Creative Class

NPR Monitor Mix blogger and Sleater-Kinney rocker, Carrie Brownstein interviews Darius Van Arman founder of indie label, Jagjaguwar.Originally located in Charlottesville, Virginia, the label moved to Bloomington, Indiana in 1999, when Chris Swanson (a founder of Secretly Canadian) joined the partnership. Recently, two other Secretly Canadian partners (Jonathan Cargill and Ben Swanson) joined Jagjaguwar. Check this out

CB: What is it about Canada, or western Canada, in particular that
is fostering a wealth of creativity and good music these days?

DVA: I’m not sure, and I would hate to generalize. I don’t
believe there is disproportionately more musical wealth in Canada than,
say, in the U.S., or vice-versa. But there does seem to be a different
outlook on what being in a band is all about in Canada, and I can’t
quite put my finger on it.

I guess if there is an overall environment in Canada that is
more conducive to creativity or good music, it is probably due to how
the Canadian government is relatively more supportive of the musical
arts, how strong Canadian Public Radio is, and how relatively close
knit the various musical communities within Canada are.

Interestingly, here is what CBC – the Canadian equivalent to
NPR I am told – did for Jerk with A Bomb, the predecessor to Black
Mountain:

(1) CBC decided to record a live performance by a relatively unknown band called Jerk With A Bomb

(2) CBC recorded this band well (which is no small feat, as you would
probably know as a musician who has been recorded in a live setting)

(3) CBC paid band members handsomely for the honor to do so

(4) CBC broadcast the performance throughout Canada

Then, Chris and I end up listening to this CBC recording
during a road trip and get psyched about working with what would become
Black Mountain. Perhaps it was public radio that brought Jagjaguwar and
Black Mountain together.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 7:24 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.