STORY BY MARKO WOLOSHYN
Last Saturday, a punk band, a film crew and an audio technician piled into School House Studios for its inaugural School House Live YouTube series.
Nick Ginn, the studio’s owner/operator said the idea for the series has been floating around for over a year, but only recently became a reality after pitching it to his friend Adam Clarke of the band Face Value.
“(Clarke) is kind of the manager of the whole thing, and he’s the one that’s kind of in charge of the scheduling and all that kind of behind the scenes stuff, just so that everything gets done as it should,” said Ginn.
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Clarke brought in his friends Aaron Hickey, former Sheridan student and founder of music blog Turn That Shit Down, to contact and solicit bands for the series, and Loeden Learn, owner/operator of Set It Straight Films, to film the series.
“(Clarke) was able to, within five days or something, get the whole thing set up and get the ball rolling. So we did three or four test runs of it with whoever was around, and now we’re bringing in bands,” said Ginn.
Ginn said although the idea is not exactly a new one, citing The Panda Studios’ The Waiting Room TV as a major influence, both he and Clarke are hoping it will turn some heads and bring attention to talented Ontario bands as well as the studio.
“When (Face Value) got the experience to record here, I just knew right off the bat that this is something everybody needs to know about,” said Clarke. “When the idea came up about doing a live session thing, everybody was on board. We already had the right connections to make it work. (Hickey) has great connections all throughout the Ontario scene, and just being able to post it and get it out there is awesome.”
Each episode will feature a new act, ranging anywhere from folk-rock to rap, performing a handful of songs live off the floor.
Hickey said he has wanted to set up a live series since the inception of his blog, simply for the kinetic energy a strong live act can bring, but never had the means until now.
“Even with this local scene everything is so, I guess, produced and overproduced,” said Hickey. “It’s great to get a live session off the floor where you see how the musicians are actually doing it, and how they sound, and you get to see it with your own eyes. You don’t listen to a CD and wonder ‘How did this come together?’”
Ginn hopes to eventually release the recordings as 7” singles outfitted with download cards featuring both the videos of the sets as well as audio-only mp3s.
“We’re still discussing (distribution),” said Ginn. “My overall idea when I first started trying to plan it, I wanted to do something similar to the BBC live sessions. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to swing it, or when we’ll be able to start doing that, but that is one of my goals.”
The YouTube series will feature Oakville punk band Coldfront for its first episode.
The series will launch in early-to-mid December and is expected to debut new episodes monthly.
For updates on the series check out schoolhousestudios.ca or their Facebook Page