Youth Music Movement Takes To The Road
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Every successful musician remembers the long and hard road travelled on their journey to get noticed. This summer, a group of four, passionate, fresh-out-of-school cultural aficionados from Québec are about to give 11 budding young musicians their first big break.
Last night, Youth Music Movement (YMM) and members of Montréal’s renowned pop punk band Simple Plan announced the launch of a cross-country tour designed to discover Canada’s brightest up-and-coming musical stars.
From May 1 to July 31, the Youth Music Movement Powered by Pepsi tour will make 11 stops across the nation, where the YMM team – armed with a mobile recording and film studio – will produce a sound recording and a video for free, featuring young Canadian musicians on the cusp of making it big.
One song from each band will be featured on a CD that will be released at the end of the tour highlighting the diversity of musical talent across Canada. A portion of the proceeds from the compilation will go to the Simple Plan Foundation, an organization that encourages the practice of music to help young kids find a passion in life.
Canadians can follow the movement on Twitter (using the #YMMove hashtag and the @youth_music handle) and on Facebook. While on the road, Youth Music Movement will also produce 12Tracks.tv, 12 weekly webisodes that document their adventure across the country and feature the music videos and songs of each act they record.
While most bands have been preselected to participate, Youth Music Movement has four open spots in the following provinces: Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Yukon. Musicians looking to participate in the Youth Music Movement Powered by Pepsi tour can contact the YMM team on their Facebook page.
The Youth Music Movement team includes four members – François Del Fante, a gifted sound engineer and musician; Frederic Bastien Forrest, a versatile cultural journalist; Pierre-Etienne Bordeleau, a prolific cinematographer; and Bruno Mercure, an innovative producer.
The idea for a tour started in Montréal in May 2010 when the group applied for a $25,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project, a program that funds ideas that promote social good. Youth Music Movement campaigned for two-months and won the hearts of Canadians coast-to-coast who believed in their project and helped them win a grant. The Youth Music Movement team has been busy since, researching hundreds of bands from every corner of the country, looking for up-and-coming Canadian musical talent to feature on the tour.
“We can’t wait to hit the road to discover Canada’s next generation of rising stars,” says Frederic Bastien Forrest, Youth Music Movement co-founder. “We have amazing talent in our country and it’s our passion to scout and record the hidden gems of tomorrow. Our Pepsi Refresh Project grant has given us the opportunity of a lifetime, and we’re looking forward to kicking off the tour.”
Leaving from Montréal on May 1, the Youth Music Movement Powered by Pepsi tour will make the following stops over the spring and summer months:
- May 4 – 8: St. John’s, NF
- May 11 – 15: Halifax, NS
- May 18 – 22: Charlottetown, PE
- May 25 – 29: Edmundston, NB
- June 1 – 5: TBD, QC
- June 15 – 19: Toronto, ON
- June 22 – 26: TBD, MB
- June 29 – July 3: TBD, SK
- July 6 – 10: Edmonton, AB
- July 13 – 17: TBD, YK
- July 20 – 24: Vancouver, BC
