SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
"It is hard to know what to get potentially 700 people for Christmas," laughed Gary Tait, a communications specialist with BHP Billiton.
The cover art for Scooters, Cell Phones and Winter Hearts, a custom Christmas gift given out to BHP employees who worked at the Ekati mine site on Christmas Day. - photo courtesy of BHP Billiton
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The answer is the universal gift of music.
BHP Billiton commissioned a 10-track album for its employees who worked at the Ekati mine site over Christmas Day.
"We knew we wanted to do something, find something to make a good gift, and we thought this idea was better than just buying something that did not have a lot of meaning. Then the whole idea evolved into choosing artists and it becoming a Northern project," Tait said, adding a call for musicians was put out on the NWT Arts council website last fall.
The majority of the musicians on the album are Yellowknife artists. Adam Jarvis, from Behchoko, and Colin Adjun from Kugluktuk in Nunavut also provided songs for the album.
"The guideline for the album was a new song specifically for the project. We didn't want them to recycle something in their repertoire," Tait said.
The songs themselves are what inspired the name for the album, Scooters, Cell Phones and Winter Hearts.
Vespa Girl is the name of the song written by Priscilla's Revenge; Steve Lacey contributed a tune called Talking on my Cell Phone; and singer/song-writer Natasha Duchene wrote a a piece titled Winter Hearts.
Norm Glowach, owner of SpiritWalker Productions in Yellowknife, produced the album.
His band Priscilla's Revenge contributed a song and he also helped out with drums and vocals for a few of the other artists.
"It was a great experience for Priscilla's," he said. "It pushed us to get something out real quick. It can be difficult to commit at times, so it was a good lesson for us."
Glowach said things went very smoothly in the studio, as well.
"Some artists were very quick, which was good because it left more studio time for others who needed a bit more mixing," he said.
Glowach also said he got to work with some musicians he had never met before.
"We were happy with the product, and I think most were as well," he said.
Tait said employees who received a copy of the album have given good feedback so far.
"I haven't heard from everybody yet on it, but it has been positive," he said.
Deana Twissell, the company's superintendent of community and external affairs, said staff liked the concept because it helped support local artists.
"I think it added more of a value to it, in supporting local artists," she said. "They really appreciate that."
At this time Scooters, Cell Phones and Winter hearts will not be made available to the public, Tait said, adding artists would be given copies to use for promotion.
