More Than Coffee At This Canadian Music Café

Source:  www.thestar.com - Greg Quill, Entertainment Columnist

(August 30, 2008) To compensate for revenue shortfalls resulting from ever-diminishing sales of recorded music, musicians and songwriters everywhere are seeking alternate ways to get their music heard, sold and distributed.

Every download of an MP3 or a ringtone, every track played on an Internet radio station, every Memory Stick sold as concert memorabilia, even a few seconds of sample play on an Internet retail site counts. But outside commercial radio, the best way for a songwriter to make a mark, find a new audience and maybe to make some reasonable money these days is to get a song on the soundtrack of a movie or TV show. Or better yet, on a commercial or as the theme of a blockbuster movie or long-running series.

So it was no big surprise to Toronto-based film and TV music supervisor Michael Perlmutter – he built the soundtracks for the TV series Queer As Folk and DeGrassi: The Next Generation, and helped put the music together for the Gemini-nominated Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame gala – that more than 200 Canadian songwriters and artists responded to the industry-wide call for submissions to participate in the fourth-annual Canadian Music Café, now a permanent musical showcase at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"We cast a wide net because we wanted to represent the best of the country's music – from bands as well as singer-songwriters – to the music supervisors, directors and producers attending the festival," said Perlmutter, who's co-ordinating the music at this year's Café, a joint venture developed by the Canadian Recording Industry Association, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, the Canadian Independent Record Production Association, and the Canadian Music Publishers Association. "Age, size of the band, gender doesn't matter – only how well the music might play in movies, television and advertisements."

The submissions were eventually whittled down to 15 acts who'll perform for a closed audience – festival delegates and media – at the Hard Rock Café on Yonge St., Sept. 9 and 10 from 1 to 5 p.m., and on Sept. 11 from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. They are Vancouver jazz/roots songwriter Ali Milner; Ottawa alt-pop/folk artist Kyrie Kristmanson; Martha Wainwright; Toronto songwriter Royal Wood; Toronto electro-rap duo Thunderheist; Toronto pop songwriter Gentleman Reg; City and Colour (Alexisonfire's Dallas Green); Montreal folk-rock outfit Final Flash; Charlottetown power pop band Two Hours Traffic; Halifax-based songwriter Jill Barber; Vancouver's Shuyler Jansen; Winnipeg funk-rap band Grand Analog; Toronto's Lindi Ortega; Edmonton R&B singer/songwriter Kreesha Turner; and indie Toronto rock band The Midway State."The obvious benefit is money, but mixing music and movie images is artistically very satisfying," said Gentleman Reg. No stranger to the business, he has had several songs placed on movie and TV soundtracks (Queer As Folk, Wilby Wonderful, Shortbus) and is more than happy with the result. "The songs have been put in a good context. I try to take care that my music isn't associated with negative or violent images."

For 18-year-old Milner, a huge movie fan, the prospect of playing for Hollywood music supervisors and buyers is a big thrill, a step up from after-party gigs she has played during two previous TIFFs. She recently performed, during a B.C. cultural trade mission to China, for a live audience of 60,000 and a TV audience of 90 million.

"I haven't had any songs on movie or TV soundtracks yet, and maybe it won't happen this time, either," Milner said. "I don't write songs with movies in mind. I'm hoping just to make some good music contacts and to meet other musicians I can work with in the future."

A seasoned movie-music writer, with credits on several TV series and films, including specially commissioned work, Royal Wood has the uncanny ability to capture the mood or theme of the films for which his work has been chosen. "This has become a very competitive business," he said. "Movie soundtracks have actually launched careers. The Garden State (featuring songs from The Shins) soundtrack did huge business because the music was so well blended with the movie's key moments.

"This is my first time at the Canadian Music Café, and I get just 15 or 30 minutes – four songs – to make an impression. But it's a huge opportunity to place songs with big-budget films, and to make more connections."