COLIN MUNROE MAKES CLIMBING a 10-foot fence look as easy as hopping a short step. Braving a brisk outdoor photo shoot in Brooklyn, N.Y., Universal Motown’s pop-soul crooner has no problem accommodating a photographer’s every need, even if it means muddying his white Chuck Taylors. On this 35-degree November day, Munroe, wrapped in a snug hoodie, shows no signs of the chills; not even a sniffle. “Canadian blood,” quips the singer/producer.
“I was born for this.”
Too true. Though his hometown, Ottawa, is hardly a hotbed for burgeoning talent, Munroe, 28, didn’t travel far to nurture his melodic interests. As a kid, he taught himself to play the drums and piano at home when he wasn’t busy watching hockey.
“I just kind of noticed [instruments around the house] untouched and ended up sitting down and picking it up that way,” he says as he downs a pulled-pork sandwich. It would be years before he performed for others and even longer before he caught Universal Motown’s attention. But with remarkable takes on U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights,” accompanied by equally inventive 2008 videos that lit up YouTube (Munroe has a degree in cinema studies and philosophy from the University of Toronto) and a stellar mixtape, Colin Munroe is the Unsung Hero, Munroe is ready to unfurl his March ’09 debut, Don’t Think Less of Me.
“I’ve always been the underdog. I’m not the best-looking guy. I wouldn’t even say I’m the most talented guy,” says the artist whose tunes recall a twinkling Paul McCartney/Phil Collins mash-up. “People said I couldn’t be a songwriter. [But] there was always that part of me that said, Yeah, I can. It’s just me being honest with who I am right now.”
Two Senators tickets say he leaps past his doubters—just like he did the fence.
-VIBE MAGAZINE [JANUARY 28, 2009]
-BRAD WETE
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