Taking notes from one ‘music city’ to another
What Toronto has learned from its sonic sister city a year after mayor’s visit > T.O. VS. SXSW
AUSTIN, TEXAS— What a difference a year makes.
The city of Toronto’s “official” presence at the South by Southwest festival is somewhat diminished this year, with would-be rock-’n’-roll Mayor John Tory sitting this edition out.
But the return of the festival does provide a good opportunity to take stock of how far Toronto has come in its bid to become a world-renowned “music city” during the past 12 months.
Heading into SXSW at this time in 2015, Toronto had a somewhat nebulous, year-old “music-city alliance” with Austin and a vague commitment to get behind its thriving music industry as a cornerstone of its economic and cultural identity, but still not much demonstrable progress in establishing exactly what being a “music city” meant.
Tory’s visit to Austin and SXSW, along with a delegation that included Toronto’s then-new music-sector development officer, Mike Tanner, proved just the catalyst Toronto needed to get the music-city ball rolling.
“I would say it was a watershed year, just in terms of the commitment the city has made over the last 12 months,” says Amy Terrill of the industry lobby group Music Canada, which has led the charge to get Toronto to officially embrace the might of its music industry for the past couple of years.
“He (Tory) left Austin really focused on making something happen and looking for results,” she notes. “He’s putting a certain priority on music and the music community, and making sure that he’s continuing to show an interest and be engaged and to listen. He’s made a solid commitment.”
Tory left Texas impressed at what a town can accomplish when it gets behind its music sector — and its creative industries in general — and has followed through with measures that have taken Toronto (baby) steps closer to being the kind of worldrenowned, music-friendly burg that Austin has become since deciding years ago to be “the live-music capital of the world.”
Here are some things that have come to fruition since Tory and co. got a look at SXSW:
Relaxed enforcement of Toronto’s anti-postering laws.
Easier access to permits for music in our parks; revisions to our noise bylaws.
The free “Live at City Hall” concert series.
Music by Toronto artists to entertain 311 callers on hold.
The next step in Toronto’s “music city” development will be passing the city’s official music strategy. The extensive document, drafted with input from Tanner’s office and the 36member Toronto Music Advisory Council, along with industry and public consultations, has made it past the economic development committee and goes before council at the end of the month. Tory says it’s now time to “give it life.”
“I saw first-hand in Austin how a healthy music community, a healthy creative community, can attract other kinds of industry and jobs to a place like Austin, as it does for Toronto,” said Tory last week, lamenting that he’d be missing the fun in Texas, but “you can’t go to these things every year.”
“We saw that if we want to turn ourselves into something like Austin, the city has to be behind it, the city has to be accommodating and the city has to embrace music as opposed to looking at it as something to be apprehensive about . . . You have to be a little bit courageous about these things.”
Toronto will celebrate its alliance with Austin this Saturday through a “Toronto: Music Meets World” showcase at the Canadian Independent Music Association’s Canada House pop-up, featuring the Strumbellas, Whitney Rose, Fast Romantics and Jahkoy.
Tanner, meanwhile, will attend two days of meetings with SXSW delegates from other music-minded ports of call, such as Melbourne, Seattle, Hamburg and San Francisco — as well as with his Austin equivalent, Don Pitts — to explore “how do you make your city more music-friendly while keeping in mind the wider public interest?”
Issues such as gentrification, rising rents and how to manage noise in public spaces are of universal concern, it turns out.
“It’s interesting to see how cities around the world who identify themselves as music cities are dealing with these things,” says Tanner.
“I think it’s important to have a handle on that and to hear how different people are defining themselves as music cities, what concrete actions they’re doing. I mean, you can say it but, if you’re not doing anything to back it up, it doesn’t mean a whole lot.” Some of Toronto’s finest will be on display at the SXSW festival in Austin. Here are a few acts who stand to make waves in Texas. Basia Bulat: OK, she’s been adopted by Montreal, but we still claim this ever-evolving expat-GTA songbird as our own. Bulat’s new album, Good Advice, finds the folk taking a backseat to the pop in her folk-pop songwriting, to potentially star-making effect. Jazz Cartier: Toronto’s next great hip-hop hope seems ready to explode during the months ahead. Cartier’s very busy summer-festival season unofficially starts here. Dilly Dally: Co-ed Toronto punks had one of the best-reviewed albums anywhere in last year’s roiling Sore. They’re playing so many shows that Austin can’t help but pay attention Doomsquad: Creepy/druggy electro-drone sibling act is a force to be reckoned with live so this is the perfect place to tee up its hugely anticipated second LP, Total Time. I will see them as much as I can because they’re that good. Greys: One of three Buzz Records bands raising a bit of a buzz in Austin. Forthcoming new album is apparently a departure from the grunge-y, scream-y Greys of yore, but we have faith. Keys N Krates: The righteous EDM/hip-hop trio demonstrated itself more than ready for the big rooms on its excellent new EP, Midnite Mass. And since that record rocketed to the top of the iTunes dance charts in January, the big rooms are probably already beckoning in Austin. Terra Lightfoot: To see Hamilton rock chick nonpareil Lightfoot in action is to believe, so the number of believers will undoubtedly increase exponentially during the days ahead. She’s a charmer. MSTRKRFT: Been awhile since we heard anything new from the dance-floor-devastatin’ team of Jesse Keeler and Al P. Second album gets a proper preview here. Weaves: Another see-’em-to-believe-’em proposition. The cool kids won’t know what hit them.
“I saw first-hand in Austin how a healthy music community, a healthy creative community, can attract other kinds of industry and jobs.” MAYOR JOHN TORY ON MAKING TORONTO A MUSIC CITY