Music marketing workshop for islanders

The Music Marketing Northern B.C. Workshop Tour is headed to Haida Gwaii, giving local musicians and artists the chance to develop digital marketing skills needed to aid their craft in today’s technological world.

Supported by Creative B.C., the workshop is the brain-child of Rhythm Club co-founders Evie Lavers and Zan Comerford. Lavers, originally from Perth, Australia, recently embarked on a five city tour of the Northwest to bring the lessons to areas that otherwise might not receive such specialized attention. After leaving her home in Wells, a small town east of Quesnel, Lavers made stops in Prince George, Smithers, Terrace and Prince Rupert, before arrving for a workshop in Skidegate on Thursday.

Rhythm Club co-founders Zan Comerford and Evie Lavers. (Mary Matheson photo)

“We work on content creation and storytelling, so you have the opportunity to create a bit more engagement and share your story,” Lavers said of the workshops. Writing grant proposals is also on the schedule, as well as a heavy focus on using social media to promote an artist’s work.

“I love small towns and rural communities,” Lavers said. “I feel people shouldn’t have to have that pressure to move to a city just to get their music heard or their art seen,” she says on why she feels the classes are important.

Having just received her permanent residency, Lavers now plans to remain in Canada for the forseeable future, and continue working on growing and fostering music and art development in small towns.

“It’s beautiful to bring people into a room together, because at gigs it can be harder to talk to people,” Lavers said. “We do some exercises within the workshops, and I think bringing people into a space and creating those music hubs, it’s awesome. Now we see artists touring with other artists that we met in the room that day.”

The workshop will take place at the Haida Heritage Centre in Skidegate from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The workshop’s final stop will be in Terrace on Friday.

Alex Kurial | Journalist

Alex Kurial