Saskatchewan music appears to be in good hands.
With last week’s announcement of Estevan native Michael Dawson’s appointment as executive director for SaskMusic, the Mercury had a chance to speak with Dawson, and though he has been living the ins and outs of the music industry with his band Library Voices and through his time working various other aspects of the industry, it’s not just his hands that hold the future of the Saskatchewan music scene.
During a phone interview prior to Dawson beginning the post on March 2, he said Saskatchewan musicians are creating buzz, and people are taking notice. It’s not just Saskatchewan awakening to its homegrown talent but the rest of the world. And it’s not just about artists making a big splash and bursting onto the airwaves like The Sheepdogs and The Deep Dark Woods.
What’s happening is that Saskatchewan musicians are finding an audience, and Dawson said that audience is now looking elsewhere in the province to see what other prairie tunes there are to discover.
“I would argue it’s the strongest (the Sask. music industry) has been at any time that I can remember. It’s across every genre,” said Dawson.
“It’s funny. I was just overseas in the fall for a conference called Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany and had the opportunity to meet a few people, and it was interesting hearing from people in Germany about how they look at Saskatchewan as potentially one of those next little scenes like the way you look back at some place like Seattle that exploded.”
Dawson said what’s interesting about Saskatchewan as a scene is that there is no defining sound. The province has a wealth of music from all genres that is primed for export.
“Every genre seems to be growing and people are getting attention,” said Dawson.
He added that SaskMusic has been a part of moving musicians forward in the province through a combination of programming and workshops.
“They’ve helped prepare those artists with the necessary information, or what have you, to really pursue those opportunities and help instigate those opportunities.”
Dawson said a lot of that groundwork was laid by the previous executive director, Derek Bachman, who died suddenly in December following a brief illness.
“Derek had just started so many great things. I had the opportunity to be along with him on one of the export missions that they’d worked on so seeing those connections he’d made and getting an opportunity to meet those people he’d been working with, it felt like it’s really on the cusp of something that’s going to keep growing and growing, which is exciting for the province.”
The industry has been growing in the province and that growth is coming with more support and resources, like SaskMusic’s funding partner, CreativeSask.
“I do think we’re seeing direct results from these opportunities the artists are being afforded to take advantage of,” said Dawson.
“(SaskMusic) has always played such an integral role in the Saskatchewan music industry,” he added.
“The past couple of years I’ve just been watching the attention growing from out of the province for Saskatchewan artists more and more. It’s an exciting time to be part of the Saskatchewan music industry.”
Dawson spent five years serving as the artistic director of the Culture Exchange, where he booked and/or promoted over 400 concerts a year, before moving on to become the talent buyer for a number of venues in Western Canada.
Dawson previously owned and operated Young Soul Records, part of the EMI Associated Labels Division, releasing more than a dozen albums by Saskatchewan-based artists, and has participated in numerous juries including FACTOR (The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings) and the Lieutenant-Governor Awards.
He has been working with his Library Voices bandmates, and they’re hoping to release new music this year, and are slated to perform at SXSW in Austin, Texas in March.
With members getting married and some now having children, he said they’ve gotten away from touring 10 months of the year.
As he begins his new role at SaskMusic, he will be continuing on as the artistic director at the Gateway Music Festival in Bengough, which he has been part of for the past few years.
“That’s been a passion of mine. Growing up in Estevan, there wasn’t necessarily (a venue) for original music to take place. Whether we were borrowing a back room at an arcade or having a concert in someone’s basement, it was the do-it-yourself ethic of making it happen,” said Dawson, who said part of why he got involved in Gateway was be involved in presenting music to a small community.
“It’s such a unique thing to have a major music festival with a few thousand people attending in a town that only has 400 people. That’s part of the charm of Saskatchewan,” he said.
He has also worked on the Cultural Exchange’s Presenters Network, a project that identifies places beyond the province’s two major cities to locate venues for musicians to perform. The Estevan Art Gallery and Museum’s After Dark concert series is the result of that program.
“Now that has taken on a life of its own, and they’ve done such a phenomenal job of showcasing different emerging artists from around the province.”
And there are more emerging artists in Saskatchewan than ever before. Dawson pointed to Regina bluegrass band The Dead South, who recently returned from Germany where they were selling out shows.
“It’s maybe not stereotypically what you’d expect to be a German market kind of thing, but I think it speaks to the calibre of music that they’re playing and the interest that’s out there,” said Dawson.
Every day on Facebook he sees friends and Saskatchewan musicians who are all over the world playing music. With the kind of reach the province’s music has at the moment, Dawson said it’s only a matter of time before it really clicks and Saskatchewan music starts getting the acceptance so many have been working so hard to receive.
