Ruby Cikada
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Ruby Cikada

Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2012 | SELF

Toronto, Ontario, Canada | SELF
Established on Jan, 2012
Band Alternative Rock

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Discography

'Magicikada' - 2014, Independent.
'EP' - 2015, Independent

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Bio

Ruby Cikada is the brainchild of Lennox Campbell-Berzins, a multi-instrumentalist from Toronto, ON. Having played in multiple bands in his teens, his love of of songwriting took over in late highschool, however relegated to private quarters for years under the obscure name ‘Silver Cicada’, later ‘Ruby Cikada’. He studied Music at York Unviersity, graduating with an Honours BFA in 2013. During his studies, he collaborated with fellow classmates James Atin-Godden, and Aniqa Qadir (members of 'Copycat') which set the ground work for Ruby Cikada's arrival in the spring of 2012. In need of a drummer, Lennox enlisted the help of recent band-mate Dan Staples from then recently disbanded psyche/hard rock band, 'Zenith IV'. Together, the band played their first show at an 'Elvis Monday' event at the Drake Underground in 2012.  

After their official debut at the Drake, Lennox was introduced to Aaron Corbett  - a recording engineer/musician who had recently finished recording/mixing James' indie collective brainchild, 'Copycat'. In January of 2013, plans for recording a demo-album were initiated at the Staples' family home in Richmond Hill with assistance from Aaron and Kieran Maraj. In the fall of 2013 the band entered a period of non-gigging, returning in July of 2014 to fine tuning their set in anticipation of their album release.

Over the course of a year and a half, the album was finalized in the summer of 2014 and released Oct 11th online, followed by a CD release at Rancho Relaxo (now the Old Laurel) - one of many mainstay venues for the band in its early shows.

The debut album ‘Magicikada’ spans multiple genres in its half-hour play time, traversing folk rock, grunge, psychedelic pop, acoustic, hard rock, jazz, and vaudeville. . The theme of the tracks are varied and cleverly juxtaposed,  ranging from psychedelic nightmares to romantic dreamscapes, children songs to anti-war anthems, raunchy riffs to ragtime rhythms.

In early 2015, the band took time from gigging to record a follow-up EP at Slaughterhouse Studios - a seminal production, punctuated with full textures and a wealth of stylistic variety that includes blues rock, psychedelia, folk punk, and jazz fusion in its 16 minutes. The EP was released online on July 11th, followed by an EP release show at the Silver Dollar July 18th. 

As of June 2017, Ruby Cikada has released its second EP in June with a brand new lineup including recently joined band mates Aaron 'Jam' Corbett on keys and Emory Martin on drums. Their album launch is scheduled for June 8th, 2017 at the Piston in Toronto, ON.


Band Members