Reacting to the Straight “Vancouver’s scrappy music scene”

Today, I bring to your attention this article from yesterday by Angela Vannatter in the Georgia Straight:

Vancouver’s scrappy music scene can’t succeed without support

“None of it matters if artists can’t afford to live.”

Georgia StraightAngela Vannatter

I have a lot of time for Vannatter, who's somewhat younger than me. Despite not knowing her personally, I feel kinship with her work, especially her YVR Concerts project on TikTok and Instagram; before that, I noticed her Twenty Something Podcast when looking for local people who were already in the game I was trying to enter. Under YVR Concerts, she co-presented the latest show in the long-running Root Dwellers concert series last Friday.

I'm not coming to you with a critique of the article per se, rather I'm thinking through it via our lens, being in the same city but in different venues, playing by different rules. I want to uncover some relevant questions. But heck, anytime someone gets paid to write 1,000 words for a known publication about what's actually happening here, I'm obligated to pay close attention – no matter how much I agree or disagree with the points.

Who is in this piece?

Some of Vannatter's quoted subjects have crossed paths with me: Dust Cwaine, Francis Baptiste, and Kevin McCarthy, who stepped up in the annual general meeting I attended for a society called The Project Vancity, becoming one of its leaders. Others are only one of many mutual friends away: indie veteran Jody Glenham, groovy guitarist Ayla Tesler-Mabé.

Four venues get a namecheck at the end: "In the meantime, see you at Green Auto, Grey Lab, Red Gate, or Take Your Time." Green Auto, certainly, is a phenomenon and is doing something for indie rock that our scene doesn't really have, and hasn't had for probably a long time: a bona fide DIY space of decent size and cross-genre popularity.

What's the overarching point?

"Vancouver’s vast pool of emerging musical talent is often overlooked, with arena and stadium tours casting a shadow over independent venues, grassroots initiatives, and community-building events."

That's the first paragraph. Overlooked by whom? I think by Toronto would be the default, but the claim seems more that we, Vancouverites, overlook our own by only tuning in to big shows. I've never been a big Straight reader: is this preaching to the choir? But sure, there are normies out there to hopefully draw into smaller rooms when our people catch their eye, or when they realize "live jazz" is something they can check out. I believe and hope that these are the majority of people signing-up to the free weekly email today.

Then again, maybe it is about back east:

"While local acts are rightly being recognized for their contributions in some categories—bbno$ in TikTok Fan Choice and Snotty Nose Rez Kids in Rap Single of the Year, Peach Pit for Alternative Album of the Year—our local luminaries are snubbed in the big name categories. Maybe it’s my local pride talking, but where’s the recognition for Sam Lynch, Kylie V, or Haleluya Hailu?"

(It's ok, we can have our own freak-out about it after we see who wins in three weeks)

The question misses the mark: Juno eligibility for these upcoming awards goes up to Nov. 1, 2024. The albums of both Lynch and Kylie V came out after that date, so they weren't snubbed. As for Hailu, yeah, I became a fan a while ago too, and though her 2024 release was only 21 minutes long, you can win a Juno with a project of that length, bien sûr.

"Despite being the epicentre for the first wave of punk at one point in time, and cultivating the indie boom of bands like Peach Pit, Mother Mother, Said the Whale, and Dan Mangan at another, these days, Vancouver musicians find themselves at an impasse. Increasingly, money determines the soundtrack of the city, and the City of Vancouver seems to want things on mute."

Here are some things that all came after the referenced wave of indie artists:

• The Vancouver Music Task Force
• Publication of the Vancouver Music Strategy

• Amplify BC, the Creative BC funding outlet whose Career Development stream is probably what the article indirectly calls "highly competitive" for artists
• FACTOR's Artist Development award increasing from $2,000 to $5,000

I can't read the room here. The piece's title is, after all, "Vancouver’s scrappy music scene can’t succeed without support". Which supports did those 2010s artists have that we don't? Do we still long for a Peak Performance Project? That radio ad money isn't coming back.

I doubt that Vannatter has any beef with the Task Force's community members, among whom are friendly folks like Nina Horvath, Diane Kadota, and Josh Eastman. Is the idea that the standing members, who come from BIAs and funding bodies, are too stiff? Or are we writing off the Strategy and Task Force altogether as mere wallpapering over a crisis?

The BCFFE thing we talked about a while back gets mentioned too, its looming end being evidence that "the city and province provide limited support". As we talked about, that program was intended as a one-time thing. (I have conflicts of interest in that clients of mine have quite appreciated this funding.)

But when does citing the end of temporary supports as existential risk become a wish to be too-big-to-fail? There are people I've noticed in jazz, at least, who like to make small bets and run things that can sustain themselves, and I tend to agree with those people.

I'll bold one phrasing from Jody Glenham that I found pretty remarkable:

“One challenge is that some mid-sized venues operate more as businesses than community spaces, making it harder for local artists to find supportive performance opportunities.”

Gosh, I don't know what you do about that. Unless...

I see... maybe this is what they want

I eventually noticed the theme running through the piece. I'll bold some parts of these passages to bring it out:

“We lack venues and the venues lack support,” shares multidisciplinary artist Dust Cwaine.

"To survive, musicians need affordable rehearsal and performance spaces," adds Jody Glenham, who performs both solo and in Frankiie.

Without nurturing performance spaces so that Vancouver artists can get their music in front of people, there are restraints tying them up right here at home.

[F]or a moment, imagine a world where maintaining a performance space wasn't a perpetual struggle.

[I]t feels like stages are disappearing, or are simply too expensive to access.

Glenham and Cwaine agree that the scene needs more support for venues

Is this the Cultural Land Trust school of thought? I wonder if the author has checked that out. Because now I see the piece's theme roughly like so: market forces have eroded what local artists need from the small venue circuit, so we need much greater public subsidies and stakes in venue spaces, or we will cease to originate new performing artists here.

Do I agree with that? Now that's a good question. I hope to get to talk with anyone about it at the bar of a show some time. I wouldn't mind taking a stab at our scene's version of the article, too, and seeing what our folks say.