Sonic Monkey Recording & Lessons

06/17/2026

NEW RELEASE RECORDED/MIXED AT Sonic Monkey Recording!!!

‘Johnny Linklater - New Life’

I’ve alluded to this a lot and it’s finally out today! Johnny came by the studio a few months ago to record this, his debut solo single.

He played every single thing on it, and I still managed to get really close to it. We’ll be debuting his project live in Sudbury on Friday.

Thank you for trusting me with this! Artwork by his partner Alyssa. The song can of course also be found anywhere else that’s musical 🥁🎤🎸

Provided to YouTube by DistroKidNew Life · Johnny Linklater · Joh...

06/04/2026

Been looking forward to June, because we have not 1 but 2 releases coming out with work done at Sonic Monkey!!!!!

The first comes on June 17th, and was completely tracked and mixed here. It's Johnny Linklater's debut single 'New Life.' He recorded it here entirely as a solo artist, but this has also grown into us doing a live debut for the project that week.

On June 21st we'll see the release of 'We Are Treaty People', a duet between Vern Cheechoo and Deanne Moore for Indigenous Peoples Day. Vern's vocals were recorded here to be augmented with the songwriting/mixing talents of Michael Etherington and Bill Bell respectively.

It's nothing short of an honor to have been included in this and Johnny's music, and I can't wait for people to hear them. Keep your eye on this page for each song on the 17th and 21st!!! :)

05/28/2026

Looking for more guitar/drum/etc students as we enter summer! Currently up to 5 students, but there are still spots available on most weekdays.

The lessons are very open to personalization - for example a parent just had the great idea of signing up for a fixed number of lessons (think of it as a 'semester' or a shorter foundation-building course). You can also go month-to-month with one lesson per week.

Another bit of added value is each student gets their own unlisted playlist of videos on youTube made by myself, so once they get home they can review/practice the material and songs covered.

Please reach out using the contact info on this page for more info! Teaching for these 6 months has been amazing and I'd love to teach more 🥸

Send a message to learn more

04/22/2026

Johnny has given the first taste of his upcoming single 'New Life'!!! It's the track I recorded/mixed here a few months ago that I've been very excited about. Johnny played and sang every last bit of the vocals/instruments on this! And we had it mastered by Kick Me Records out of Ottawa. Full track will be everywhere June 17th!!!

04/16/2026

Wow. Immensely honored and proud about the vocal tracking session that went down last night here at Sonic Monkey!!! And it came out of nowhere!

Vern Cheechoo came by to record vocals for his song called "We Are Treaty People" featuring Deanne Moore. The song was written by Michael Etherington, with Bill Bell (guitarist for Tom Cochrane, Gordon Lightfoot) on recording/mixing/mastering for the remainder of the song.

The song and music video are scheduled to be released June 21, 2026 on National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Michael describes it as a peace & Unity song to promote treaty education across Canada.

What a fantastic couple of hours. Thank you so much!!!