Vancouver BC

[evets]

I am thinking of possibly moving to Vancouver and was wondering if there is any forum members who live there who could give me some information on the local scene.

I am trying to figure out how big the local music scene is and how much recording work there is there... (and live music venues as I also do FOH sound)

I am currently living in Montreal and would like to know how they compare.
I am in my early-mid 30's and have quite a lot of experience and a good CV.

Montreal is a great place and the music scene is good here but I have 2 passions in life... Music and Winter sports, yes you can do winter sports in the MTL area but I would love to be close to the big BC mountains. I am just concerned that there will be less bands, less venues and less studios which would equal less work!

[joninc]

i live in the greater vancouver area. i have been playing the past 13 years or so and recording full time for about 10.

there are lots of great musicians and music makers out here but not a ton of places to play as in mtl or toronto. many people end up moving out east for more opportunities.

as far as recording goes - there are a TON of studios and options for people and in the past year i have seen people do a lot of really super duper cheap undercutting of each other to get gigs. even guys offering to work for free just to get the gig. there's also a few recording schools in town and people are getting free time doing stuff at the schools.

it's not an easy place to get recording gigs - there are so many choices and everybody has a buddy with a semi-decent studio. even the big old school pro studios cut insane deals to keep work coming in.

don't mean to be so grim - but truthfully - it's a beautiful and expensive place to live.

[evets]

Thanks for the info.

The situation you describe seems to be similar to most places right now.

I only moved to MTL a couple of years ago and I managed to build up a steady flow of work here, It didn't happen immediately, it took a lot of work and I had to be quite creative with ways to find the work at first but it all worked out in the end.

It's the lack of places to play that concerns me as right now my income is split roughly 50/50 between recording and FOH sound working for several small venues.

Also if its a more expensive place to live I may need more gigs (or charge a little more for them). I know property is more expensive there, which is also probably reflected in the cost of rent but are day to day living costs higher too?

[joninc]

i don't know that day to day stuff will cost more than MTL but rents are high - hst is not cool either. 12% on virtually everything.