{"id":27849,"date":"2026-02-18T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=27849"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:57:24","slug":"camosun-grad-starts-new-record-label-to-support-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2026\/02\/18\/camosun-grad-starts-new-record-label-to-support-artists\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun grad starts new record label to support artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 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<\/i>), is just such a story with the launch of her new record label, Understory Records.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun grad Naomi Kavka (left) and journalist Pam Haasen have started Understory Records (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSmithers is another artistic hub,\u201d says Kavka, \u201csimilar to Dawson [City, Yukon], Nelson, and Wells, where it\u2019s very small and super supportive and full of, just brimming with, artists, but there\u2019s so many different barriers to entry, including funding, and it\u2019s just having the right contacts to try and promote and distribute music.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a bit of a tipping point happening culturally, where I know personally and from people that I\u2019ve talked to, we\u2019re all pretty jaded with the streaming services as artists,\u201d says Kavka. \u201cWe don\u2019t really get anything from it, but it occupies so much real estate in our minds, of like, how many plays I\u2019m getting, how do I get on playlists?\u201d<\/p>\n

While listenership can be tough for artists, the inner workings of the industry itself also poses challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much gatekeeping involved in that,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s just turned into this huge machine that I want to extricate myself from. I\u2019ve done several releases on vinyl and find that people are really enthusiastic about buying them. The main barrier is it\u2019s expensive to get it done. There\u2019s lost of steps involved. And for a lot of first-time artists that are trying to release these things that\u2019s a bit of a hurdle to sort of get over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kavka, having navigated these issues herself, saw an opportunity, which is where Understory\u2019s story begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo my thoughts were, I\u2019m going to team up with another really ambitious arts person I know, Pam Haasen, who\u2019s a journalist in Smithers, and work together to find creative ways to help artists get physical merch, and distribute,\u201d says Kavka.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Understory\u2019s first release, Understory Records Volume One<\/i>, is a compilation of Northern BC and Yukon artists that comes out on February 28 (see understoryrecords.com<\/a> for more info on the release and label).<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I\u2019ve been kicking around the idea for ways to promote music that I find not gross as a musician,\u201d says Kavka. \u201cYou 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, \u2018I have a record in my hand, I can go out into the world with this now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s just an offer to sort of shop local,\u201d she says, \u201cand you know that what you\u2019re going to be [spending] is going back to the artist and back into the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[348,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-february-18-2026","category-campus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27851,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27849\/revisions\/27851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}