Introducing the Soul City Music Co-op
Crissi Cochrane
On this first date of a new decade, we’re celebrating the launch of the Soul City Music Co-op.
The co-op has been a dream of Mike’s for nearly a decade, and has been steadily materializing for real since last summer, with The Family Soul’s album being the first recording to bear the co-op’s logo. Over the fall, Mike recruited several of our closest musical allies to join the roster - the Bishop Boys, Madeline Doornaert, and Dane Roberts - along with ourselves as solo artists, and The Family Soul.
If the role of a co-op seems ambiguous, think of us like a sort of record label, except the artists are the staff, we exist as a non-profit, and none of us artists relinquish any percentage of our ownership of our work. Essentially, we’re a collective of artists who are sharing our skills with one another, and lifting as we grow.
Madeline Doornaert. Visit her site here.
Mike’s been hard at work building a home online for the co-op, with pages for each of the artists, including web stores with gorgeous new apparel for each. It’s been a labour of love for him, and I’m proud to see it all come to fruition into something so beautiful and smart.
In truth, a lot of artists are doing this very same thing, just without naming it or making it public: playing in each others’ bands and recordings, sharing expertise with marketing and business, sharing equipment, sharing opportunities. I’m excited to bring a sort of administrative assistant role to the co-op - helping proofread content, guiding marketing campaigns, writing grants, designing promotional materials.
The Bishop Boys. Visit their site here.
Aside from being an outlet for my marketing skills, I love this co-op because it does the only thing that I’ve really admired about music labels: connecting me with a roster of artists I respect and admire. The Bishop Boys are making such creative rootsy folk music, that feels both refreshing and familiar, that when I hear them live, I’m jealous. Madeline Doornaert is one of the sweetest and most easy-to-love people I’ve ever met, and her musicianship is brilliant, astounding, and versatile - I love that she takes influence from Joni Mitchell and Carole King in her folk-rock writing, but that she also does gigs playing jazz standards. I’m just getting to know Dane Roberts’ work, but it surprises me how young he is, for how refined his production and songwriting skills are. One thing that Mike had in mind with the artists on the roster was that they needed to be songwriters, dedicated to their craft for life, and he couldn’t have done better in selecting these first artists.
If you’d like to support the co-op, please find us and our artists on social media, listen to our Spotify playlist, purchase some apparel from the online store.
Soul City Music Co-op on Facebook
Soul City Music Co-op on Instagram