Ian Strung is a Toronto-based musician and radio host. The radio spot “Cancon Classx with Ian Strung” airs every week across Canada on numerous stations on the syndicated radio show “The P.O. Box Radio Show with Postman Dan” featuring Daniel Greer. Ian’s current solo handle for his music, which features his own guitar, vocal and keyboard arrangements, is Gran Fenwick. Gran Fenwick’s 2023 album “Cancon Classics” debuted on the P.O. Box Radio Show, with the songwriter introducing many of the tracks. “Cancon Classics” is a covers album, but one that is a tour-de-force of exquisite taste and has earned the approval of practically every one of the original artists.

Ian published four CDs of heavy rock music under the name Cold Dead Hands CA 2004-2013, as well as contributing production, arrangement and songwriting to the band The John Holmes Book Club on their 2014 album “Skin To Skin.” Cold Dead Hands CA had broken up for eight years, but came back to life in 2023 in time to join the post-pandemic punk pandemonium, playing Hamilton’s Killroom and Toronto’s Dock Ellis multiple times. If you would like to hear Ian’s bunch of original material, listen to Cold Dead Hands CA. There is a lot there of a very high quality. Ian plays guitar and sings on every track. These are his songs and his life’s work, along with steady bassist Robin Deyong and the three drummers Elena Silina, Rob Kisler, and Mick Srivastava, with Rob Kisler having designed all the band’s art, as well as the Gran Fenwick album cover and logo.

Ian has also contributed backing vocals to Super Not OK’s “Cup-A-Soup” and guitar to Starship Experience’s album “The Life and Times of Starship Experience.” Ian can be seen onstage at open mic nights, playing with Papa Reuben’s Jamaoke band, and sitting in with bands like Starship Experience. Ian is known as a musician’s musician, with a high level of skill on guitar, a strong knowledge of music theory and harmony, and a diploma from the Trebas Institute in music production. Ian also has an honours degree in Philosophy from the University of Toronto with distinction, which gives his radio hosting a remarkable refinement of presentation.

Ian is a leader musically and is usually the music director of whatever band he is in at the moment. Ian is also known as a well-connected music lifer with an inordinate amount of discographical knowledge, a perfect memory for thousands of shows he has attended, and a rolodex that includes loads of Canadian celebrities he has interacted with online and off for decades. Ian’s music was first played on the Indie Hour with Dave Bookman and cohosted by Dave Bidini back in 1999 and he has been a presence on the scene ever since, observing, biding his time for a show like “Cancon Classx” to make use of it all.