About
Fig. A: the humble beginnings of the Cups N Cakes Network
The Cups N Cakes Network is a volunteer based, not-for-profit music media site that covers independent Canadian music.
It all began as a bi-weekly internet radio show playing only Canadian independent acts. The program started as a way for hosts Jeff MacCallum and Carey Newton to maintain their friendship while sharing laughs along with their favourite music. In May of 2017, Jeff began elevating Cups N Cakes to new heights by morphing it into a multi-media music source with the launch of this website and re-branding to The Cups N Cakes Network. With the new look came the addition of weekly written reviews, an interview based podcast, the Vinyl Unveil YouTube show and, of course, the original internet radio program. In 2023, MacCallum stepped back from the day to day operations of the network, and handed things over to the first volunteer that Cups N Cakes ever brought on board, Sean Davis Newton.
Cups N Cakes is a necessary experience for music fans still interested in discovering the latest and greatest acts. Near the end of 2018, the rapid growth of the Cups N Cakes Network forced MacCallum to seek help by assembling a team. Although everything began from audio programming, the sites growth in popularity is in large part due to this impressive team that pumps out tons of written content. It is this content for which the network has become most popular. Over 25 volunteers deliver long and short form reviews of Canadian releases, premieres, music news, written interviews (In Conversation), and live show reviews (Live, In Review). The wonderful humans that volunteer their time to the Cups N Cakes Network are the sites backbone, Cups N Cakes could not exist without them.
Meet the Cups N Cakes Team!
Sean Davis Newton (Editor, publisher, volunteer co-ordinator, Pick of the Week, Quick Picks, Inside the Artist’s Studio)
Sean Davis Newton took over the Cups N Cakes Network from Jeff MacCallum in January 2023, after coming on board as the network’s first ever volunteer in September 2018. He is also a songwriter and recording engineer, and will be releasing his debut album Bird Brain in Fall 2024. If you ask really nice, he’ll probably send it to you.
Harman Burns (Pick Of The Week)
Born in the Saskatchewan prairies on Treaty 6 land, Harman Burns is a trans sound artist and filmmaker. An aspiring hack and Tums™ enthusiast, she spends her days looking at large bodies of water and thinking about food and envying people with pets. She currently resides on the unceded ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.
Josalynn Lawrence (Jos) (Pick of the Week, In Conversation)
…is an Edmonton based music writer/photographer. Jumping off from of an unexpected but all the more pleasant dive into Edmonton's music community. Armed with nothing but a pen, paper and camera perpetually slung around her shoulders, Jos threw herself into the art scene with renewed gusto. According to her, the best shows are often at the tiny but close-knit local music venues. Ask Jos and she'll tell you all about the magic of surprise punk shows in the city. You'll often find Jos awake into the wee hours of the morning writing a piece on a record - reviewing a record - or scoping out the next musical act to photograph.
Jeff MacCallum (Founder, Pick of the Week)
Krystle McGrath (Pick Of The Week, Live in Review)
Krystle has been described as funny enough to be a stand-up comedian and thrifty enough to use the same wallet for a decade. She writes spoken word, poems, and songs, although in the past 5 years she’s mostly stuck to the song writing side of things in her project Krystle Robyn. Getting comfortable with music reviewing and interviewing is pivotal to Krystle because it gives her an outlet to combine her Sociology background with her affection for music; and make friends along the way! .
Julie Maier (Pick Of The Week)
Julie Maier is a musician and educator from Saskatoon, where her earliest musical experiences were shaped by school concert band and nicking CDs from her older siblings' bedrooms to learn about what was cool. While her bass collected some dust after high school, she volunteered for many years as a community radio host, and in the service of CanCon quotas she finally started to really pay attention to all of the awesome music coming out of Canada and the Prairies in particular. In the spring of 2015, she joined two of her sisters to form The Garrys, which has given her many opportunities to build back her finger calluses while taking in various music scenes and festivals around Western Canada. At about this same time she also got involved as an organizer and bass instructor for Girls Rock Saskatoon, and credits this as hugely-important in her developing awareness of issues related to access, equity, and diverse representation in music, and her own privilege while moving within these spaces.
Chris Lammiman (Pick of the Week)
… is a lapsed bass player, aspiring naturalist, and cooking enthusiast. He loves music, and tries to attend as many live shows as time and old bones allow. To make money, he works in disaster management, planning for and responding to major emergencies. Chris lives with his partner, one dog, and one cat on Treaty 7 land in what is now known as Calgary.
Josiah Snell (Pick of the Week)
Taller than he should be; shorter than his brothers. Born in a hospital and raised in a house in a city on Vancouver Island, Josiah has loved music since the first time he heard something other than hymns. His biggest fears are karaoke and people finding out he's illiterate.