Haida Gwaii punks set up pop-up recording studio, arts collective

Haida Gwaii'sSGaanKwah.Agang (James McGuire) says thedo-it-yourself culture of punk rock is a perfect fit for life off the coast of northwest B.C.

He's joined others in theHaida punk scene to form an independent music collective aimed at providing new creative and economic opportunities for his ancestral home.

"That's howHaidaGwaiihas to work," hesaid.

"We cooperate with each other to make things happen because we don't have the resources or the connection to the mainland that other artists have."

The Ging Gang Hla tllGadIndependent Music and Arts Cooperative takes its name from a Haida phrase that translates to "help yourself," and that's exactly whatSGaan Kwah.Aganghas been doing for yearsas the frontmanof a punkabillyduo Jason Camp and the Posers, recording in a half-built house in Skidegate and hawking CDs to tourists visiting the region over the summer.

"A lot of [tourists] are pretty surprised to learn that there's some sort of alternative art here and you go, 'Well, you know, I do have a CD in my car," saidSGaanKwah.Agang who jokes he is a"shameless self-promoter."

SGaanKwah.Agang and his drummerJaahljuu (Graham Richard) are both of Haidadescent, and say their music fusesHaida Gwaii myths and legends with punk rock guitar and good times.

The other key players in the collective are the"anti-capitalist nerd punks,"Dub Jackson Band.

The bands first teamed up two years ago for theannual Guy Fawkes Yourself concert on Haida Gwaii, whichbringstogether disparate genres from rap to metal to experimentalshowcasingmusic that goes beyond"old guys playing rock covers," said Dub Jackson Band bassist Alan Moore.

From there the bands began collaborating, touring the province andrecording a joint album, graduallybringing other musicians into their fold in an effort to make "shameless self-promotion" a little easier.

TheGingGangHlatllGadcollective just held their first general meetingand they are setting up a pop-up recording studio, complete with gear and engineers from Vancouver's Orchid Studio,in a cedar house in Skidegatefor ten days following the 2017 Guy FawkesYourself festival happening Nov. 4.

Moore hopes the collective will lead to even more cooperation and greater success for alternative musicians and artists who call Haida Gwaii home.

"It's about diversifying your economy," he said.

"Treating arts and music and original ideas as renewable resource... that can provide seasonal or part-time work for local artists."

ForSGaanKwah.Agang, it's important to foster the creative spirit on HaidaGwaii because there is no other place he'd wantto be.

"I get to sleep in the same village where my ancestors ate and slept, and eat the same salmon families that sustained my family for thousands of years," he said.

"It's the only place that's really a home."

With files from Audrey McKinnon.

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