Colour By Numbers

About

Colour By Numbers are Winnipeg’s self-professed nerdiest alt-rock band. Drawing on an adolescence of '90s alternative and a hearty influence of folk rock, Jared Adams and Alex Kozub hammered out the group’s first record, “The Colour By Numbers EP” in 2013. “Colour By Numbers has a gift for making harmony the focal point of every song, […] tying this eclectic rootsy indie pop EP together,” praised the Uniter in their review of the album.

The band rounded out its sound with the additions of punk-rocker/band-geek Mike McDermid (drums, vocals), and celebrated Winnipeg multi-instrumentalist Jesse Millar (guitar, synth, percussion, vocals, flannel). Before long, songwriting, formerly a solitary task, became a group effort, with everyone chiming in to flesh out arrangements, chords, and words. Synthesizers, mixed-meter time signatures, four-part harmonies and increasingly ironic lyrics found their ways into the songs, making for a more textured sound and new level of sophistication.

Equal parts Sloan and Weakerthans, CBN’s second EP, Among the Stars, was released on August 11, 2017 on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Music and Bandcamp. They promoted the release by performing on Global Morning News, as well the singles off the EP “We Did It All” and “1982” have received radio play on CBC Radio One. Early 2018, the band released a live video for “Thaddeus” which Some Party described as, “the most aggressively Winnipeg song since ‘One Great City,’ but far less dour.” This summer they embarked on their first tour of Western Canada, fittingly called the “Colouring Outside the Lines Tour.”