b a d g e n t i n a

Electronic Press Kit

badgentina BIO

badgentina is Stephen and Lisa Toon, married folk-rockers who have been making music together for over 20 years. They write and perform songs full of story, in the tradition of their favourite songwriters. Growing up on albums by the likes of Jackson Browne, the Indigo Girls, Neil Young and KD Lang, Stephen and Lisa make music in this vein — there are the heartfelt and personal ballads and intimate secrets set to music, alongside rally cries and straight-up celebration. The live show is not to be missed. The journey is real for all who partake, both the artist and art-lover get caught up in the expression and process.  


The Toons have played many venues big and small on their own and with other artists/projects, locally in Western Canada and as far away as Macau and Mongolia. Around 2007, while still living in Vancouver, BC, Canada, badgentina took a long break. Over the next 10 years, 4 boys and a dog named Raphi joined the family, and then...it just felt right to get the ol' badger train back on the tracks. The Toons formed Toonmade as their online Hub for all their goings on, it represents their independent record label and production house. By 2019 it was clear that badgentina would record a new record. It had been about 13 years since they last released an album, Brittle the Bed.

New Album — Dead Reckon 

A hugely successful Kickstarter campaign in December 2019 brought them back into the studio with gifted Producer Jonathan Anderson, who has produced artists Aidan Knight, Jordan Klassen, Said the Whale and many others including his own band, Jonathan Inc. badgentina started this new record with two songs, Dusty Rose and Tomorrow's Running Late, setting the tone for this rich and vibey record, full of hooks and stories. 


Dead Reckon is available now on your favourite streaming platforms or for purchase at shop.toonmade.com.

 

The Toons have played festivals

> Festivals Kelowna CANADA DAY

> 100x100 Festival (Oliver, BC)

> The Oliver Roots and Fruits Festival (Oliver, BC)

> Pass Creek Gospel Music Festival (Castlegar, BC)

> Casse-Tête Festival (Prince George, BC)

> The Justice Festival (Mission, BC)

> Aha (Surrey, BC)


Theatres

> Creekside Theatre (Lake Country, BC)

> Venables Theatre (Oliver, BC)

> Oliver Theatre

> Prince George Playhouse


And many other events, rooms and venues

> District Wine Village (Oliver, BC)

> Slackwater Brewing (Penticton, BC)

> Phantom Creek Estates Winery (Oliver, BC)

> Sidewalking Arts Spectacular (Whiterock, BC)

> Firehall Brewery (Oliver, BC)

> The ArtSpace (Prince George, BC)

> Hotel Cafe (Los Angeles, California)

> Dreamland School of the Arts (Prince George, BC)

> Royal Vancouver Yacht Club (Vancouver, BC)

> The Space at Mosaic (Vancouver, BC)

> The Eastside Culture Crawl (Vancouver, BC)

> La Casa Del Artista (Vancouver, BC)

L a t e s t  T r a c k s

Married couple uproots on wild adventure, taking on a musical mission


Lisa and Stephen Toon, aka badgentina, did the unthinkable: they quit their stable jobs, sold their forever house, moved 10 hours south and traded it all in for music. Willingly along for the adventure are their 4 young boys and their family pup, Raphi.

 

Making records and writing songs have always been in the background for the couple, but once their youngest was about to hit kindergarten, they felt a compelling urge to cut ties with the norm and try something completely different.

 

After working on new music for a year or so, some genre hopping, and trying to figure out who they were now that they had embraced their life as artists, they all but gave up on the dream. Until…Lisa said to Stephen one day, 

 

“We just need to make an album of our songs. Our true music.”


To test the waters, they called their dream Producer and Studio (Jonathan Anderson of Protection Island Studio, who has worked with Said the Whale, Andy Shauf, Zaac Pick, Jordan Klassen and many others), then they figured out the budget and launched a Kickstarter campaign. Call it their “testing of the waters”. Or call it jumping with no chute – if a Kickstarter campaign fails to meet the goal, the funds are not released, but instead returned to the pledgers. That would've made the album a no-go.

 

A sure sign from fans

 

The Toon’s goal was in the count of about $20,500.00. They put in their only available funds, about four grand, and asked their fans to pre-buy the album to raise the remaining $16,500. A few weeks later, the campaign ended with just over the needed amount for the album to be funded.

 

 “When you put out a grand idea like this, you mostly expect that it won’t happen. I figured it was way too much to ask.

 But our fans proved me wrong!” Stephen says, while in the midst of packaging a mountain of merch, the CDs and T-Shirts, going to happy fans they call “badgers”.

 

The name badgentina comes from an original idea of using two stage names, Badge and Tina. After a while, the Toons noticed their Vancouver following seemed to be calling them badgentina, all one word, and it stuck. The nickname for the fans, “badgers”, was coined by the band’s original drummer, Kenton Wiens.

 

So now what? The couple started their own label, calling it Toonmade Records. The album was released to fans in the middle of that staller-of-all-things, the COVID pandemic. Yes, the gigs were cancelled and things got kind of paused, but the music got out. Dead Reckon has been playing to the masses on Spotify, iTunes and all the streaming platforms, including YouTube. badgentina’s songs have officially made it onto the soundtrack of your life.

 

 “We see our job as Soundtrack writers. We observe and report on life, creating a Soundtrack to yours,” Stephen explains.


Lisa adds, “It’s a way to communicate about life in a universal way. If you are a music lover, this is your language.”

 

"Music has been a part of our lives from the start. It drove us as individuals as we grew up, before we even met. It wasn’t just a way to express, but it was also a method of learning discipline, focus, work ethic. The things we want to exemplify for our kids too.” ~ Lisa


Their boys LOVE having “rockstar” parents, even though badgentina hasn’t been able to play during the COVID isolation. Getting those CDs with their parent's faces on the front was pretty special. And Raphi, their Labradoodle? He’s probably their biggest fan.

 

During the pandemic year, the Toons were very grateful for their day jobs. They teach music to locals, Lisa works as an Education Assistant in the High School and Stephen works in online business. After a day of teaching and coding websites, hanging with the boys and playing a few tunes is the perfect way to mark time.

 

As gigs open up, they have the perfect jobs to allow them to get out there and share their songs and stories.

Promo Photos

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