BJ Block and Dawn Pemberton, "You Happy?"

By Adam Olenn | April 20, 2012 2003 alumnus BJ Block was working on a sequel to his album Glitterball when he met Vancouver vocalist Dawn Pemberton. A staple of the Vancouver music scene, Pemberton was initially slated to record some background vocals for Block's instrumentals. One writing session later, it was clear that these two musicians had found a powerful creative connection, and the project morphed into their 2010 release The Land of Make Believe. Initially approached as a children's album for grown-ups, The Land of Make Believe explores adult challenges through the eyes of a child. The album, which was nominated for Urban Album of the Year by the Western Canadian Music Awards, was released worldwide through a Creative Commons license. During its two weeks on file-sharing site Frostwire, The Land of Make Believe was downloaded over 240,000 times, and earned Block and Pemberton a global following that has fully funded their next album through Kickstarter.