Pop music gets a bad rap.  The words alone conjure up the over-polished, manufactured music that everyone loves to hate--but not all pop music is like that.  It can be a beautiful, even memorable, art form.  Maurice is an example of this.

Hailing from the rainy city of Victoria, B.C., Maurice cut its teeth in small bars and community halls.  These intimate venues allowed the members to perfect their songs about love, loss, and the city around them.  It was these very songs that caught the ears of David Foster in 2006.  Shortly thereafter, the band travelled to Los Angeles to record their debut record.  "Young People with Faces" was released in March 2010 on Foster's 143 Records, through Warner Brothers.

Jean-Paul Maurice, the band's singer and guitar player, has a knack for taking an ordinary story and turning it into a captivating and moving tale.  His expert song-writing is only lifted higher by the piano of Simon Margetts, and the full, balanced rhythm provided by Mark Lavoie on bass and Connor Waddell on drums.

Maurice released their new EP "Big Country" in October.  This new collection comes hot on the heels of numerous tours throughout 2010 where they played with bands like Sloan and fellow West-Coasters Mother Mother and Said the Whale.  Most recently the band had a chance to demonstrate their impressive live show at Rifflandia 3, where they opened for Gord Downey.  The new record, available for free on their website, showcases a fresh, bright sound while delivering, as always, captivating songs that will stick with you for a lifetime.  With "Big Country" Maurice prove that pop music is much more than something to be written off.