Music

6 reasons you should care about the Canada Walk of Fame's Music Mentorship Prize

by Mark Teo

March 7, 2014

For up-and-coming musicians, we won’t mince words: things are tough. Sure, it’s easy enough to record a half-decent demo on Garageband, upload songs to Soundcloud, and try to leap onto local bills. But then comes the hard question:

What comes next?

It’s a difficult question to answer, and most of the obvious options are terrible: you could sign up for a pay-to-play showcase, but those are all essentially pyramid schemes—you’d be better off working for Cutco, selling knives door-to-door. You could pursue a music career by enrolling in a music-specific college or university program, but that’s more of an option if you want to record—not play ‒inbands. Or you can keep your head down and hope to get noticed, but that requires luck, talent, connections, and even more luck.

Y’all. Things are hard. But that’s why we dig the RBC Emerging Artist Music Mentorship Prize, a competition designed for students by Canada’s Walk of Fame in partnership with RBC. No, it doesn’t put you in Grammy territoryyet, but it’s meant to helpemerging artists who are just starting their careers, and it offers tangible rewards.

1. Cold, hard cash.

Without sounding like a money-grubbing Monopoly Man, a simple fact is you need money to be an artist. You need money to record. You need money to print merch. You need money to tour (especially in Canada—ever tried driving from Toronto to Winnipeg?) You need money to eat terrible frozen gas-station burritos on tour. And the Music Mentorship Prize offers a lot of this hard-sought money: The Grand Prize includes $25,000 cash. And there’s also cash for the second prize winner and five finalists.

2. The opportunity to play in front of tons of people

Whether you choose to spend the $25K on touring is up to you. But winning the RBC Emerging Artist Music Mentorship Prize will give you the chance to perform at a Canada’s Walk of Fame event—of which there are several options.

3. Professional recording time at the Tragically Hip’s studio

The prize offers two separate recording sessions, both of them über cool. First, there’s 10 hours of recording time at Bathouse Studios, the Tragically Hip’s recording studio. (Which means that yes, you can sit in the chair that Gord Downie sat in while recording “Ahead by a Century.”) Next, there’s 20 hours at Toronto’s Metalworks Studios, one of Canada’s most notable studios. That’s no lie: Christina Aguilera, DMX, and Alexisonfire have spent time in its hallowed halls.

4. Mentorship from people who’ve been through it all

We’re going to throw a few names at you, here. Remember those recording sessions listed above? Well, at Bathouse, you’ll be mentored by Gord Sinclair, the Hip’s bassist and producer extraordinaire. At Metalworks, you’ll be mentored by Triumph’s Rik Emmett and Gil Moore. And throughout the whole process, you’ll get a chance to meet agents, music honchos, and other bands (duh).

5. Album artwork design

We’ll be dreadfully honest, here: Some—no, lots—of musicians should stick to what they’re good at, and that’s playing music. Because when guitar-wielders take a stab at MS-Paint, some horrific experiments ensue. That’s why so many eye-torching amateur album covers are littered with neon Comic Sans, capital letter names using IMPACT font alongside track titles using Papyrus. (Which always gives off a gross Smashing Pumpkins-meets-1996 shawarma joint vibe.)

Thankfully, Canada’s Walk of Fame’s grand prize pairs its winners with Eric McBain, a design pro who’s created eye-popping artwork for everyone from the Red Cross to July Talk. By our estimates, he’s never even used Papyrus.

6. The whole package is worth $100,000

Tally up points one through five, and the entire value of the prize clocks in at $100,000. That’s roughly the price of three of John Lennon’s molars. Or a single pair of Drake’s Air Jordans. And… well, we could go on, but we’ll just assure you that it’s a lot of money.

Here’s how to win it all: Head over to the Canada’s Walk of Fame website for full competition rules and details. Submit a performance video or audio file online and enter to win. The deadline is April 30, so get going and good luck!