It’s always nice to hear success stories from those who walked the halls of Camosun before you, a bit like the universe chucking you gently under the chin and letting you know that there is hope. Naomi Kavka, who graduated from the music diploma program at the Victoria Conservatory of Music through Camosun way back in 2011 (and also wrote for Nexus), is just such a story with the launch of her new record label, Understory Records.
Kavka, who makes her home in Smithers, BC, had noticed a seriously lacking network of support for artists in the northern reaches of this province we all call home. British Columbia has its fair share of artistic communities, and Smithers may just be poised to add its name to the roster.
“Smithers is another artistic hub,” says Kavka, “similar to Dawson [City, Yukon], Nelson, and Wells, where it’s very small and super supportive and full of, just brimming with, artists, but there’s so many different barriers to entry, including funding, and it’s just having the right contacts to try and promote and distribute music.”
Getting your music out there without going through organizations like Spotify and YouTube, who are notorious for their poor payment of artists, is a challenge for up and comers.
“There’s a bit of a tipping point happening culturally, where I know personally and from people that I’ve talked to, we’re all pretty jaded with the streaming services as artists,” says Kavka. “We don’t really get anything from it, but it occupies so much real estate in our minds, of like, how many plays I’m getting, how do I get on playlists?”
While listenership can be tough for artists, the inner workings of the industry itself also poses challenges.
“There’s so much gatekeeping involved in that,” she says. “It’s just turned into this huge machine that I want to extricate myself from. I’ve done several releases on vinyl and find that people are really enthusiastic about buying them. The main barrier is it’s expensive to get it done. There’s lost of steps involved. And for a lot of first-time artists that are trying to release these things that’s a bit of a hurdle to sort of get over.”
Kavka, having navigated these issues herself, saw an opportunity, which is where Understory’s story begins.
“So my thoughts were, I’m going to team up with another really ambitious arts person I know, Pam Haasen, who’s a journalist in Smithers, and work together to find creative ways to help artists get physical merch, and distribute,” says Kavka.
Understory’s first release, Understory Records Volume One, is a compilation of Northern BC and Yukon artists that comes out on February 28 (see understoryrecords.com for more info on the release and label).
“I mean, I’ve been kicking around the idea for ways to promote music that I find not gross as a musician,” says Kavka. “You do so much work [as an artist] and you are very aware of the business side of music, which I was not especially adept at, but I have learned a lot about how to survive as an entrepreneur. So I want to be able to help [new artists] at least get their foot in the door. Like, ‘I have a record in my hand, I can go out into the world with this now.’”
Kavka says that people should think about the way they consume music the same way they think about how they consume something like local groceries.
“Of course, it’s just an offer to sort of shop local,” she says, “and you know that what you’re going to be [spending] is going back to the artist and back into the community.”