Colin Munroe Gets Rowdy

01/17/08 7:30pm

Ottawa artist/producer Colin Munroe's horizons will be broadened significantly after Toronto independent label Marked Music signed a worldwide joint venture deal with Grammy Award-winning producer Dallas Austin's Rowdy Records.

Munroe's Don't Think Less Of Me was originally supposed to be released last year, but was held back. It will be issued by Marked/Fontana North in Canada, and other territories will put it out through the Rowdy venture.

While Munroe first made a name for himself as one of Canada's top urban music producers and songwriters while working with Ray Robinson, Blackstreet's Chauncey Black, Glenn Lewis, Divine Brown, Saukrates and Boot Camp Clik's Sean Price, his album is much more pop and rock-oriented. Munroe wrote, arranged, performed and produced the entire thing in his attic studio and at Toronto's Metalworks. It was mixed by Grammy nominee Mark Needham (The Killers, My Chemical Romance).

Austin has worked over the years with Madonna, Gwen Stefani, TLC, Monica, Janet Jackson, Pink, Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men and Usher, among others, but he's obviously not afraid to take a chance on a relative unknown.

"Colin is a one-man band, a great songwriter and a product of the new one music generation," says Austin.

"Dallas has always had a foot in the R&B world and a foot in the rock world, and that’s the path that I'm on," weighs in Munroe on his new deal. "I look forward to learning from him and taking the next steps down that path together."

"Happy," the first official single from Don't Think Less Of Me, is being serviced to Canadian radio stations this week.