Good Morning Captains,
On this week's show, I'm talking about Toronto, Ontario with helpful insights from one of their locals, Stuart Duncan!
Stuart's a solid dude who runs the Out of this Spark label, home to Forest City Lovers, The D'Urbervilles, and now Timber Timbre. He's also been promoting concerts for many years and is a board member at the excellent Tranzac club in Toronto.
This weekend, the Tranzac is hosting something called TrekZac FestiCon, an odd sounding Star Trek convention featuring all sorts of stuff you can read more about below, as Stuart answers my local music scene questionnaire.
Before I get to that though, I have some questions for you:
Are you a Trekkie? I know you probably are because you're on the internet. What kind of Trekkie are you? Old school, Next Generation, or whatever the hell else they spun off into a Star Trek show?
What's your favourite and least favourite thing about living in/visiting Toronto?
Please respond, warp nine, using your Vulcan minds, which you might just be out of...
Thanks,
vk
Your Real Name: Stuart Duncan
City/Province/State/Country of Residence: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Who are you really and how are you involved in your local musical community?
By night I run the record label Out of this Spark (OOTS), which is the home of the Friends in Bellwoods compilation, The D'Urbervilles, Forest City Lovers and Timber Timbre. By day I am a web producer. I am also a board member of the Tranzac. For the last six years, I have also organized concerts in various locales under the name undertones.
Name some people--artists, organizers/promoters, venues, recording studios, or organizations--in your town whom you feel are affecting positive change within your community via music. Why and how are they able to do this?
I think the Tranzac, as a non-profit member supported community space, has become a very important resource in the Toronto independent music scene. It is one of the last of a dying breed in this city of venues that are dedicated to regular performance art, be it theatre, music or other things, which has remained accessible and relevant.
Similarly the programming that is done through the Music Gallery has always been exciting.
Ryan McLaren's All Caps all-ages concert series has also really opened up Toronto's music scene beyond the typical 20-something indie age demographic and has ushered in some really vibrant spaces to music such as the Whippersnapper Gallery and Dufferin Grove Park.
Promoter and record label impresario Eric Warner has also always been an inspirational example how someone can successfully promote and organize large scale musical happenings and still remain down to earth and supportive of the people you work with.
Musicians like Final Fantasy, Sandro Perri, and Ohbijou, have also shown how bands can reach people on their own terms and outside of the old music industry model.
What do you think your town is most known for in terms of music? How does that relate to what's happening in the city now?
From an indie perspective Toronto is probably most known for the Wavelength Music Series and the Blocks Blocks Blocks recording club. Both organizations continue to produce exciting musical projects and work hard to remain sustainable and adaptable to the ever changing Toronto music scene.
What's the most exciting and frustrating thing for you about engaging with music in your community?
One of the more frustrating things about the Toronto music scene is that it can be difficult to get people engaged in projects that help build and support the music scene itself. I sometimes find that the Toronto music audiences are too busy being consumers-they spend lots of time going to shows but it can be a real struggle to get people to work to build and support spaces and projects. It can be hard to get people to move beyond thinking of live music, just as a medium to party or to drink, it can also be something that helps build and shape community.
Access to space is also a frustrating part of Toronto in general. Like a lot of larger cities, Toronto, particularly downtown, is becoming an increasingly expensive space to live and work in. Many neighbourhoods in the downtown core are being gentrified and this is driving out traditional enclaves of art and affordable housing. My worry is that this upper class monoculture will overwhelm the downtown and drive out everything that is vibrant and exciting about a city like Toronto.
In the same vein it has been exciting to watch people's response to this movement. More people are starting to realize that if we want to continue to be part of the city's urban and cultural landscape, we are going to become more actively engaged in the communities we are part of.
Got any big music news brewing where you're at? If so, please share.
At OOTS we are busily preparing to release Timber Timbre's next full length album. At the Tranzac we are excited about another busy season of music including the second annual TrekZac FestiCon, a full-day, mini Star Trek convention which features workshops, games and some of the city's best independent musicians performing Star Trek-themed music. A few of the people participating this year include, The Bicycles, Laura Barrett, Woodhands, and The Rural Alberta Advantage.
Finally, what do you suppose makes your musical community unique and how does it relate to others you've interacted with?
As a former Guelphite, the unique part of Toronto's musical community is its vastness and sheer size, which can be overwhelming but living in such a large city with so many people doing such different things, fosters exciting partnerships and interactions that wouldn't occur in a smaller city.
