For those who don’t know, GAIN is actually a clever acronym for “Guelph and Area Independent and New music.” Not only do they promote, book and manage bands, they also work to give back to the Guelph live music scene. Their main goal, as stated on their website, is to present live music events with high production quality and value, while maintaining a low cost to the fans and giving bands an opportunity to play to a wider audience they may not have otherwise been able to reach.
The Ontarion had the opportunity to speak to Nik Wever, Director of Operations for GAIN Music. “It was kind of an accidental thing,” said Wever when speaking about what pushed him to start GAIN. He had been in several bands since moving to Guelph in his teenage years, but he noticed a “lull” in live music and shows in the city.
“There was no real platform for smaller bands to get on,” said Wever. But knowing enough people and working downtown presented him with an ideal platform to start booking live music events.
While he continued speaking on how the town of Guelph has always had a great live music scene, he also mentioned that he didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes since it was such a small city – his goal for GAIN was to work with other promoters and people already doing similar projects.
“Not only did we support local musicians and artists, but also…the venue that supports the live music scene,” stated Wever. Their organization networks between musicians and venues throughout Guelph, utilizing the resources and talent the community has to offer. With this “multi-tiered approach,” GAIN also extends their networking framework to graphic artists, painters, and other visual artists, and offers them a platform to sell their art to the community through poster design, or selling art-work at their annual festival.
But the main goal of GAIN has always been “to keep it local, keep it simple…I always remind myself not to get too big,” stated Wever. Initially, he had plans to make GAIN and its festival a “big grandiose thing,” but (along with Chase Robbs and Dylan Dawson, who started the business with him) “hacked the idea down and made it simple and localized.”
Moving forward, GAIN plans to continue with what they are doing by showcasing artists and continuing with their annual GAIN Music Festival, which is celebrating their 4th year and is moving to a Friday instead of a Thursday in order to attract a wider audience.
Their company is also progressing and heading in a direction that focuses a bit more on the management and facilitation-end of the music scene. Their next step is to “get talent outside of Guelph,” and “network and utilize each others…‘scenes’ to support one another,” by connecting with other booking companies in surrounding cities such as Windsor, Hamilton and St. Catharines.
When speaking about where GAIN is headed in the future, Wever mentioned a time when he “sort of thought of moving to, maybe, Toronto, or a bigger city,” but finished stating that “any time I think of doing something like that, I sort of bring myself back to the ‘Guelph and Area Independent and New music,’” a reminder that the name GAIN has roots based in Guelph.