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Music heavyweight returns to roots with city panel gig |
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Written by FRANK PEEBLES, Citizen staff
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Sunday, 11 May 2008 |
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WESTERN CANADALOWER MAINLAND
The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent On Recordings is a private, non-profit funding agency that channels money from broadcasters, the federal government and other donors to independent Canadian music acts - now divvying out in excess of $14 million annually to brand new acts and veteran performers alike, in a number of categories.
Kinghorn left her position as director of sales and marketing at Nettwerk Records in Vancouver to take this position in Toronto last week.
Kinghorn will be in a guest panelist at a music industry seminar in Prince George on May 29, a rare trip back to her onetime hometown.
"I have always been willing to sit on panels, be part of boards and committees, take part in educational opportunities," she told The Citizen. "It is really important to give back. A lot of the music business is experiential-based and contact-based and I value those interactions. You sit down and help other people, because people helped you along."
That all started for her at UNBC where her career in music suddenly took off quite unexpectedly. Raised in the Lower Mainland, she was recruited by the fledgling UNBC to be part of the first classes based at its permanent location in 1994. She was initially a political science student intent on a position inside the federal civil service. She was therefore urged to be part of the establishment of student government, helped with the establishment of the Northern Undergraduate Student Society, and took on the chair for social events.
"I quickly learned that students did not want to hear speeches from the leader of some political party, they wanted rock 'n' roll; so I started the Northern Backyard Barbecue," she said.
That event was a trial by fire for Kinghorn.
"(Former UNBC President) George Peterson is the only reason that show happened," she said. "Alistair McLean (former UNBC Director of Services) was trying to shut it down, worried we were going to ruin the new buildings. I put on a business suit, got an official proposal together and went into a meeting with administration knowing I was going to have to fight for this. George heard what we all had to say and simply said 'of course we're going to do this.'"
After they got the go-ahead, Kinghorn put four bands together for the concert in the agora area of the university. The opener was local group Supercab, followed by emerging indie buzz band Red Autumn Fall, then radio friendly rockers Barstool Prophets, then major headliners Junkhouse. With only a week left before the show, Red Autumn Fall canceled.
"It felt a lot like panic," she said, but she stickhandled that also. "I took a chance on an east coast band that had never played in Western Canada before, this would be their first show out here, but they came highly recommended and it worked out better than anyone could have imagined."
The band was Great Big Sea.
"In many ways, that show set the tone for the rest of my career," she said.
After leaving UNBC as a student (she still sits on the university's Board of Governors as an alumni representative) she went to work in the event promotions department of Kwantlen College, took a job later with the Georgia Strait arts and entertainment newspaper which had a lot to do with her promoting the massive New Music West independent music festival. From there she was scooped up by venerable Nettwerk Records (Sarah McLauchlan, Swollen Members, Barenaked Ladies, Gob, etc.) where she ascended the corporate ranks.
A chance meeting at a music event with FACTOR boss Heather Ostertag led to her position, since she was looking for a new challenge that involved fewer late nights at bars, concert halls and stadium shows just as FACTOR was looking for a plugged-in, music-savvy executive to lead their day to day operations. She estimated she was seeing about 165 bands per year as a scout, manager and marketer of music.
"The words 'I would rather set fire to my hair than live in Toronto' have been known to come out of my mouth in the past, so I had to rethink a few things," Kinghorn said, but is loving the new job.
"We are an industry builder," she said. "We are working with artists at the beginning of their careers, helping them develop their careers, even more than I did before in many ways."
She turns her attention specifically to Prince George emerging talent on May 29 when she and Terry O'Brien (SOCAN's Education and Outreach Manager in Western Canada and the former Vice President of BMG Music Canada) take questions from local musicians at a seminar entitled This Business of Music. It is put on by Music BC Industry Association and you must pre-register to attend. Call 1-888-866-8570 or email
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for more information.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 11 May 2008 )
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