Songwriters Stewdio: A Unique Jam Session

Songwriters Stewdio is an ongoing, bi-weekly jam session that takes place at Kelowna’s Music City Studio. Each session of the Songwriters Stewdio is around three hours long. However, that three hour block is broken into three forty-five minute segments. At the start of each segment, a songwriter presents two songs to the group. The group then picks one of the songs to work on. From there, the group collaborates on the track utilizing whatever elements and instruments are available at that particular session. At the end of the segment, Mike Pedersen, the owner of Music City Studio, records what the group has come up with. At the end of each session, the attendees will have collaborated on and recorded three songs live off the floor. The songs are then uploaded online for the enjoyment of others.

Have a listen to the first track to come out of the most recent Songwriters Stewdio session -

John McMahon’s “When I First Met You”

Songwriters Stewdio is the work of Music City Studio owner, Mike Pedersen, singer-songwriter, Sandy McAfee, and Lynda Norman of The Association of Artists for Creative Alliance. The idea was born, at least in part, from the simple desire for good music to be heard. It’s a desire that struck McAfee following her travels across Canada. While travelling, McAfee witnessed a lot of good music being played in very private settings, environments where the music is highly unlikely reach a wider audience. Songwriters Stewdio provides an opportunity for the sounds of musicians, much like those that McAfee saw on her travels, to have their music heard by a wider audience. With that said, musicians of all exposure levels are welcome at the sessions.

McAfee described the sessions as a “Live, improv collaboration of songwriters and musicians…” She continued, ““It’s not about perfection, it’s about creation, about bringing the music back to its real roots, and working together as a team, and we kind of strip away the egos in that environment and say, “it doesn’t matter how long you’ve played, it doesn’t matter that you’re new at this, in this space you’re equal.”

Mike Pedersen, the owner of Music City Studio, which celebrates its second birthday on September 17th, explained, “The main goal for this project is to bring the local music community together at Music City Studio twice a month... it's meant to be inspiring, encouraging and above all, a great experience for everyone that attends.”

The trio behind the sessions have a number of ideas for how they would like to see Songwriters Stewdio blossom and spawn other projects.

McAfee stated, “Right now we’re just piecing together and testing all the ideas, and making sure everything works right.” One potential avenue McAfee, Pedersen and Norman are keen to explore is the concept of a Songwriters Stewdio concert. McAfee also outlined that through the sessions the trio “want to see some collaboration between musicians, either building performance groups or having studio sessions out of it…” They are also hoping that travelling musicians will be keen to attend the sessions as Songwriters Stewdio grows and word spreads.

To that end, McAfee exclaimed, “I really think the music community is going to get behind [Songwriters Stewdio], we already have people that aren’t even in the music community, they’re also wanting to just come sit in to watch the whole thing, because being in that creative space is not only wonderful for the people that are doing it, it’s wonderful to watch…”

For those participating in the sessions there’s a $10 fee to cover costs, but refreshments will be provided. However, Pedersen, McAfee and Norman are currently seeking sponsors from within the community, so that they can make the sessions free to attend. The first session of the Songwriters Stewdio took place back in August, while the latest installment took place on September 9th. The next session is scheduled for Sept 23rd. All genres and musical tastes are welcome at the Songwriters Stewdio.

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Do you want to contact Vince? E-mail him at: vince@welcometokelowna.com or connect with him on Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn. You can also hear Vince play some of Canada's best indie music from emerging artists every Wednesday on the Music City Podcast. You can also catch Vince talking music on CBC Radio West as an on-air music columnist.