The maddog crew will be heading down to seafront venue, The Arc, to check out a flutter of bands hailing all the way from Canada – and not just for the free beer. At the Arc, a mini festival is going down a storm with Canadians and Brits alike, as today brings to the UK Canadian Blast. Having hosted bands at The Great Escape in previous years, and building up quite a reputation in the UK, it is only one O-clock in the afternoon, and already the venue is operating a ‘one in, one out’ door policy. We caught up with Canadian Blast’s UK correspondent, an incredibly busy, yet chilled out Shain Shapiro to find out what all the fuss is about...

But before we get started, dear readers, let me introduce you to Mr Shapiro. To say this man is well connected would be like saying Bill Gates is quite well off. Shain Shapiro is Canadian, born and bred, currently living in North London where he works with two of the UK’s biggest independent labels, One Little Indian and Fat Cat Records. In addition to being a freelance music journalist in six different countries, publishing for fifteen outlets in three different languages, he currently writes for Clash, Vice, Relix, Pop Matters, and the Reykjavik Grapevine. As well as View, Pulse and Echo Magazines in Ontario, Canada, Shapiro is the former international editor for Europe’s largest music website, Drowned in Sound, and is probably one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.

“It’s good to see the bands today getting such a great response from the crowd, we have some amazing bands who have come across from Canada to play the festival, who are playing other shows at the Great Escape as well, so to have them all in one place is exciting,” says Shain passionately. The Great Escape this year is home to over twenty bands from ‘the Great White North’, and on stage at The Arc today will see performances by five of Canada’s most sought-after emerging talents, in the way of Dan Mangan, Ultimate Power Duo, Hey Rosetta!, Arkells, and headliners, the magical seven-piece Ohbijou.

To say the Canadian music scene is impressive would be an understatement, though it remains sadly overlooked beyond the blight on music that is Celine Dion. Sure Arcade Fire have a strong fan base here but one of Canada’s finest bands, a collective named Broken Social Scene, remains woefully unknown in Blighty although they could quite easily blow any scenester Indie band over here out of the water with their richly produced and edgy sound. Last year singer/songwriter Feist, whose music was bought to mass attention thanks to an i-Tunes ad campaign, started to make inroads into Britain appearing on Jools Holland and being interviewed by all and sundry, suggesting that people may finally start to be taking notice of the nation’s long running and vibrant new wave. This year it looks like Canadian electro new wave rockers Metric are set to make an impact riding on the back of their magnificent forth album Fantasies (reviewed online last month). Metric were also present at The Great Escape tailing off their UK tour, with sultry lead singer and lyricist Emily Haines blowing away audiences with her stunningly intelligent vocals.

Canadian Blast is the much-needed showcase for the nations talent to get their toe in the door, but, considering some of the bands on today’s bill aren’t even signed, how in hell do they afford to come all the way over to the UK for just a couple of days? “The bands on the bill today are all funded by a group of companies called CIRPA (Canadian Independent Record Production Association) who work with private & public funding bodies and Canadian companies on a cost-sharing basis, release records, and help get radio play in Canada, and worldwide. It’s all about getting Canadian music heard around the world. I got involved with CIRPA through a friend of a friend. I was introduced to CIRPA’s current president, Duncan McKie, (who is in attendance at the Arc this afternoon) and it all rolled on from there.”

Canada has long since been known for leaving other countries in the dark when it comes to government funded schemes for artists and musicians, for example the ill-fated, yet brilliant rockers Death From Above 1979s first album, You’re a woman, I’m a Machine, was completely funded by the Canada Music Fund. But how exactly does a band go about getting involved with CIRPA? “Well, there are certain criteria a band have to meet in order to get funding from CIRPA. CIRPA is independent, however, works with Canadian Heritage, who is responsible for a lot of the funding. Whenever there is an event, bands and their managers can put an application in, and all going well, they can be playing anywhere from China, Europe, the UK and America - depending on whether they have organized export initiatives with CIRPA. It’s as easy as that”

So why does CIRPA want to help these bands so much? “There’s an incredible wealth of talent emerging from the Canadian scene, but just as in England, if a band doesn’t have the right know-how of the music business, no matter how good they are, they probably wont get the recognition they deserve. CIRPA is there to get these bands on to the starting blocks of it all, and get them out into the world. They are passionate people who believe the Canadian brand is worthwhile, and want to see the Canadian music scene prosper. They know that it can be just as difficult for a band to market themselves in the right way, as it is to get their first album onto the shelves. They also advocate the Canadian regulatory body (CRTC) to guarantee a certain percentage of ‘emerging artist’ play on commercial radio.”

Today’s sell out Canadian Blast event at The Arc really does show that all the support for Canadian musicians from CIRPA is working. In attendance are over 360 excited music lovers from far and wide, and not just here for The Great Escape, which is probably the greatest achievement of all.

www.cirpa.ca
www.canadianblast.com
www.myspace.com/canadianblast

Words > Jan Van Riebeeck