BLENHEIM’S “THE UNIVERSE FEATURING RAY” IS FEATURED ALL THIS WEEK ON THE #SPOTLIGHT – HEARD DAILY AT 9:30AM DURING XS MORNINGS WITH JAY & ROBYN!
Catch Ray Stern’s amazing new track “Blanket” all this week on The Spotlight!
Storming the Ontario music scene with a wide array of indie rock song styles. Ray Syd Stern is the vocal powerhouse and creative mind behind the independent label RAY, and the band The Universe Featuring RAY, which came into being in 2016.
Since then, Ray has attracted attention from industry pros and music lovers across North America with her catchy melodies and meaningful lyrics that are derived from her interesting life and positive perspective.
The recent release from The Universe Featuring Ray “My Fragile Mind” was featured in breakthrough Canadian indie film, “Seeking Oblivion”.
My Fragile Mind is the eccentric, eclectic art rocker, The Universe Featuring Ray’s first single from her debut LP, Co-Create. Invoking the spirits of Kurt Cobain and the tones of Alanis Morissette, the song is written, performed, and produced by Ray with co-production by Ben Srokosz of Chatham.
The song, which is one of the heavier tracks of the album deals with the issue of mental health and spiritual wellbeing. With dreamy lead guitar, background brass, and guttural screams, as heavy as it is, it has her signature undertone of light, with references to nursery rhymes and The Wizard of Oz. The song is about how there is as much damage in protecting children from this world as there is in letting them be destroyed by it. The soon-to-be hit has been selected as the hard-hitting credit roll for the film, “Seeking Oblivion”. The film also deals with mental illness and suicide and will be making the indie film festival circuit. There is now talk of co-creating a music video based on the movie.
Co-Create is a concept album with a wide range of sounds: heavy, indie, pop ballads, rock, acapella, and a love song. Ray wrote, performed, and produced a large amount of the album, while also working with various engineers, producers, and visual artists to create the vision in her mind. Working with the likes of Michael Hanson (Glass Tiger), Jose Contreras (By Divine Right), Ben Srokosz (GATTA Creative) as well as friends and local musicians. The idea of Co-Create was to work with all different Canadian talents to create a mash of different sounds and styles. To take the concept farther, the title track, “Co-Create” is an acapella track that will be put up online for public download and encouraged for artists to use in any way they can imagine as part of a bigger collaborative initiative to connect our arts farther. Moreover, Ray’s fans and supporters were an integral part of Co-Create volunteering their time and talent but also contributing financially to Ray’s viral Go Fund Me campaign.
“Sheryl Crow on acid”
“If Alanis Morisette and Kurt Cobain had a hippie love child”
“There’s an old show biz saying, “If you can’t be good, be different” well, The Universe Featuring Ray is both good AND different! It starts with her name and runs through everything she does. Don’t miss her!”
- TERRY MCMANUS (Founder of The Songwriters Association of Canada, Music Professor, Author, Songwriter)
“Best rock and roll voice in the country as far as I’m concerned”
- MICHAEL HANSON (Juno Award winning songwriter, Glass Tiger, President of Radar Love Records)
“Creative, inventive. Ray has written, recorded and captured on video another perfect example of her performing art”
- JOHN ROWLANDS (Iconic Rock & Roll photographer; David Bowie, Rolling Stones Magazine, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Elvis, etc.)
