The Radius Project: Documentary Being Produced On Peterborough's Influential Music Scene

Photo courtesy Michael Hurcomb

Photo courtesy Michael Hurcomb

Peterborough-based Music, Fashion & Commercial Photographer & Director Michael Hurcomb has one heck of a documentary in the works. "The Radius Project", as it's known, was inspired during a trip to Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, near Nashville a couple years ago when Hurcomb was asked by a traveling companion from Toronto, “So who’s from Peterborough that I would have heard of?”

MIchael Hurcomb

MIchael Hurcomb

"I began naming musicians, actors, writers, athletes that had been born in or moved to Peterborough, Ontario, and had gone on to national or international acclaim," Hurcomb writes in a blog post.

Among the people he name-checked to his travelling companion included musicians Serena Ryder, Three Days Grace, Ronnie Hawkins, Sebastian Bach, Greg & Rob Wells, I Mother Earth, Thousand Foot Krutch, Royal Wood, the Leahy Family and Neil Young. And she was like, “No {expletive} way! All of those people came from Peterborough?!? You need to tell people about this!”

photo via Michael Hurcomb

photo via Michael Hurcomb

Hurcomb, who is part of the well-known Bandwagon YouTube series along with Dani Stover and Ryan Lalonde, started looking at the musicians who were born in a radius around Peterborough or moved here, played in the local music scene and went on to national and international acclaim. Originally he thought of doing a photo essay on the music scene, but Jag Tanna from I Mother Earth convinced him to make a documentary. 

Hurcomb has already begun to film interviews with musicians as their tour schedules align with his travel schedule—he did one recently in LA with Greg Wells, who grew up in the North End of Peterborough and went to Adam Scott—and in 2015 plans to finish the doc and release it. "We're lining up great interviews and will announce a crowdfunding initiative in early 2015—likely a February launch," he says, adding, "I’ll be posting updates to my website, FB page and Twitter." 

Tip us at tips@ptbocanada.com. Follow us on TwitterPinterest and Instagram, and Like us on Facebook.