For most people, Northern Lights Festival Boréal is a chance to kick back and relax in Bell Park while listening to some great folk music.
But the experience wasn't nearly so relaxing for the participants in the 2016 Canadian Songwriter Challenge, although it was fruitful.
Ten Northern Ontario musicians were paired up, and with the help of mentors, they wrote and recorded a song together during the festival weekend.
Those five songs are now posted on the Music and Film in Motion website, along with the songs written in the 2015 edition of the challenge.
Sudbury native Tessa Gooden and Thunder Bay resident Jean-Paul De Roover teamed up to write the song “The Wind Knows.”
The pair worked so well together, they've continued to work on their song, and are recording a more polished version.
“Jean-Paul, honestly I couldn't believe I hadn't heard of him prior, because he was so talented,” said Gooden.
She said she decided to participate in the challenge because she's been living in Toronto, and wanted an excuse to spend some time in her hometown.
De Roover said he's been a songwriter for some years now, and thought it would be interesting to get out of Thunder Bay and co-write with an absolute stranger. It turned out to be a good decision.
Gooden was “an absolute delight,” De Roover said. “We actually got along so well that we've actually continued to send files back and forth for that one song we were working on,” he said.
Besides De Roover and Gooden, participants in the 2016 songwriting challenge included Rachel Barber, Jimmy Breslin, Connor Clowes, Julian Cote, Martine Fortin, Esther Pennell, Lindsay Sullivan and David Dino White.
They received the help of mentors Fred Squire, Serge Brideau (Les Hôtesses d'Hilaire) and ShoShona Kish (Digging Roots).
The weekend wrapped up with a demo listening party aboard the William Ramsey boat (formerly the Cortina).
The songwriter challenge was put on by Music and Film in Motion, Northern Lights Festival Boréal, Near North Mobile Media Lab and l'Association des professionels de la chanson et de la musique (APCM).
Music and Film in Motion music outreach officer Jen McKerral said her organization typically tries to help musicians tackle the business side of their industry, such as marketing.
“We kind of felt it was time to just put a little more emphasis on the creative side of things,” she said.
“We thought it was a neat way to get artists meeting each other and working together, which is a great networking exercise, but also getting them out of their comfort zone, and maybe trying something they haven't before.”
