Musicians helping more musicians get here.

By Erin Land (cross-posted from yegmusicclub.com)

If you had all the money in the world, and could do anything you wanted, what would you do? That is precisely what James Seabrook of Two Bodies of Water Productions asked himself when he came up with the “Pay it Forward” program.

“Why wait until I’m rich? I have unique opportunity right now. I have something that is needed and the means to give it, something I’ve never had before in my life. I guess I just feel it’s my turn to give back,” Seabrook explained.

Pay it Forward is a new initiative, aimed at helping local talent achieve their dreams of recording in a professional setting and perhaps launch a career that will span a lifetime. Completely free of charge!

Seabrook’s studio has been growing a Community Fund since the beginning of June. Artists that pay for studio time are asked where they would like to donate 10% of their purchased time. Some choose to donate the funds to friends, whereas others have chosen to donate the time back to the studio – for newer artists or projects within the community that can take advantage of the cache.

Back on September 1st, a submission form appeared online for the opportunity to use studio time for your recording needs. A panel that consists of Edmonton music industry professionals and local music lovers have volunteered their time to review the submissions and award the studio time to artists or groups they feel are the most deserving of the opportunity.

There are going to be four allotments of five hours awarded; two sessions in November, and two in December.

What will happen in 2012? Seabrook says he’d really like to see the program turn into a regular grant or bursary that can have a much larger impact. Ideally, the program would expand across the prairies, perhaps all of western Canada. Without any corporate sponsorship or investors, the program will continue to grow based on current recording artists contributing to the Community Fund, as they have since June of this year.

The deadline for the first round of submissions will be September 29, 2011. For more information on the Pay It Forward program, or to create your online submission you can view the Two Bodies of Water website.

For the last two years, we’ve done our best to be supporters of local music.

Let’s be honest, this was partially because for part of the run of the edmontonian, I was in a band myself, and consequently knew a lot of local musicians that I thought deserved some attention. But while these stories were all around me, we didn’t cover local music because it was convenient.

We did it because when my band began playing live, I was absolutely shocked at the calibre of artists we were meeting and playing alongside. Prior to that, I had often wondered how to really follow the local music scene, and was so surprised and so psyched about what I found within it, I wanted to share some of my discoveries with you guys (FYI, if you want a primer, check out Samsonow’s painstaking list of all the music we used in the edmontonian presents. And full disclosure, we don’t make any money off the iTunes playlist).

We’ve been really thrilled to be able to feature all kinds of artists in all kinds of ways, given that there aren’t a lot of places you can go to find a regular aggregator of Edmonton music. Or, at least, there weren’t when we started. Now, we’re happy to hand the Edmonton music torch over to those young Whippersnappers at VoidTV, who are doing more than just writing about bands – they’re actually shooting interviews and performances that can be found on their website (and watch for their big launch party at Wunderbar on October 1). The fine folks at GigCity also do a lot of music coverage, and you can find local events aggregated over at yeglive.ca.  And there is, of course, CJSR, including our handsome and charming pals Chad and Colin over at Makin’ Whoopee. So, I guess I’m saying, there’s plenty going on, and we’re obsolete – so let the kids take over!

Jokes about my old age aside, Jeff and I are terrifically proud of any platform we were able to give local artists, labels or performers – especially given how generous those folks have always been with their time, music and attention. Being in a band looks cool, but it’s often a thankless, pricey, difficult task that makes you wonder why the hell you’re stupid enough to be putting all this time, money and energy into it in the first place. It is for that reason that I want to say explicitly: while it may sound fancy-pants for us to say that we featured more artists on our website, in our livecasts, and during the 6 episode run of our show on ShawTV than we can count, what is TRULY remarkable is that all those folks trusted us enough to let us use their music without asking for anything in return.

Seriously, guys, what an honour.

I dare you to find a local news blog with a better soundtrack.

The video above is one I shot of our friends Brazilian Money, who were gracious enough to let us use their song Ghetto Lung as our theme for the edmontonian presents. I highly recommend downloading their newest, highly excellent release.

(Editor’s note: Keeping up with our music vibe this week, let us allow Nathaniel Sutton to introduce you to Edmonton’s Oak Apple Records.)

Oak Apple Records: The autobiography by Nathaniel Sutton

If someone asked me in my early years what my future ambitions were for being involved with the music industry, I would never have answered “I’m going to run an indie record label.”

As a teen, I listened to music from such bands as Cross My Heart, Appleseed Cast, and Pop Unknown and it wasn’t soon after I started to realize that all these bands had something in common. They belonged to a record label called Deep Elm Records. I began to research each band from this label and quickly noticed several other artists that sparked my interest, which made me wonder what other labels are lurking out in that wonderful world of music. I became familiar with excellent record labels including Saddle Creek Records, Absolutely Kosher Records, and Engineer Records.

All the while, being a singer/songwriter, I decided that I needed a label to release and promote my own material. I explored different ideas of what to name this label and figured insect names would be a good place to start. If anyone knows anything about insects (which I don’t) you’d probably know that there are literally hundreds to thousands of different species of insects. I finally stumbled upon the Oak Apple Gall Wasp and the words “Oak Apple” had a certain tone that became appealing. It was officially declared on March 25th, 2009; the launch of Oak Apple Records.

What started as a label created to release solo material quickly branched into a full-fledged record company as I started to widen the roster by including artists such as The Shakedowns, A Troop Of Echoes, Fear Of Crime, Colin Close, Taking Medication, Bailey Sutton, Uncle Zygote, Making A Monster, and Zero Something.

I once said in an interview that “Music is my life and I’ll never stray from it.” which couldn’t be closer to the truth. I’m very passionate about my musical lifestyle and I have full intentions to continue to grow as a musician and a record label.

Edmonton’s got a thriving music scene. It’s probably always had a good scene, but you don’t see too many stories about this band or that musician leaving town to make it big these days.

Maybe that means the days of huge rock stars are dwindling, but ironically the Internet probably helps people find an audience to at least sustain some of their music (ironic because of downloading and all the terrible stealing it brings).

And you won’t just find Edmonton bands and artists by hitting up sites that are popping up and flourishing to fill the void of MySpace, the Internet also provides a home for mixes, compilations, promotion, distribution, and discussion of music – from Edmonton and afar.

Let’s jump into some places we think you’re going to find plenty of music you’ll like.

One Time, At Bandcamp…

When we posted a thanks to the 57 Edmonton bands and musicians that formed the soundtrack to our TV show we mentioned that we discovered many though Bandcamp. It’s probably our favourite of the music sites you’ll find on the Internet. (What’s yours?)

By searching the Edmonton tag you’re going to find new songs, EPs, and albums from anybody from Edmonton (and sometimes music produced in Edmonton).

It’s a fairly simple site to navigate, with pretty good search capabilities. You can listen to anything a musician has posted for playing, often download it in multiple formats, and pay for anything that’s for sale.

Keep your eyes on those prices, a lot of musicians will put up albums and songs with a “pay what you can” label, allowing you to show your support. And once you get a chance to listen to an entire album from some of Edmonton’s great artists, you’ll probably feel pretty good about investing a few dollars in them.

And when you’re zooming around Bandcamp you’re going to come across compilations. One such mix you should check out is “Edmontonia.”

It’s “…mainly curated from the perspective of introducing the world outside Edmonton to the exhaustive wealth hiding within it.” And, baby, do we have some talent here.

Edmontonia’s got three volumes at this point: Vol. 1, Vol 2. Vol. 3 and all feature a variety of 10 Edmonton bands or musicians, across all genres. (We’re big fans of breaking through the genre wall. Expand those musical horizons!)

Bandcamp would also be a great way to explore sounds from other cities. Instead of searching the Edmonton tag, you could try Saskatoon, or Winnipeg. You could discover the next best thing(s). With the Internet, you don’t have to wait for a radio station to tell you what the next great band is. You can have 20 of your own.

Home of the Best Music Website

We mentioned it in the fifth episode of our TV show (yes, that again) but Edmonton is home to Canada’s Best Music Website.

Weird Canada has been around for just over two years, filling the Internet with the small, independent, unheard, weirdest music you can find. It’s also helping to bring notice to Edmonton’s music scene through both the website and Wyrd Fest, its summer caravan of music.

We’ll let Weird Canada explain what it is they do:

It’s worth noting Weird Canada’s competition in the Best Music Website contest is home to more new music and discussion. You might even see an Edmonton band or two pop up. (We know you will at Hamilton’s Southern Souls. It was runner-up to Weird Canada. The MusicNerdChronicles rounded out the top 3.)

*****

I hinted that the Internet was great for not just finding Edmonton music, but promoting and distributing music from Edmonton. So howsabout an example of that?

Hi54LOFI Records runs out of an apartment near Whyte Avenue. Jeremy Sroka says it’s something that “…grew out of the musical camaraderie and opportunity/excitement that once existed on Myspace. The death of Myspace sort of went hand in hand with the discovery of all these other amazing sites and happenings on the web (Bandcamp, Twitter, Tumblr, Soundcloud, Tunecore, and an almost endless amount of others that exist already or will come out tomorrow) that started making it more possible than ever for somebody in their bedroom to get their music out of their bedroom.”

As a great example of what you can do on the Internet, you’ll find the actual HI54LOFI website, a Tumblr, Twitter account, and more at Mixcloud and 8tracks.

Jeremy thinks most people should be able to find something they like on the site.

“There is also a lot of free music to be had on the site and everybody likes that.”

He’s right. The Internet loves free!

Essentially, HI54LOFI acts as a hub for musicians. Jeremy helps promote music, and also helps with releases any way he can.

And, like a lot of things that start on the Internet, things jump off the computer screen and into the real world. When he moves to the UK next month, Jeremy is going to go on a small tour with some of the musicians he’s met, worked with, collaborated with, and helped through HI54LOFI.

Check out a new EP out this week from Black Coffee Stephee Pie and a “Pay what you want” HI54LOFI sampler.

Live Shows

It’s always important to listen to someone’s music. Letting them know you like it, it inspired you, it found a place in your life, and buying their music is also great.

Buying their swag and seeing them live is another way to support Edmonton music, keep it thriving and growing, enjoy new bars and venues, and meet other local music fans. (Both local fans, and fans of local.) And it means you can put your money right into the hands of the band members or musicians (who you will sometimes find working the door at small shows).

Edmonton’s got a great way to see what’s going on in live music. Neat how that works out.

YEG Live(.ca) is a local online ticket and concert listings site. Run by a couple of guys who knew each smaller venue in Edmonton had a different way of ticketing, it’s starting to make things a little simpler for the venues, bands, and you and me.

It’s also a great way to check what’s up at clubs and bars this week and in the near future. I use it as a resource when talking about weekend events, and you’ll often find it linked to Edmonton’s online events site ShareEdmonton.

Plus, Chris and Cameron, the guys behind YEG Live, are really smart.

Last But Not Least

Don’t forget about CJSR and CKUA. Edmonton’s got two great options for new, local, eclectic, and independent music in those stations. And search #yegmusic on Twitter to find out who’s talking about music in Edmonton.

As we’ve talked about before, Thursday can be a great night for live music in Edmonton.

Tonight is one of those nights.

Over at Wunderbar, you’ve got a fantastic early show. Double-fantastic since you won’t be all groggy tomorrow at work. Cadence Weapon, fresh off his two-year stint as Edmonton’s Poet Laureate, is playing fresh material at the little bar that is big. He’ll be with Mitchmatic and Ghibli, so, yeah, it’s a huge show.

Down the street (the street being Whyte Avenue) at the Pawn Shop tonight you’ll be able to find Black Mastiff, Hale Hale, The Get Down, and Misha and The Spanks playing as part of the New Music West festival and conference. That conference runs through the weekend.

For something a little different, there’s Edmonton: The Musical up on 118 Avenue. Live bands, theatre, fundraising for local arts groups; it’s pretty much a perfect package of Edmonton arts.

There will probably also be music, if only as accompaniment, to Latitude 53′s Thursday night patio party too.