Murray Atkinson

Who is Murray Atkinson?

John "Murray" Atkinson 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. 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.