The Most Serene Republic is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

music group formed in 2003 in

Milton, Ontario Milton (Canada 2016 Census, 2016 census population 110,128) is a town in Southern Ontario, Canada, and part of the Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region in the Greater Toronto Area. Between 2001 and 2011, Milton was the fastest growing mun ...

. The band takes its name from the

sobriquet A sobriquet ( ), or soubriquet, is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another, that is descriptive. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym, as it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name, without the need of expla ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

under the Doges, which was regarded as " The Most Serene Republic of Venice".

Members

Current

*Adrian Jewett –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

(2003–present) *Ryan Lenssen –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, backup vocals (2003–present) *Nick Greaves –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

EBow The EBow, short for electronic bow or energy bow, is an electronic device used for playing string instruments, most often the electric guitar. It is manufactured by Heet Sound Products, of Los Angeles, California. It was invented by Greg Heet i ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

(2003–present) *Sean Woolven –

, backup vocals, (drums '04) (2004, 2006–present) *Simon Lukasewich – bass,

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

(2006–present)

Past

*Peter Van Helvoort –

(2004) *Andrew McArthur – bass (2004–2006) *Tony Nesbitt-Larking –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(2006–2008) *Adam Nimmo –

(2004–2006), (2008) *Emma Ditchburn –

, vocals (2004–2009) *Adam Balsam –

(2009–2021; died 2021)

History

The roots of the band were planted in 2003 when Ryan Lenssen and Adrian Jewett formed Thee Oneironauts (O-nye-rawn-nauts). The pair recorded and self-released an EP entitled ''Night of the Lawnchairs'' on the GROK Studios imprint, which had also released Lenssen's concept band "Rushing To Redlights". The Oneironauts grew to trio status with the addition of Nick Greaves on guitar before ultimately becoming The Most Serene Republic. Their debut album '' Underwater Cinematographer'' was produced, mixed and engineered by Lenssen and mastered by Ryan A. Mills and recorded at ASF Studios. Its original release was in late 2004 on the independent label Sunday League Records before being picked up by Arts & Crafts. It was re-released on June 28, 2005, featuring new artwork. They were the first band signed by Arts & Crafts that was not related to

Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene is a Canadians, Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed by Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Canning (vocals, bass) in 1999. Alongside Drew and Cannin ...

. After touring the album extensively with

Metric Metric or metrical may refer to: * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics In mathem ...

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

and

, the band recorded what ultimately became the ''

Phages A bacteriophage (), also known informally as a ''phage'' (), is a duplodnaviria virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea. The term was derived from "bacteria" and the Greek φαγεῖν ('), meaning "to devour". Bacterio ...

'' EP, that was first made available when the band supported

The Strokes The Strokes are an American rock band from New York City. Formed in 1998, the band is composed of lead singer and songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio More ...

on their Canadian tour of 2006. In 2006, long-time drummer Adam Nimmo left the band, replaced by Tony Nesbitt-Larking. The latter appeared on ''

Population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

'' and toured with the band throughout 2008. TMSR spent much of 2007 prepping their second album, ''

'', which was released by Arts & Crafts on October 2, 2007 to generally positive reviews. In 2007, Jewett and Lenssen appeared on

MTV Canada MTV is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Bell Media with the name and branding used under a licensing agreement with Paramount Global. The channel is devoted to talk, lifestyle and documentary programming, and also airs some ...

to promote the release of ''

''. This would be the band's first television appearance. The two were interviewed during the airing of ''

Making The Band ''Making the Band'' is an ABC/MTV reality television series that exists in separate iterations, each focusing on a specific music act. It spawned musical acts O-Town, Da Band, Danity Kane, Day26, and Donnie Klang. Except for the first iteration o ...

'' wearing

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

outfits. During the interview they said they were on their way to a

Star Trek Convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expres ...

following the interview. In 2008, the full band appeared on MTV Live for an interview and three-song performance. In an interview from June 17, 2008, guitarist Nick Greaves stated that the band will be recording their third album with

and

Super Furry Animals Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. For the duration of their professional career, the band consisted of Gruff Rhys (lead vocals, guitar), Huw Bunford (lead guitar, vocals), Guto Pryce (bass guitar), Cian Ciaran ...

producer David Newfeld, and hinted there might be a slight change of musical direction. 2008 saw the release of '' Live at XMU'', a four-song acoustic EP made up of songs from ''

'' and ''Phages''. It was recorded December 11, 2007 at the XMU studios in Washington, D.C., and released on August 12, 2008, exclusively to

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. On April 20, 2009, the band announced their newest album, '' ...And The Ever Expanding Universe'', would be released on July 14, and offered the album's second track, "Heavens to Purgatory", as a free download.
In addition, they announced that an EP of 16-bit remixes entitled '' Digital Population'' would be released on April 28. On August 14, their song "Humble Peasants" was featured in the trailer for ,,A Generation After Genocide'', a documentary about the healing power of soccer in Rwanda. Their video "Heavens to Purgatory" was directed by Ben Steiger-Levine and was nominated for Video of the Year at the 2010

Juno Awards The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

.
The band released ''Pre Serene: Thee Oneironauts'', a remastered compilation of material recorded by the band's direct ancestor, Thee Oneironauts in the latter half of 2003, on May 24, 2011. The Most Serene Republic have announced a return to action with their first new album in six years, '' Mediac'', which was released on November 13, 2015 on

MapleMusic Recordings Cadence Recordings, formerly MapleMusic, is a Canadian independent record label founded by Andy Maize, Jeff Maize, Mike Alkier, Evan Hu, Lorique Mindel and Grant Dexter in 1999 and based in Toronto, Ontario. Other investors include Gary Slaigh ...

. ''Mediac'' was recorded in Toronto, produced by TMSR's Ryan Lenssen, and mixed by David Newfeld.

Discography

Albums

* 2005: '' Underwater Cinematographer'' (Arts & Crafts) * 2007: ''

'' (Arts & Crafts) * 2009: '' ...And the Ever Expanding Universe'' (Arts & Crafts) * 2011: ''Pre Serene: Thee Oneironauts'' (Home of the Rebels) * 2015: '' Mediac'' (MapleMusic Recordings)

EPs

* 2006: ''

'' * 2008: '' Live at XMU'' - Acoustic EP * 2009: '' Digital Population'' * 2010: '' Fantasick Impossibliss'' (Home of the Rebels)

7"s

* 2006: "Content Was Always My Favorite Color" b/w "Tragedy of The Commons" * 2006: The Most Serene Republic /

Headlights A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the device itself and ''headlight'' is the term for ...

plit

Videography

* "Content Was Always My Favourite Color" (2006, Underwater Cinematographer) * "Oh (God)" (2007, Underwater Cinematographer) * "The Men Who Live Upstairs" (2008,

) * "Heavens To Purgatory" (2009, ...And the Ever Expanding Universe) * "Jelly Chamber" (2010, Fantasick Impossibliss)

References

External links

The Most Serene Republic
at

Arts & Crafts Productions Arts & Crafts Productions is a music-focused media and artist services company that offers information as an independent record label, management firm, merchandiser, and publisher worldwide. It has earned 21 Juno Awards. Arts & Crafts has been ...

2009 The Most Serene Republic Interview at Bandega.com

Interview with Adrian Jewett at HEAVEmedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Most Serene Republic, The Musical groups established in 2003 Musical groups from the Regional Municipality of Halton Canadian indie rock groups Arts & Crafts Productions artists 2003 establishments in Ontario