INUVIK
Like the famous song, Abe Drennan is looking to be get by with a little help from his friends.

Inuvik musician Abe Drennan has made it into the third round of a national music contest with a little help from his friends. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

Drennan, an Inuvik musician originally from Ontario, is one of the competitors in a nationwide CBC contest for musicians called Searchlight. He's made it into the third round so far.

Searchlight bills itself as "a hunt for Canada's best new musical artist," according to the contest's website. It's open to bands across the nation who duel for spots to represent 16 different regions, Drennan said. He's hoping to snag one of those spots and he's stumbled on an innovative way to do it.

In the early rounds, competitors move along based on the number of public votes they receive. In the later rounds, they face a panel of celebrity judges who also have a vote.

"Musicians enter one song," Drennan said. "You create a profile and then it goes to voting."

His song Middle of Everywhere has gotten "all kinds of plays" so far.

"The song started from the thought of me trying to figure out what the meaning of life is, like so much of myself," he said with a bit of a self-conscious chuckle.

"It's like so many of my songs. It's a question of place, where am I, and how do I fit in. A lot of my songs tend to go around a certain theme like that," he said.

"I think there was like 3,000 entries in the first round," he added. "So it's up to the artist to kind of promote themselves, and what they do encourage is collaboration."

In the first round, he teamed up with seven more artists that he selected to form what he called "the Searchlight Seven."

Each artist encouraged his or her supporters to also vote for the others in the group, on the basis of "we're stronger together than apart," Drennan said.

"What I did was started to reach out to groups from across Canada to get as much representation as possible. And it was bands and music that I really liked. The idea was to collaborate with each other to share our music, not unlike a co-op."

Combined with some social media savvy, Drennan said it's proven to be a very successful strategy so far.

"And it's worked, man it's worked."

Three of the original seven members, including himself, have made it through to the third round of the five-round competition. Twice, he's recruited more members to keep the complement of seven, which he said has required hours of work.

"I'm posting several times a day," he said during an interview April 27.

Drennan, who also teaches at East Three Secondary School, says its becoming increasingly more difficult to keep up the pace with his work obligations and busy family life with young children, but he's persevering because he knows that winning the contest, or even placing high, could be the boost he needs for his music career.

He's played in a band for many years, he said, achieving some modest success, and has hovered around the fringes of the business without ever truly breaking through.

"It would mean the world to me to win, to have my music out there. It's a dream to me."

Drennan was waiting April 28 for the results of the third round to come in to see if he could extend his lucky streak.

"It's been fun, it's been incredible, and I've had a great time doing it," he said.

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