"I decided to become a musician when I was expelled from school at 13," Joel explains. "I was homeschooled, so I had plenty of time to practice. I joined a band and never looked back."

Sometimes the education you don't get is the most important one. By 20, Joel was playing polite sets as the resident musician at London's Savoy Hotel, and wanting more. A connection with a Canadian record label got him to Toronto and gave him the confidence to do his own thing. The label went away; the confidence stuck around. And the Joel Lightman Band believes it can go wherever they want to.

"There's nothing you can't achieve online that a major label can. It used to be a hurdle, but we've been able to put our music into the hands of people we never would have known to contact before. Ten years ago, that opportunity wouldn't have existed."