BC’s summer is absolutely stacked with festivals, and Vancouver has its share of the loot, including this weekend’s great Khatsahlano Street Festival.
These festivals act as showcases for amazing local acts, allowing homegrown talent to be discovered by crowds of new fans. The importance of festivals like Khatsahlano – which features more than 50 BC-bred bands – can't be understated, and it's something the people behind Mint Records know all about that.
Founded in 1991, the Vancouver-based record label has been responsible for some of the best-selling music to come out of this with Neko Case and New Pornographers. They’ve released records by fantastic local and non-local acts alike, including Lou Barlow, The Pack A.D., the Sadies and The Handsome Family (perhaps best known for providing the theme music to True Detective).
Several Mint bands are playing Khatsahlano this weekend – LPs of which we're giving away this weekend – so WE Vancouver reached out to Mint’s label manager Shena Yoshida at her home in Brooklyn to chat about the health of the local scene and what it takes for bands to get noticed.
WE Vancouver: Being from Vancouver, involved in a Vancouver label, what do New Yorkers perception of the music scene here?
Shena Yoshida: There are bands like White Lung, people here are kind of freaking out over them. Mac Demarco’s another one. I feel like the bigger names get a lot of recognition – oh but the other person! Any time I ever meet anyone in New York and they’re like, ‘What do you do?’ and I tell them I work with Nardwuar, they like freak out. Everyone knows about him here as well.
WE: What are your thoughts on the scene here, then? People are aware of Mac DeMarco and White Lung, but they’re not really aware of what’s going on here, the way they might be in a city like Seattle, or Montreal even.
SY: I think it’s that more of the business happens in those places. If you’re looking for a manager, or a label, or a publicist, tons of them would live in those areas. So if you’re a band and you want to get noticed, you’re probably going to go there. But at the same time, that’s not always the route people are going to take.
WE: Has Mint ever had the ambition to make Vancouver a ‘thing’ or have you just tried to get the best music possible out there?
SY: No, Mint’s trying to catalogue what we think is amazing and special. A lot of it comes from Vancouver because it’s an obvious place to start out.
WE: Because you’re there?
SY: Exactly. Our friends are in bands and we’re just very involved with people there. It makes sense to work with your friends. I mean, Randy (Iwata) started that in the early Mint days with Cub, his sister (Robyn Iwata)’s band, and it’s grown from there. Just friends of friends of friends. It’s a family label, in that sense.
WE: How do you think street festivals like Khatsahlano are important for local bands?
SY: It’s really important for bands to be visible and to have that opportunity is very valuable.
WE: Have you noticed a change in Vancouver since you started working with Mint? Has it gotten better for local bands? Worse?
SY: It’s tough in Vancouver because venues are constantly popping up, then vanishing. There aren’t a lot of opportunities for all-ages events. One big thing that’s happened in the past few years is Safe Amp at Astorino’s has opened, and that’s kind of allowing a space for kids to see shows. That’s a major step forward, but it’s kind of a tough town. In terms of touring even, it’s easier to tour the East Coast, so Vancouver always feels a little secluded in that sense. But it’s also what makes it special.
WE: I’ve heard this about local comedians, that they perform in Vancouver in relative obscurity. They get really good and then when they get out in the world, they blow people away because they’ve had all this time to develop in isolation. Does that happen with the music too? Why bands like Japandroids or White Lung seem to come out of nowhere?
SY: Yeah, but that can happen anywhere. Right now, there’s a ton of amazing talent coming out of Edmonton as well, also because it’s kind of isolated from Toronto and Montreal. There’s a ton of amazing bands in Vancouver that play fairly frequently and probably could be huge. It’s just a matter of them being in the right place at the right time with the right people. All of those things.
WE: How frustrating is it, as a label, signing these bands that you know can make it, but just aren’t?
SY: I mean, we’re more about curating and supporting the local culture rather than having the best-selling record of all time. I don’t know. The music business and dealing with people – all that changes once you reach a certain level of success and it’s not always as honest and fun as it is when the stakes are a little bit lower. Mint thrives on that, that momentum and feeling of excitement and really loving what we’re doing. I couldn’t work for a lot of those bigger companies and have that same enthusiasm.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
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