London Games. having it featured in the professional sports arena. "Radio is still there and it's still a pretty important part of any campaign, but a lot of people access music through different things now and they're introduced to new music through television shows or online shorts," he said. So, instead of aiming to get radio play, the group went to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) and other sports organization, as well as CTV. The song has already been played at Toronto FC games and was picked up by the Toronto Raptors to play at their games. The fact that CTV picked up the track was no surprise to Morgan, whose band has seen a fair bit of success in the last year or so. "The sound and the brand have really taken off. We had no doubt that given the partners that we've aligned ourselves with throughout 2011, that come 2012 when it was time to pitch this, we'd have no trouble getting in touch with the right people," he said. Aspektz had tracks on the U.S. college charts with Snowday peaking at No. 2 and Swivel hitting No. 4. The band's single In the T-dot was featured in the multi-platinum selling video game DJ Max Technika. That same track was also a runner up in 2010 in Metroland's Best of the West competition for local musicians, organized by The Oakville Beaver and its sister papers. The group received video play on such stations as Much Music and MTV, as well as air play on local radio station Flow 93.5. The release of Gametime was appropriately scheduled for Friday, July 27, the same day the 2012 Games officially opened. The song is available on iTunes. "With all the planning that went into this, we really said this is game time," Morgan said. Aspektz also shot a music video for the song with such partners as Samsung, Gatorade (PepsiCo) and Levi's. The video will be released early this month. The band is also in talks with video game developers, including the makers of DJ Max Technika and Electronic Arts, makers of sports video games. The song is a single on the band's Academic Probation album, which will be released in September. Dominik Kurek can be reached at dkurek@oakvillebeaver.com or followed on Twitter at @ DominikKurek. Chinese Brush Painting exhibit in Bronte Two local artists will be displaying their Chinese brush paintings at an exhibit that opens on Sunday. The show, titled Chinese Brush Painting in Bronte, will take place at Sovereign House. It features the works of Laura Beaton and Bernadette Duzyk. The exhibit is part of the Arts on the Bluffs series, put on by the Bronte Historical Society, which operates the historic Sovereign House. The two artists will also put on demonstrations of Chinese brush stroke painting. The style is known for its use of traditional rice paper, inks and oriental brushes. Sovereign House is located at 7 West River St. in Bronte. The show runs Aug. 4, 5, 8, 11 and 12. The gallery is open 1-4 p.m. on those days.