Building on last year’s boot camp for musicians, this month Music Yukon is offering its two-
part Music Survival Camp 2.0, focusing on entrepreneurial and artistic development.
The boot camp begins with a showcase on Friday, January 23, followed by a two-day intensive workshop, called the Artist Entrepreneur Boot Camp, offered by Coalition Music, one of Canada’s leading music management firms. Managing bands like Our Lady Peace and Simple Plan, Coalition Music will show participants how to position themselves in order to make a career as musicians.
Music Yukon’s executive director Michael Brooks is enthusiastic.
“ It’s probably the most intensive business workshop that we’ve ever done,” he says.
“ Coalition Music is bringing three instructors up, and it’s limited to just 15 artists, so there’s a lot of one-on-one mentoring. They’re doing their homework: they’ve asked the bands to provide their social media, all the links to their websites, whatever they have, so they’re going to get a good feel for the artists before they even come up.”
The local acts, covering a wide range of genres and experience, from emerging young bands to those with several albums, will start with a short performance to give the instructors a feel for what they can do.
After that, Brooks explains, “One member of a band, the member who does the business side of things will actually attend the workshop on Saturday and Sunday.”
He adds, “The other thing Coalition Music is doing Friday night is a presentation on self-managed to managed bands or artists: when does it actually make sense for you to stop doing all your own management and work with a management company, and what are the steps that the artist has to do to get to the point where they’re ready to be a managed band?”
This presentation is open to all members of the music community.
The second event of the survival camp happens Saturday, January 31. Dan Mangan, a two-time Juno award winning singer/songwriter, will present his workshop, The Artist’s Journey, on balancing commercial and artistic success. His concert the previous night at the Yukon Arts Centre sold out in four days. Brooks was keen on having Mangan give the workshop after hearing his keynote speech at last year’s BreakOut West.
“ The keynote was done interview style, which we will likely do as well,” Brooks explains.
“ And Mangan is really great at breaking down the steps that he took, and even the failures that he had, that it wasn’t all clear sailing. There were a lot of times where he was left shaking his head and wondering, ‘Is there really a way into this whole magical world that I want to be a part of?’”
Mangan’s workshop is open to the public and will be held at the Gold Pan Saloon, with tickets available with a Music Yukon membership, at the Yukon Film and Sound Commission office.
“ I imagine that there are people who are people who couldn’t get tickets for the concert the night before who will want to see him in a more intimate setting. You’ll actually get to know the guy by the time it’s over,” he says.
Brooks is hopeful that the music community will be invigorated and inspired by the Survival Camp.
“ Coalition Music will show how hard it really is to forge a career and to make a living as an artist, and Mangan will prove that it’s actually possible: that a guy can go from being in a basement band in high school to busking in front of London Drugs to actually being an international artist.
“ It is possible.”
