| If you’re an artistically-minded twenty-or-thirtysomething (still) living in Calgary, chances are you’ve experienced the slow, steady erosion of artists for which our city is known. Maybe all of your like-minded friends took off for Vancouver or Toronto, trying to make it in theatre, film or music. Or perhaps you did too, only to find yourself back here. It’s sort of day-old news to say that Calgary is a tough market for artists, and that many end up leaving for pastures that are more hospitable, if not always greener.
But it’s not just Calgarians that leave to pursue their dreams – the prairie map is dotted with small towns whose local talent has left to find something bigger to become a part of, or at least to find people who understand them. Perhaps it’s only the truest of the crop that are brave enough, or want it enough to do something as gutsy as giving the music industry a sincere shot. In a field where being at the right place at the cosmically appointed time, knowing the right people, and other such serendipitous stipulations are everything, it’s easy to see how rare it is when the ingredients are just right to coalesce into something meaningful as well as viable.
But it does happen, just look at the Copperspine collective.
There are two layers to the Copperspine story. One is about an artist’s co-operative located in a Chinatown basement in Vancouver, where coppersmiths, silversmiths and a motley crew of musicians gather to work on their projects.
The second is an offshoot of this artist’s guild – Copperspine Records, a label made up of Prairie ex-pats who realized they weren’t going to make a career out of music in their hometowns, so they moved to Vancouver as a logical alternative.
Four individuals were voted by the co-op members to run the label – Roger Young, Brodie Smith, Rob Clark and Leah Abramson. Young and Smith are Alberta boys, Clark is from Saskatchewan, while Abramson is West Coast-raised. If arty types in western Canada do tend to converge in Vancouver, you could say it’s anybody’s guess what happens to their roots when they get to a comparatively large urban centre.
However, if Copperspine is at all representative of that experience, your roots stay with you. The concept of this label is artist-centred, which is not uncommon with indie labels, but what makes Copperspine unique is its pure, decidedly un-hip approach to roots-based music.
"One of the annoying things about the indie world is having to be on the cusp of whatever is brand new. All that genre-naming, jumping around with hyphenated appellations. So little of that is particularly original," says Young. He’s uncomfortable taking credit for the Copperspine concept, but Young is acknowledged as the guiding hand of the community.
"It started out as my baby, but then Brodie adopted it, and we sort of have joint custody now," says the Calgary-born Young. "But it’s not just my idea anymore."
The germination of Copperspine began in 1997, when Young was working as a coppersmith in Port Moody, B.C. He was also recording his first album as a member of a band called Spotted Boy.
"We had these strips of copper and I just thought it would be cool if you folded them in the spine of the jewel case," says the soft-spoken 34 year old. Although the concept had a very literal beginning, the symbolism quickly cemented the idea. The idea of a backbone made of a material that, in Young’s words doesn’t stay all shiny speaks to his earthy, tangible approach.
"Copper is also flexible and malleable," says Young, and Copperspine’s values are nothing if not flexible. Although record labels are often held together by a common genre, Copperspine looks beyond such rigid constructions. Although they consider themselves a roots-based label, "folk" describes their ideology, not their musical repertoire. In fact, of the six albums they are releasing this spring, only the Appalachian ballads of Dyad and the Blue Rodeo-esque That Kelly Boy would garner the roots tag. Mongoose, fronted by Rob Clark, is a straight-up punk band with more than garden-variety influences. Mike Clark, a Red Deer native, is a singer-songwriter who might just be picking up where Elliott Smith left off, and In 3’s is an innovative hybrid genre – "prog rock jazz" as described by label operations manager, Smith.
"What binds us all together is a mutual respect for everyone’s music. Regardless of whether it’s music that is really your thing, we respect each other for what we’re doing," explains Calgary-native Smith. There is an undeniable maturity and intelligence to this approach, one that has evolved past tribal name-callings and niches, and displays awareness that musicians often have more commonalities than differences.
Smith also runs 54-40’s recording studio in Vancouver, and began working with their manager, Allen Moy. Copperspine got out of the indie ghetto in January, when Moy’s label, Divine Industries, offered a distribution deal. Divine is pipelined by Red Music Canada, a Sony-owned distributor, which puts Copperspine in stores nationwide.
"It’s been networking by accident. It was never this aggressive business plan that we had to expand and meet these people," says Young. Although Copperspine is happy with this recent success, it’s business as usual for them – they’re sticking to their artist-centred, folky guns. In the future, when they look to add talent to their roster, commercial appeal will not be a stipulation.
"We’re looking for bands who are making music because it’s the music they want to make, not because they want to sell a million records." |
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