By: Ethan Grove
A five-song compilation EP of entirely unreleased music from various bands in the Ottawa Gatineau region, available on Bandcamp for a minimum of $5 with all the proceeds going to charity: Ottawa Gatineau Compilations (OttGatCamp) is a project started by Sandy Vance of Teenage Fiction and Andrew Grosvenor of Greathunter, with a goal of raising money for charities in the community.
“Back in, the 90s and the 2000s, I guess the 80s as well, this kind of thing was a little more common, where a record label would put out a compilation of artists on their label. And it would be songs that you could only get on that compilation,” said Sandy. “So it’s sort of like these B-sides or rarities or whatever. And that was sort of cool. I can remember when I was a teenager, in the early 2000s, and some of that stuff was kind of still floating around and you go to CD warehouse or HMV and try to find the songs and it was just super fun.”
Their first Compilation was released on December 2nd, featuring songs from Teenage Fiction, Greathunter, Blank Sun, Stoby and Adam Ferris. All proceeds from the compilation go directly to the Ottawa Food Bank.
Given the reaction they’d seen from the first compilation release, they plan on continuing this project, always donating the money to various charities in the Ottawa Gatineau communities.
“This one’s the food bank. I think at this time of year, the food bank is kind of an obvious choice,” said Andrew. “In a positive way, a lot of people during the holidays, and in the winter months seem to turn to the food bank, more and more. Especially with the economic situation a lot of people are facing these days with things just kind of costing a lot more money.”
Continuing to keep it a community-driven project, the cover art is done by local artists, with each compilation showcasing new talents.
“Erin [Besseau] is a good friend of mine, I’ve known her for a long time now. She’s done a piece for us, actually, for my band Greathunter, separately, and she’s been having her art shown a bit more around the city in the past year, and she was just the first person I knew to ask,” said Andrew. “She’s painted that on a piece of wood and her plan is to auction it at some point this month as kind of a tie-in to the compilation.”
For the Next EP, they are hoping to get different artists involved and hope to see more diversity in the genre as well. They are also hoping to represent some french artists in the compilation.
“There’s a lot of bands on the threshold that are probably college age, that are out there and we want to give them a showcase as well. The kind of way that when I was younger and playing in bands, we didn’t really have that, there wasn’t social media to this extent either and sites like Bandcamp, and so forth. But this, this would be an opportunity to kind of engage with the new generation that’s playing right now in the city,” said Andrew.
“We have members in the bands that are from Gatineau, it would be cool to maybe go that one step further and have the band refers to themselves as a Gatineau band, or, you know, sing and write their songs in French. To include that in the compilation just to give it a bit more of the weight of the community, because I feel it’s obvious that there should be more links across the river between the scenes. Maybe this compilation is a way to do some of that,” Andrew continued.