My name is Pete Johnston, and I am a bass player, composer and teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This site documents my various musical, scholarly, and teaching activities. I have a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from York University, and am currently employed as a sessional lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University and University of Toronto. Every now and then I find the time to make some music with my friends in bands such as Stranger Still, See Through 4, and Molehill. Please have a look and listen, and get in touch should you be curious about my work.
News
I am thrilled to announce that my trans-Atlantic collaboration with Scottish musicians Alasdair Roberts and Mairi Morrison is finally set to hit the streets on 25 April. Titled Remembered in Exile: Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, this album of 10 re-imagined traditional Scottish songs collected in in Nova Scotia by folklorist Helen Creighton (1899-1989) will be released on Chicago’s Drag City Records.
Alasdair, Màiri, and I started working on this project in 2020, sending recordings and song books back and forth until we arrived at these 10 songs which I arranged for a band of Toronto and Halifax-based musicians. We all got together in Nova Scotia in June 2023 to record at Fang Recording in Dartmouth. I’m thrilled with how it turned out, and I hope you might consider giving it a spin.
The first single - a Gaelic language song called “Màiri nighean Dòmhnaill” - is out now on Bandcamp and all the usual streaming services. Pre-orders for the album (LP, CD, and digital) are open on Bandcamp.
We hope to get together again to tour this project on both sides of the pond in 2025 and 2026.
Read more about it over on my music page.
Upcoming Shows
13 April 2025, 3 PM (Note early start time)
918 Bathurst Sun Room
Stranger Still - Mim Adams and Randi Helmers (voice), Rob Clutton (bass), Pete Johnston (guitar)
$20 at the door or PWYC
25 April 2025, 7 PM
Tranzac, 292 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto
Mole Mountain and Isla Craig - Jake Oelrichs (drums), Mike Smith (bass), Pete Johnston (guitar) with Isla Craig (vocals and guitar), Andrew Killawee (harmonium and organ), and other special guests
An evening of songs from Remembered in Exile: Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia to celebrate its release, delivered by some of Toronto’s most creative interpreters of the traditional musics of the North Atlantic.
Pay What You Can
Check out Molehill here - video courtesy of Hero To Music Joe Strutt of Mechanical Forest Sound
