Biography:
*****LATEST NEWS 17/10/12: AndrewVictoria WIN Intel Canada Superstars 2012 GRAND PRIZE!! http://www.andrewvictoria.com/news/av-awarded-grand-prize-intel-canada-superstars-2012-songwriting-competition
NEWS 23/7/12: BEST SONG WIN!! Nominated at the MADY New Music Awards 2012, after performing at the 4-day long festival over the course of July 19th-22nd, AndrewVictoria took home Top Honours and the final Award of the night for ‘Best Song’ for their now thrice-winning ‘Repeat Yesterday'
NEW FOOTAGE availab
Preview of AndrewVictoria’s live in-studio performance at www.imageFM.ca for Victoria’s ‘Vocalist of the Year’ Awards video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1sQsBLV8xg&feature=autoplay&list=FLfGXt2DihIArMApOuFVr3CA&lf=plcp&playnext=1
AndrewVictoria performing with Canadian Idol Brian Melo for Sylvester Stallone in Ontario, Canada 22/2/12: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdtwK3FRfIE&list=FLfGXt2DihIArMApOuFVr3CA&feature=plcp
***LATEST NEWS 02/12: Alongside 2007’s Canadian Idol Brian Melo, AndrewVictoria opened for super-band CHICAGO in Hamilton, Ontario on January 30th, 2012 at Carmen’s Banquet Centre, and will grace the stage once again with Melo on February 22nd performing a specially-requested version of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ for the one & only Sylvester Stallone!!
***01/12: Victoria Boland named ‘VOCALIST OF THE YEAR 2011’ by www.imagefm.ca!*
No stranger to the stage, or the local & international music scene, Hamilton’s Victoria Boland was a lone solo-artist working in both Canada & the USA as well as twice-touring the UK before heading to Hong Kong in late 2005 to perform 6 nights a week for the Igor’s Group. It was there that Victoria met Australian Native, and now Hamilton Resident Andrew Rudd. Though neither had any intent of joining forces, or for that matter, leaving Hong Kong together as a ‘duo’, after over 100 shows in just 4 months & countless nights songwriting and rocking out together, the two became one and ‘AndrewVictoria’ was formed
Over the next 5 years, AV travelled, co-wrote & performed everywhere & anywhere they could, earning money to put towards building their own home studio, buying equipment and honing their sound & craft as AndrewVictoria, a combination of powerful vocals and guitar-driven indie pop-rock alternative. Finally, in October 2010, AV released their self-titled E.P., featuring songs that dig deep into realistic, everyday issues, from spousal abuse in their heart-wrenching “Mary Jane” to the future of our kids, in the political out-reach song “Children”, to “Hurry Home”, a power-pop anthem that questions giving a second chance to infidelity
Aside from proving themselves as highly-skilled & capable ‘live’ musicians, 2011 proved strong for the duo who have started to rack up an impressive songwriting reputation. In March 2011 AV were awarded “Best Song of the Month” by SongwriterUniverse.com for their song “It’s Not Over”. Reviewed by a panel of industry experts including Jud Friedman and Dale Kawashima, AV were credited as a “promising pop/rock, singer/songwriter” duo with Andrew ‘playing all the music tracks and expertly producing the cut
The following month brought more songwriting success after AndrewVictoria entered Arts For Progress’ “Clash of the Artists 2011”. Showcasing fashion, jewelry design, visual arts and music, entrants from around the world submitted their works, including AV’s “Spontaneously Combust”, “Hurry Home” and again, “It’s Not Over”. The duo made it through to the finals, and after thousands of online votes, won the online-voting portion of the competition, and placed 1st Runner-Up overall for the music category. This win took them to New York City in May where they performed at the Winner’s Showcase. D.L. Byron of Zen Archer Records had this to say about AndrewVictoria: “Now this is old fashioned conventional songwriting, and what’s more, it’s damn good. I liked “Hurry Home” but “Spontaneously Combust” wins hands down
Continuing their climb, in June AV entered Hamilton, Ontario’s H24 Competition, where they had 24 hours to write a brand new song using 3 criteria given to all competitors: A Theme, An Element, and A Lyric. At the end of the 24 hours the competitors performed their new songs live in front of a judging panel that included Canadian Idol Winner Brian Melo & renowned industry engineer Nick Blagona of Jukasa Studios. AndrewVictoria entitled their song ‘Repeat Yesterday’ and at the end of the night, were announced as the winners of 2011’s H24 Music portion of the competition. The duo received their first physical award, a DEVA AWARD trophy as part of their win
In September 2011, the UK Songwriting Contest 2011 named AndrewVictoria as Finalists in the Singer-Songwriter genre, with a high-score of 9/10 for once again “It’s Not Over”…. and on September 18th, 2011, AV were awarded 2nd place for “Repeat Yesterday” in the Acoustic Roundtable 2011 Worldwide Singer/Songwriter Music Search. Late September brought even more news for the duo who were announced as one of the TOP 5 nominee qualifiers for the Home & Native Sound Series – Acoustic Round, that puts them in the running for a TIMA (Toronto Independent Music Award 2012) & a $15,000 prize package. In October, a nomination for Pop Recording of the Year for the Hamilton Music Awards came their way as well as a featured article in INTERNATIONAL MUSICIAN MAGAZINE.
Not looking at slowing down any time soon, AndrewVictoria continue to write, record & perform in Hamilton & across the GTA & welcome all opportunities to travel & perform internationally. Recently opening for Canadian favourites Melissa McClelland & Luke Doucet, and now adding CHICAGO & Sylverster Stallone to that list in just January/February 2012 alone, AV is greatly looking forward to what their future bring
AV are here to enjoy the ride…with no plans on slowing down
Behind The Scenes
With backgrounds in jazz/big band, blues, pop-rock and country, a two-time scholarship recipient to Berklee’s College of Music, Victoria Boland’s vocals play to every nuance, painting pictures and sending shivers with her smooth, warm-as-honey vocals and artistic styling
Growing up in Australia, Victoria began singing and performing to crowds as big as 20,000 at the age of 6. By the age of 8, Victoria had completed her first recording on Australia’s “The Young Stars” LP record. She hasn’t looked back. Outside of countless international performances, Victoria has had the honour of performing at a Shania Twain concert and sig.en Elizabeth’s 50th Jubilee both at Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum, and working with members of Sir Elton John’s band & Grammy-winning production team The Rust Brothers which included the late Guy Babylon
A fan of current artists including Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Sara Bareilles, Adele, Pink, Vanessa Amorosi, up & coming Canadian firecracker Lindi Ortega, and New Zealand singer/songwriter Brooke Fraser, Victoria also cites Patsy Cline, k.d. lang, Joan Osborne, Tina Turner, Eva Cassidy, Barbara Streisand & Alannah Myles as major influences both today and in her childhood & youth
Andrew, the master-mind behind the album’s production, is a brilliantly talented guitarist and musician. He studied music at Sydney’s prestigious JMC Academy before leaving for Asia in 2004. From an early age, Rudd had strong feelings towards music. He grew up nourished with classic music from Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, The Doobie Brothers, The Beach Boys, Toto, Peter Gabriel and ABBA (to name a few). This developed into an eventual love of the guitar
Having earned his stripes with hundreds of hours on stage as well as in-studio, Andrew’s musical skill is broad and well developed. He has an innate ability to see forward and hear what others don’t. Well talented in both musical arrangement and production, Rudd produces great music – music that since 2011 has taken on a new title: “Award-Winning”…music worth listening to the whole way through, and then listening to all over again.
Instrumentation:
Victoria Boland – Vocals
Andrew Rudd – Guitar/Vocals.
Discography:
CD: AndrewVictoria EP: AndrewVictoria, SOCAN.
CD: AndrewVictoria – Acoustic, SOCAN.
