National Music Centre hosting weeklong camp for Indigenous recording artists

Calgary's National Music Centre (NMC) is hosting The OHSOTO’KINO Music Incubator – an intensive, weeklong development program for Canadian Indigenous recording artists.

The program will help artists learn new skills, connect with music industry experts from across the country and hone their craft. They'll also learn about the business side of the industry that they need to advance their careers.

"You have your artistic side so people are learning about vocal ability and vocal coaching," said David McLeod, NMC Indigenous advisory committee chair.

"But on the other hand, it's called the music business for a reason and there's so many facets to it, so people are acknowledging that, 'Okay if I'm going to do this, I'm basically my own manager at the beginning.'"

The program has brought in three mentors to share their knowledge with the aspiring artists.

Desiree Dorion, one of the mentors, is a Juno-nominated recording artist from Manitoba who released her latest album in September called Remember Your Name on all the music streaming platforms.

"We managed to crack the top 10 downloads in Canada in country music on the first day of release, which was really cool," she said. "People are listening online, I can see the analytics so that's kind of cool."

Dorion is in her second year mentoring and says Indigenous people getting into the business today come more prepared than she was.

"Participants seem to have a bit more support growing up I think than artists in my generation did," she said.

"Things like having music lessons available to them, that certainly wasn't something that was available to me as a young person interested in music and so they're already coming more equipped than I certainly would have been at that age."

Dorion says writing and playing music are the fun parts of a music career, but she says there is so much more to it.

She's had both successes and failures dealing with the business side of the industry, with lawyers, accountants, record labels and managers.

"I think it's really important as a member of the Indigenous music community and someone who's been a member for maybe a bit longer than some others who are coming up, to pay it forward and to invest in the younger generation," she said.

Brettyn Rose, a 23-year-old from Okotoks, Alta., says she grew up around music.

"I studied Royal Conservatory and classical music," she said. "Growing up with piano, voice and music theory and I started guitar when I was about 13 and that's kind of when I started getting into songwriting, then I started performing and I probably started doing the artist thing when I was 15."

Rose is excited to develop a network with the other artists in the program along with the mentors, and she took a lot of notes at the various sessions to help her with her music career.

"I'm learning so much," she said. "The mentors that they've brought in are incredible and they're very open with us and we can talk with them about our careers individually or things in general."

Jarrid Poitras, from St. Paul, Alta., started writing songs when he was 16. The 40-year-old has been singing professionally now for the last 10 years. He knows he has a lot to learn about the business side of the industry to make this into a successful career.

"We do already know that the odds are stacked against me to be successful," he said. "Being Indigenous is one, being in country is another … so a program like this that focuses on the artistry, focus on the business aspect of things and it really gives you a boost and honestly, like anything we can do to get a leg up, it helps us."

Poirtras' stage name is Jarrid Lee because he says people can't pronounce his last name. He says there's a lot that goes into a song the people don't think about; the writing, recording, mixing and mastering, the marketing and it all comes down to three and a half minutes of a finished tune that people like, or they won't.

He's hoping the public likes his songs and this program helps him navigate the industry.

Learn more about the program on its website.