Photo by courtesy of/courtoisie de VIFF.

From temp music to harmonic ambiguity

Story by Howard Druckman | Friday October 12th, 2018

Brent Belke, Red Heartbreaker, Matthew Rogers, John Morgan, Hal Beckett, Raj Ramayya

Left to right: Brent Belke, Red Heartbreaker, Matthew Rogers, John Morgan, Hal Beckett, Raj Ramayya.

SOCAN and the SCGC (Screen Composers Guild of Canada) co-presented a captivating “Composure in Composing” panel that featured Vancouver-based screen composers, on Oct. 4, 2018, at the 2018 Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).

A diverse group of SOCAN #ComposersWhoScore were gathered for an informal session to share their experience, tricks of the trade, and advice on moving forward in the ever-changing world of composition for film, TV, and online. From stock music to Star Wars, they dealt with the entire spectrum of possibilities for the use of music in motion.

The panel, presented under the auspices of a VIFF/AMP (Alliance Media Partners) summit   featured screen composers Red Heartbreaker, Matthew Rogers, Hal Beckett, Raj Ramayya, Brent Belke, and John Morgan, Audio Director at The Coalition – Microsoft.

The group went into detail on some of the more technical aspects of scoring to screen, including the use of harmonic ambiguity to help tell the story, the ever-present challenge of creating temp music, and issues of plagiarism and originality.

Red Heartbreaker gave a passionate speech discussing her struggles toward equality as a woman in the screen music industry, and urged her male colleagues to become better, more active allies.

With files from Tonya Dedrick

Photo by Benoit Rousseau

Women in the Music World: Have Things Changed?

Story by Marie-Michèle Bouchard | Monday October 15th, 2018

On June 1, 2017, Les sœurs Boulay founded the Femmes En Musique (FEM—Espace public) movement by publishing an open letter that highlighted the gender inequality too commonplace in the music world. The letter was signed by more than 100 female musicians.

It read, in part: “Stakeholders of Québec’s music scene, be a part of the changes we wish for and need in order to achieve a healthy and balanced environment that will inspire young female artists, musicians, technicians, and other stakeholders of tomorrow’s music world to believe that our trade can help EVERYONE flourish.”

At the 2018 Montréal SOCAN Awards Gala, all of the SOCAN Classic Awards were earned exclusively by women. That is just one example of SOCAN’s continuing engagement to highlight the invaluable contribution of women in music.

We asked a few artists who were at the Oct. 2 Montréal SOCAN Awards what they thought, among other things, about the evolution of women’s roles in the Québec music ecosystem.

Photo by Benoit Rousseau

Patrice Michaud: Songs Before Fame

Story by Eric Parazelli | Thursday October 11th, 2018

Born in Cap-Chat, in Gaspésie, singer-songwriter Patrice Michaud has achieved boundless success so far in his career. To wit, on Oct. 2, 2018, he won the Songwriter of the Year Award at the 2018 Montréal SOCAN Awards. In this interview, he speaks about his relationship with success, among other things. Michaud has released three albums to date, an incredibly solid repertoire that we hope serves as the foundation of a very bright future.