BUZZon - Small Town Sessions

Waif and the Spade It’s supposed to be a collaboration between a band, filmmakers and an old building. But the building isn’t quite doing its part. Filmmaker Millefiore Clarkes is setting up some lights and the electrical system at All Soul’s Chapel is finding that a bit much. Beautiful light streams in through the stained glass windows, but it isn’t quite enough.

Welcome to the Small Town Sessions, hosted and imagined by Becka Viau and arts animators thistownissmall. The idea is for a band or musician to play two songs (but play them only once, no do-overs) and for a filmmaker and recording engineer to capture what happens. Each of the sessions takes place in what Viau describes as inspiring spaces around Charlottetown: singer John Connolly, for example, recorded his session in the old Kays Brother’s warehouse, There’s an element of improvisation about the session at All Soul’s that makes the event feel dynamic. The band is Waif and the Spade. They’re not used to playing strictly acoustic music and they’re at the front, trying to work out how things will sound. Recording engineer Adam Gallant is hunched in a pew with his computer; Clarkes has found a wheelchair she intends to use to give her camera some movement in the small space. There’s a time constraint, Clarkes fiddles with the lights as the minutes tick down and the setting sun changes the quality of the light.

Truthfully, it doesn’t feel like it will work. Viau has to run out for batteries, the band can’t decide whether to sing a chorus twice. And then, suddenly, time is up. Action is called and, as if by magic, the whole thing just works. Viau exhales and smiles

Two songs and ten minutes later Waif and the Spade’s lead singer is also smiling. Andrew Hercules explains he wanted a space that had what he calls an “antique” feel, wanted a place that would reflect the shadings and light in the band’s music.

Viau found the chapel and watching Hercules and his band perform there, it’s clear that the choice was right.

The Small Town Sessions began filming in January and rapped up in the middle of February. Other musicians include Catherine MacLellan, Christian Ledwell from Milks and Rectangles, and Vishten. Filmmaker Adam Perry will also take a turn at seeing what he can create.

Viau says she had two goals in mind when she set the project up. She wanted to foster the kind of collaboration that might not otherwise happen and she wanted to celebrate some of the things that are beautiful about her small town. She received support from IMAC and from the Community Cultural partnership and lots of enthusiastic response from artists. Her task now: to scout locations, find batteries and watch as the surprising magic unfolds.

thistownissmall.wordpress.com/small-town-sessions/

Wave Award to Cheryl Wagner ←		Adam Perry →

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Becka Viau imagines and produces collaborations

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In Her Own Write
by Ann Thurlow