Terry McManus

Terry McManus is a singer songwriter who is known for launching the Songwriters Association of Canada. He is also an Artists Manager representing The Birthday Massacre and "Survivorman" Les Stroud. As an educator he has taught at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario in the Music Industry Arts program for over 30 years and currently teaches online at Algonquin College in their Music Industry Arts program.

Early life

Terry McManus was born in Abingdon, England to Canadian parents. His father being the medical scientist J. F. A. McManus of Blackville, New Brunswick and his mother Norma Shumway of Winnipeg, Manitoba. McManus spent a most of his years growing up in the United States mainly in Birmingham Alabama and then Bloomington, Indiana. He attended Hiram Scott College in Nebraska for a brief time but by 1967 he was working for a cutting edge computer company in Washington D.C. The extra money he made he put away to save for recording demos at Bias recording Studios which, at the time, was home to acts like Nils Lofgren (and his band Grin), Roy Buchanan, George Daly (who would later produce McManus' first record and become Director of A & R for Elektra Records).

Music & Teaching Career

The first Producer to take a serious interest in his music was Paul Rothchild, best known for his work with The Doors. After relocating to Canada in 1968 as a staff writer for ARC Records (for projects by Ronnie Hawkins and Anne Murray that failed to happen), McManus hooked up with Merv Buchanan's Trend Records and borrowed a 4-track machine from future Traynor Amps founder Peter Trayner to do some recording.". McManus caught his next break when Fred Dixon and the Friday Afternoon recorded his song "Best Believe It" which encouraged McManus to continue pursuing his songwriting skills.

In 1970 he began working for the Ontario Arts Council as a Music Officer coordinating their new pop music program and he engaged Merv Buchanan's company to do mobile recordings for struggling acts all across Ontario. Part of McManus' time spent with the Council was organizing and producing the first ever rock concert at Toronto's Ontario Place Forum.

At the same time McManus borrowed $500 from the Royal Bank and he and engineer Bill Seddon (the engineer for Bruce Cockburn, Edward Bear etc) headed into the studio and cut two sides - "Sunshower In The Spring" and "Gimme A Hand" - with Garwood Wallace (who would go to form Twitch) on guitar and John Woloschuk (Klaatu) on bass. McManus did the rounds and landed a Recording Artist deal with A & M Records of Canada and their publishing affiliate, Irving Music of Los Angeles. The single was released in 1971 which did well on the Canadian charts as did the follow-up singles "Carolyn" and "Love Is Wine" (both from 1972) - all three tunes going to #1 in the Prairies. An album was recorded but some poor managerial decisions cost him his deal with A & M.

While at the Canadian National Music Conference in Vancouver in late 1972, McManus ran into renowned jazz musician and composer Tommy Banks (now Senator Tommy Banks) who was about to start up his own label called Century II in Edmonton. He not only signed McManus to his own solo deal but also made him the A&R (Artists and Repertoire) director of his company. McManus moved from Vancouver to Edmonton in 1973 to set up shop with the label he worked with such acts as Russ Thornberry, The Original Caste, and Roy Forbes.

Because of his exposure to some very talented people, McManus’s own talent was undergoing a metamorphosis and his writing matured to the point that he began incorporating some of the great jazz talent that was in Edmonton at the time,(Tommy Banks, Earl Seymour and Lenny Breau) into his recordings. The commercial success for McManus was not as significant but his artistic growth caught the ear of one of the 20th century’s great songwriters, George David Weiss; (“That Sunday That Summer” sung by Nat King Cole,|”Lullaby of Birdland” performed by Ella Fitzgerald and others, “Can't Help Falling In Love" by Elvis Presley and “What a Wonderful World" made popular by Louis Armstrong). McManus mixed his Edmonton tracks at the famous Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco and then moved to London, Ontario to take up teaching duties in the new Music Industry Arts^[1] Program at Fanshawe College. In 75 and 76 McManus made several trips to NYC where he and Weiss did some co-writing and a demo for Columbia Records was recorded but by then McManus had a family and he turned down the opportunity to move to NYC, record for Columbia’s Portrait label and work full time with Weiss.

Although he was teaching full time, he continued to write and in 1976 another of his songs, "What A Day", was recorded by the Vos Family and used in a promotional campaign to raise funds for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. A couple of years later in 1978 McManus began writing children's songs and on a whim, forwarded the material to Raffi's label Treble Clef. They liked the material so much that a children's album, Scrub-A-Dub U. was released. During an appearance at the Hamilton Folk Festival in 1979 McManus made the acquaintance of children's performers Bob Schneider and Fred Penner. He and Penner hit it off well and McManus eventually found his songs appearing regularly on Penner's children's TV show starting the mid-80's.

In 1981 McManus was asked by London promoter Don Jones to perform an opening set of material to entertain children at Mr. Dressup appearances. With McManus' experience in music legalities he was able to help Mr. Dressup (Ernie Coombs) get out of a bad recording contract and the two hit it off working on their own material together. The result was the 1982 album Wake up Mr. Dressup with Friend Terry McManus which was released on A & M and led to several national tours by the duo. By 1985 Access TV in Calgary approached McManus to write material for their kids' show the Magic Ring' which resulted in 81 songs being used in 39 shows from 1985-1991.

In 1986 McManus wrote lyrics to a Rick Wakeman composition called "Heather Carpets" which he re-christened "Heathered Hills". He sent the unsolicited finished product off to Rondor Music in the UK and Wakeman and his publishing company liked the version so much they gave McManus a co-writing credit on the lyric version of the song. In 1987 McManus, concerned with the lack of representation for songwriters in Canada and the inability to copyright songs in Canada, teamed up with music lawyer Stephen Stohn,(Chair of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences) and Donna Murphy (CIRPA) to revive the long dormant Canadian Songwriters Association to which McManus was elected president for 4 years before becoming Chairman Of The Board.

The Songwriters Association of Canada (S.A.C.)

The Songwriters Association of Canada (S.A.C.) began in the mid 1980s when a group of songwriters led by Terry McManus were concerned with the lack of input songwriters were having in the music industry, as well as the apparent absence of real copyright registration in Canada.

With the help of Stephen Stohn (lyricist and lawyer) and esteemed songwriters such as Eddie Schwartz and Rich Dodson, the Songwriters Association of Canada was founded (originally under the name Canadian Songwriters Association). Gradually the organization has grown from establishing an industry presence to the nurturing of aspiring songwriters including workshops and song review opportunities through song assessments and “Date with a Demo.”

The S.A.C. also established the “Canadian Song Depository” (now the Song Vault), a Canadian copyright registration service that offers a date and time stamp of songwriters' works. In addition, the S.A.C. hosts Bluebird North activities across the country bringing together some of Canada's most inspiring songwriters to share their songs and stories.

Editorial career

Concurrent with his Presidency of the Songwriter’s Association, McManus took the opportunity to publish an editorial “Copyright should be forever” in the national magazine of the performing rights society PRO Canada, the precursor to SOCAN.

In the 90’s, McManus began writing essays about men and their relationships, many of which were published in the Globe & Mail. That led to a self-published book, Husband Father Brother Son and a request for reprints from around the world. Eventually the editors of the Chicken Soup book series requested one of his essays about marriage for their Chicken Soup; Divorce and Recovery publication. ([husbandfatherbrotherson.com]).

In the early 90’s McManus was asked to write a commercial for a local building company Copp’s Buildall. His effort tuned into one of the longest lasting commercial jingles to run in the London area. During that time he discovered a Doo Wop a cappella act called The Essentials singing at a local ice cream stand in London. By the end of his relationship with them in 1998 they were commanding $3000.00 and up per performance, they had toured England and they had sold over 20,000 CD’s.

Also during the 90’s McManus came across several young talented people that he mentored and helped them along the road to achieve their goals. The list includes hit songwriter Deric Ruttan, The Wilson’s(Dave Wilson and Kortney Kayle) Greg Hanna and Zach Neil all of whom are now located in Nashville.

In 1997 Billboard Magazine published a year-end editorial by McManus on the importance of singles in the industry; Singles Are the Key to the Record Buying Habit. In it he criticized the industry for killing the single and not offering an alternative. In 2009, that editorial was quoted as one of the “prescient” articles of the 90’s by Steve Knopper in his much praised book about the rise of digital music and the fall of the record companies; “Appetite for Self Destruction”. The New York Times in their review of the book alluded to that insight as one of the major reasons that record companies ruined their own business model. In 2001 his letter printed in Billboard, “Napster: Revenge of the Single” became one of the most quoted documents of the day and once again McManus’ prediction about the strength of the single was proven out over the years especially by the rise of itunes.

In the year 2000 McManus wrote, recorded and released a musical tribute to John Lennon called “Missing John”. [About.com] reviewed it as one of the best Beatle tribute songs ever recorded. A couple of years later, McManus started to compile all of his thoughts, information and experience that he had experienced in the music business and over the next 4 years he outlined and then wrote a text for Fanshawe College students titled “The Canadian Music Industry Primer”. The book has now been adopted by Algonquin College for its Music Industry Arts Course and endorsed by several Canadian music organizations.

The Birthday Massacre

In 2006 McManus was approached by some members of the band The Birthday Massacre to help with some business problems and so in early 2007 McManus began managing the band himself and since then they have become one of the top Industrial Goth bands in the world. They have toured North America, Europe, Australia and Russia and in 2009 they won the Virgin Mobile Book the Band Contest this year with over 270,000 worldwide votes. (Virgin Mobile said that they had never seen a better use of Social Media to organize the fans than that by TBM). The band has placed music with J Walter Thomson of NYC for Sunsilk, with Red Bull for an extreme sports site and they have had their songs performed in The Vampire Diary series.

Les Stroud (Survivorman)

In 2012, while at an event with former student Les Stroud “Survivorman”, McManus learned that Stroud, who is an accomplished singer songwriter and musician, was seeking guidance for his career in music. After several months of discussions, in August 2012 McManus assumed the role of Artist Manager for Stroud. His first accomplishment has been to facilitate Stroud’s involvement with the Save the Arctic campaign by Greenpeace who has used Stroud’s song and video, “Arctic Mistress” on their website. (Both Sir Paul McCartney and Radiohead have also worked with Greenpeace on this same campaign.) “Earth Music” is the term coined by McManus to describe the genre which Stroud is so successfully transitioning his career.

McManus continues to be active as a singer, songwriter, author, manager and part-time teacher.

Publications

• SOCAN magazine: Copyright Should Be Forever

• Billboard Magazine Editorial: The Single is the Key to the Record Buying Habit.

• Billboard Magazine: Napster, Revenge of the Single

• The Songwriters Demo Submission Guide: Keeping Records(Hardcover Writer’s Digest)

• Appetite for Self Destruction: My editorial for Billboard was quoted as one of the prescient articles about the collapse of the music industry. This was also quoted in the New York Times review of the book.

• The Canadian Music Industry Primer.

• The Globe and Mail: Several essays on Men and their Relationships

Professional Credits

• 1968 – 1969 Staff Songwriter Canint Music Toronto, Ontario.

• 1968 – 1970 Recording Engineer assistant Trend Studios Toronto.

• 1969 – 1971 Recording Artist Quality Records Songwriter Qualrec Music.

• 1970 – 1971 Music Officer, Ontario Arts Council Pop Music Program Responsible for setting up mobile recording studio program and regional concerts.

• 1971 – 1973 Record Producer and Recording Artist A&M Records Canada.

• 1971 – 1973 Staff Songwriter Irving Music Los Angeles Ca.

• 1973-1975 Director of Artists and Repertoire Century 2 Records Edmonton Alberta.

• 1975 Composed Theme song for the first Olympic Draw on CBC.

• 1975 – 1977 Singer / Songwriter Abilene Music NYC (co writing with Hall of Fame songwriter George David Weiss; What a Wonderful World, Lullaby of Birdland, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Can’t Help Falling In Love)

• 1978 – 1983 Children’s Recording Artist working with Mr. Dressup … Recording and Touring. Produced and Recorded 2 albums.

• 1984 – 1987 Songwriter Artist and Producer for Access Public Television in Alberta. Wrote 81 songs for the Children’s show, The Magic Ring.

• 1988 – 1993 Founder and First President of the Songwriters Association of Canada

• 1993 – 1998 Artist Management / Executive Producer for The Essentials. (Doo Wop A Capella group)

• 1993 – 1998 Songwriter The Fred Penner Show.

• 1998 – 2001 Artist Management / Executive Producer for Stacey Wheal

• 2005 – 2013 Author The Canadian Music Industry Primer.

• 2006 – Present Artist Management for The Birthday Massacre.

Artist Management for Les Stroud aka TV Star "Survivorman".

References

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External links

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