caption website article_title background birth_date instrument genre image origin name occupation
murray live in winnipeg 2012 -lsb- http://www.murrayatkinson.com/ www.murrayatkinson.com -rsb- murray atkinson
 solo_singer 27 may 1972 guitar , vocals , keyboard alternative rock , modern rock rock , post-punk , power pop , hard matkinsonwinnipeg.jpg ladysmith , british columbia , canada murray atkinson singer-songwriter , record producer , musician
murray atkinson

john `` murray '' atkinson -lrb- born may 27 , 1972 -rrb- is a canadian guitarist , keyboardist and singer-songwriter .
atkinson grew up in ladysmith , british columbia in a musical family and became an accomplished classical pianist while simultaneously taking up the guitar .
in the mid 90 's he rose to local prominence as a hard rock guitarist in his band `` playground '' .
in 2000 atkinson moved to vancouver and began working with various artists as a session and live guitarist .
one of those artists was chin injeti -lrb- ex bass is base -rrb- .
injeti mentored atkinson in hip hop , r&b and funk styles .
during a tour , in which injeti 's band opened for canadian rock and r&b artist colin james , atkinson struck up a relationship with ex-members of the canadian power pop band odds who were at that time members of james ' band .
from 2004-2006 atkinson worked nightly with ex-odds members pat steward and doug elliott in a british-rock themed house band `` radio one '' at vancouver 's `` cellar '' nightclub .
when odds decided to reunite in 2006 atkinson was asked to help out on guitar and later became a full member of the band .
atkinson continued to write and record his own hard rock songs with college pal producer/engineer paul silveira at vancouver 's armoury studios .
the song `` el camino '' from these sessions was entered in cfox radio 's `` vancouver seeds '' song contest and emerged as the platinum award winner on july 20 , 2007 .
with his winnings atkinson began recording an album under the band name `` swan '' entitled `` salt march '' .
swan enjoyed moderate local radio success with the single `` unfamiliar '' which spent 7 weeks in the cfox top 10 , peaking at # 4 .
during the recording of `` salt march '' odds were also at work in member craig northey 's studio .
odds pheromone recordings debut `` cheerleader '' was released in 2008 with atkinson 's `` swan '' cd following on the same label in 2010 .
all three other odds members appear on the swan album .
atkinson performs on the newest odds release `` the most beautiful place on earth '' february 2013 .
never content limiting himself to one style or genre , lately he has branched out and is actively composing music for video games under the composer name puz .
he recently released `` sinister hollows '' music resource pack , a scary-themed music pack for commercial/non-commercial game developers via rpgmakerweb and also available on the steam network .
