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Shebad with fan (centre, front row) was recently in the city for the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople think that it starts and ends with musicians, but the reality is that the entertainment industry as a whole is one of Canada\u2019s largest industries,\u201d says Amit Mehta, band manager and founding partner at Good Company Productions.<\/p>\n
He was in Winnipeg in June for the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival, managing Shebad, one of Guelph\u2019s most successful acts, through a North American tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re getting paid relatively well. We\u2019re still netting out in the negative \u2026 If artists are creating less, it\u2019s because they have less free income, or less time, or too much stress in some cases to actually be creative (and) it\u2019s an indicator of how much discretionary money people have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leavesliketinyflames, whose members are all Manitobans in their late teens or early 20s, are gearing up to tour the West Coast this August.<\/p>\n
Almost everything about them feels like a throwback.<\/p>\n
Their sound evokes screamo or hardcore, genres whose mainstream heyday about 20 years ago made an impressive dent on international airplay with CanCon bands like Alexisonfire, Billy Talent and Winnipeg\u2019s Comeback Kid.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Ruth Bonneville \/ Free Press<\/p>\n Desmond Young is the drummer for Leavesliketinyflames. When the band hits the road for a tour of the West Coast in August, it will struggle with high gas prices.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n But even this unique moment in Canadian music was supported by broad, informal networks across the country of DIY enthusiasts with a couch to spare or access to alternative venues.<\/p>\n Leavesliketinyflames says these loose networks still animate domestic independent rock \u2014 even if some of its infrastructure, once strongly linked to college radio and music \u2018zines, is shrinking.<\/p>\n \u201cThe nice thing about being in a band that\u2019s adjacent to hardcore, or heavier music genres, is that there\u2019s such a strong sense of community there. There\u2019s a feeling of these people, even though they\u2019re halfway across Canada \u2014 they\u2019ll have my back,\u201d says guitarist Hunter Schmidt.<\/p>\n But with all this good will, the band aims to treat its fans as more than consumers.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the price of everything going up, we, in turn, have to raise the price of our merch. We don\u2019t want to scalp our friends and fans,\u201d drummer Desmond Young.<\/p>\n \u201cOur friends are already broke,\u201d adds Schmidt to laughter from his bandmates. All the same, the energy is mostly positive. Their hope is to break even.<\/p>\n \u201cHunter and (bassist) Shane (Grant) have done incredible work getting the vehicle set up in order and calculating gas,\u201d says Young. \u201cWe hope to God people show up, otherwise we just might be dead broke and flat on our ass. If something goes wrong with the car, it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Conrad Sweatman \/ Free Press<\/p>\n From left: Leavesliketinyflames members Hunter Schmidt, Blair Mceachnie, Shane Grant and Desmond Young are contending with having to raise merch prices to cover their costs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Surging fuel prices are hitting Canadian musicians across genres and degrees of professionalism.<\/p>\n Airfares have risen sharply compared with 2025. As of late June, Canadians were paying about 11 per cent more for domestic airfare than they were a year before.<\/p>\n The effects on full-time Canadian artists, especially those more likely to fly to gigs, are not always obvious at first glance.<\/p>\n Many of Canada\u2019s classical soloists, sectional players and smaller ensembles fly within Canada. They are supported by some of Canada\u2019s oldest and better-funded music institutions, mostly through donations and government support. That\u2019s a source of stability, but arguably it also makes many institutions slower to respond to market realities.<\/p>\n Madeline Hildebrand lives in Wolseley and \u2014 as a faculty of music professor at Memorial University in St. John\u2019s, N.L., and in-demand pianist \u2014 she\u2019s often on the road or in the sky.<\/p>\n She says while concert contracts are supposed to reflect the cost of travel, right now many agreements are lagging behind the real fiscal burdens of travel.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s not on the radar for a lot of orgs. So we have to ask for it \u2026 risking that the contractor can\u2019t accommodate,\u201d she says. \u201c(Even) for smaller contracts, like a week of adjudicating \u2026 the price hasn\u2019t changed in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n Hildebrand says she\u2019s already flown in and out of St. John\u2019s 11 times this year and four times out of Winnipeg \u2014 but only once to the U.S., where she completed her music doctorate at the prestigious Stony Brook University in New York.<\/p>\n Strictures surrounding continental travel add a whole other layer of challenge for Canadian musicians. On top of rising ticket prices, there are steep U.S. visa and processing fees, an unfavorable exchange rate and tougher border requirements.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is that if you want to pursue this as a career, you need to activate a lot of American markets as a Canadian artist, which means you have to travel there,\u201d says Mehta, Shebad\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now we\u2019re spending close to $10,000 every time we need that visa.\u201d<\/p>\n As he tours this summer with Shebad through the U.S. and Canada, the accomplished music professional is thinking about the future of Canadian music \u2014 at moment when he feels too many Canadians have given into \u201cbedroom communities.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy for people to just stay home and have their quote-unquote needs met without realizing that they\u2019re missing certain things in their lifestyle,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cA musician is pursuing this career \u2026 usually to connect with other people and bring people together, and there are already so many barriers in the way. Gas is just one more thing that\u2019s making it even harder to do.\u201d<\/p>\n winnipegfreepress.com\/conradsweatman<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Conrad Sweatman Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors, freelanced for\u00a0outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad.<\/a><\/p>\n
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