Biography

Introspective music you can dance to, qr5 is a singular combination of reggae groove, pop contagion, and folk sensibility

qr5 started as a collaborative effort between Ben Bootsma and Matthew Maaskant. They produced music for theatre and film, but mostly spent their time recording an almost endless amount of material in their home studio. The lineup grew by Keith Stirling on drums and Jonathan Weverink on bass when they decided to play their first show at the Emergenza Festival. After becoming semi-finalists they began booking shows at various Toronto clubs, playing, among others, The Reverb, El Mocambo, and The Silver Dollar.

Maaskant, also a photographer, gave the group's promotions a unique look that captured the band's music visually and helped them secure opening slots for Toronto bands like LAL and FIVE BLANK PAGES, as well as NYC's OUTERNATIONAL. With a strong web presence, the band booked headlining shows all over Ontario, while at the same time starting a weekly feature at College Street Bar in downtown Toronto on Wednesday nights.

The group independently recorded full length record 'Pharmakon' on their own label, Draft Tattoo Productions, and released it at the Drake Hotel to a full house. It received rave reviews in magazines such as Exclaim, Eye Weekly, Scene Magazine (London), and beyond - as far away as First Coast News (Jacksonville FL).

The group continued to promote their music on college radio stations, getting played on CIUT (Toronto) and CJSF (Vancouver), and American station KDVS (Davis, California). The album was distributed to record stores across Canada, selling out the first week in dowtown Toronto's Rotate This after being featured in their listening booth.

Throughout this time the band played benefit shows for non-profit organisations such as the Cambodian Land Mine Relief Fund and Artists Against War. The song 'Dreams' was added to L.A. based The Music Library, and is widely available to the film community.

The group plans to record over the summer and tour Canada with a new album in the fall. During this time the band will explore licensing opportunites in the U.S. and Europe as well as recording and releasing other acts in their studio and under their label Draft Tattoo.