Centretown musicians are encouraging each other to step outside their musical comfort zones through a series of recording challenges.
Thirteen bands make up the Centretown Recording Alliance, a network that allows them to form ever-changing teams by swapping members and to work together to put their unique spin on music singles.
They also pool their skills to help each other produce solo albums.
Solo albums are side projects done by individual band members, sometimes alone and sometimes with other musicians.
Recording alliance members create challenges that push the artists to expand their skills by trying different musical roles.
For example, in July, the musicians encouraged each other to cover a song by a Canadian artist and listened to their creations on Canada Day.
“It’s kind of a way to challenge ourselves generally outside of our regular bands,” says Chris Cook, a member of the alliance who plays in several bands, his main position being bass player for The Allrights, whose music he describes as “raucous, 90s-inspired indie rock.”
The group was created by Matt Wells, formerly of The Centretown Cripplers, when he realized many of his friends who played in bands were capable of recording solo albums.
Wells no longer lives in Ottawa, but the Centretown Recording Alliance continues on after the success of his original challenge.
“Last Dec. 31, (Wells) sent out an email challenging everyone to record a solo album before Family Day, so six weeks to record a solo album, and that’s how it all started,” Cook says.
The challenge resulted in 11 solo albums that were shared at a listening party in February.
“I think a lot of us took it as an opportunity to do something different. I tried to make a country album,” says Dave Banoub, alliance member and guitarist for The Allrights, among other bands.
“I made a punk album,” says Cook. “But it was also me and my wife just looking for an excuse to start our own band.”
Other artists took advantage of their solo album as a chance to work on their song writing or at-home recording skills.
The Canada Day challenge followed and saw friends of friends taking part, increasing the number of people involved in the Centretown Recording Alliance to between 15 and 20, says Cook.
Even as the number of participants grows, the challenges remain more about supporting one another to create better music than competing.
Cook offered his skills to help engineer four out of the eight Canada Day singles.
Encouragement also outweighs criticism when members share their work at listening parties, says Banoub.
“I think where so many people are trying things outside their comfort level, the learning process is kind of its own reward, and then just getting to share and talk about it. So everyone is really excited and supportive of that rather than breaking down what does or doesn’t work.”
The change in environment from seeing fellow musicians at performances in bars is also important, according to Cook.
“It’s a nice opportunity to sit down in a quieter situation in the daylight and talk a little more deeply about music and get a little bit nerdy,” he says.
Both agree the alliance can benefit musicians in Centretown.
“There are so many great bands that literally live between (Bank and Somerset) and the Queensway, so just getting them to hang out and talk to each other for a day is a productive discussion to have, and it helps that there’s a name you can attach to that,” says Banoub.
The alliance is preparing for another full-album recording challenge this January, plus the possibility of a Christmas-themed single challenge.