artist Bon Chapeau

The members of Bon Chapeau have always been interested in music, even at a young age. Mike Johnsen and Tom Larkin formed a band together with some friends from school and began to rehearse, and exercise their song writing skills. In addition, Mike began experimenting outside of the first band with Andrea Pang in different musical styles, with a more pop and jazz influence. When their first band split, Mike and Tom began to toy with the idea of forming a new band, but they lacked a singer and a drummer. Recalling past musical endeavors, Mike proposed to include Andrea in the new band. The three members began rehearsing and writing new songs with a heavy jazz/folk influence. In September of 2008, the band became more serious, recruiting drummer Brent Rowe, whom Mike had met in another musical side project. With a full band and full range of musical abilities Bon Chapeau was formed, and set out to publicly perform their progressive jazz folk fusion for their friends and families. Within approximately six months of getting serious, Bon Chapeau began travel through southern Ontario performing on many stages and for many audiences. Fan bases began to grow in Newmarket/Aurora, Toronto, and The Grey/Bruce Peninsula. Bon Chapeau collaborated and began to fuse further styles into their music, turning towards more indie, acoustic and alternative styles of today.