Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the 5th annual Capital Music Awards at the Bronson Centre. It was my first time attending the annual award show, organized by the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition (OMIC), and I left inspired and excited.
Kicking off the show was Pony Girl, an art-rock band fronted by Pascal Huot, who leads our video work at Spruce. Nominated in several categories, Pony Girl went on to win the award for Single of the Year. As Pascal gave the band’s acceptance speech, I felt proud and grateful that we have people on our team who pursue passions such as music, poetry, writing, photography and teaching outside of work, and who do so at such a high level.
As a musician who used to perform on a semi-regular basis, it’s been a priority for me that our team have the flexibility to pursue other work that is important to them. Ultimately, I believe Spruce and our community benefits. The more creativity, inspiration and interconnectivity between different worlds the better.
It was also an exciting night to see aspects of the 2018-2020 Ottawa Music Strategy in action. In 2017, I had the privilege of working with an amazing task force of local music and business leaders to assemble a list of recommendations for advancing Ottawa’s music industries. Two of those recommendations included ongoing funding to OMIC as well as the creation of an Ottawa-Gatineau music awards, with such goals as “raising the visibility of local music” and “providing an opportunity for the local business community to get involved.”
Fast forward a few short years and the scale and execution of the awards show I attended was beyond anything I had expected when we drafted those recommendations. The diversity of music, inclusion of Indigenous voices, celebration of English and French music, the recognition of venue owners and sound engineers, the participation of local business and government leaders, and attendance of the general public—not to mention the palpable positivity—left me feeling excited about the potential of Ottawa music.
The show also highlighted how our city benefits when the commitment and talent of artists and arts entrepreneurs is recognized and supported. Many researchers, such as those behind reports like The Mastering of a Music City, have found that robust music industries benefit cities in a range of ways, from job creation to supporting tourism to making cities more attractive to workers from other sectors. These outcomes are valuable in their own right, but two additional things that I love about music scenes are that they:
- Create unforgettable moments that connect emotion to place. It could be in a small underground venue or a massive outdoor festival, but cities become special to people by creating opportunities to be “delighted”[1]. We become more invested in our city through experiences that we feel could not happen anywhere else. Every week in every neighbourhood, musicians, promoters, venue owners and fans are creating these types of meaningful experiences in Ottawa.
- Connect people across cultures, industries, communities. Whether it’s meeting a new bandmate, a future spouse or finding a new job or business partner, people connect through music. Indeed, my current role as an owner of Spruce would not have happened without connections made from playing music in small Ottawa clubs 20+ years ago.
At Spruce, one of the sectors we specialize in is “city building”. Projects like new hospitals, libraries, transit and bike lanes easily fall into this category, but this sector is also about fostering connections and relationships that create delight and belonging. By bringing together economic development departments and arts organizations, tourism boards and emerging festivals, private-sector companies and music venues, we strengthen the city’s social and cultural fabric.
Ultimately, we see city building as a project of creating a place where we want to live, work and play together. A place that we are excited to call home and to invite others to visit. People who work in music understand its power to shape cities. The Capital Music Awards gave me hope that those outside the music scene now see Ottawa music as one of the key ingredients to our city building project.
[1] In his book Perfect City, urban planner Joe Berridge argues that “delight” is one of the key things that cities must create to become world leaders.
Andrew Vincent is a singer-songwriter who used to perform regularly in Ottawa. He helped found the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition and led the development of Ottawa’s first municipal music strategy. He is a partner at Spruce Creative.
