Thank you.
Let me quickly say it's a pleasure to be here. This is not my normal gig. It's a tough-looking room; I'm not going to lie to you. I'd also like to acknowledge the good work of the interpreters and translators behind the glass. I'm going to try to keep my Newfoundland accent down as much as I possibly can.
As an artist, it's good to be here as well, because it gives me a chance in front of the committee to say thank you to all the other groups that have spoken here today, including FACTOR, Graham, Neill, and all the guys, because in different ways, I personally, or friends or colleagues of mine, have benefited from all these institutions over the years.
In the little time we have in this section, I would simply like to explain why I was drawn to the Starmaker Fund. It's very simply because it kicks in on a part of a musician's or an act's career that is the most risky, the most costly, and the most in need of support. You can spend five years or a decade or so building yourself up to get to be perhaps nationally recognizable, and you want to take the next step, the next big thing that comes along, and that step is a massive one. To go from playing the local club to playing the bigger theatre, your expense triples. If you want to go from the theatre to becoming a hockey-rink band, your expense and risk quadruple. If you want to go into the United States, Australia, Germany, or wherever to take that step that will get you to becoming an A-list international artist, that's the biggest risk, the biggest expense, that you will ever have in your career. I've felt it on both sides.
I remember when Great Big Sea got signed to Sire Records in the States in the late nineties. We wanted to go, and we said, “Great, we got signed to a label in the States. Wow. We made it. Let's try to get a song on U.S. radio.” They said, “Well, okay. Here's how much a radio tracker costs for a week and a half.” I don't remember what it was, but it was somewhere around $125,000 for a campaign to try to get a song on the radio—and this is after you've made it, when stuff gets easy.
It's right at a point when you can start employing people long term. If you can get to that next step, then all of a sudden the guys who work every other week for you become constantly employed. One of the proudest things I had at Great Big Sea was looking down the bus and seeing 14 or 15 mortgages that were getting paid by our gig. It was such an awesome thing.
The Starmaker Fund kicks in right when you need it the most.
As I said, I'm grateful to all the people and the groups that have been represented here today. That's why I'm here, and that's why I'm grateful to get a chance to answer your questions, if you have any, about my experiences with it.