April 04, 2022

ArtStarts on Saturdays: Laura Koch

[Image description: An ArtStarts on Saturdays event poster promoting Laura Koch]

After two years of digital programming, we are excited to be offering hybrid programming to meet the needs of young audiences across the province. In March we held our first in-person ArtStarts at River Market performance with Laura Koch of The Kwerks. Laura‘s song is also featured in our Where Am I? exhibition.

We caught up with Laura to get a bit more insight into the process of delivering a digital performance and what brought her to performing for young audiences. Read on to learn more.

ArtStarts: Can you tell us about the process behind creating a digital performance? How does it differ from a live performance?

Laura: I’d love to! The process, as you can imagine, is pretty different from a live show, since there’s no visible audience to play for. This is both good and bad, as I personally feel less nervous filming myself than I do getting up in front of real people, but ultimately, getting the in-person feedback from the faces and smiles of an audience can’t really be matched, so I always prefer playing live if given the choice.

In terms of the process of setting up and creating a digital performance, a lot goes on behind the scenes to set things up! I often use a corner in my house that has nice natural light, and brighten it more with some lighting. I also have a music stand with my laptop, a mic, my chord charts and lyrics taped to various pieces of equipment, and then my iPhone mounted on another stand. It’s pretty messy looking, but it does the trick!

Filming takes quite a long time in order to get good recordings, both video and audio, of each song. I often record each intro and song separately and edit them together in the end. Some songs take 4 or 5 runs through to get one that I feel good enough about! I also record the audio separately (whether or not a mic is showing in the video) so I can get a good clean sound.

Once the filming and audio recording is done, it’s editing time, which also takes a number of hours. I start with fixing up and editing the audio alone, to make it sound as clean and professional as possible, and sometimes add a few other sounds in. Then I pair it with the video. It’s a lot of work, but I enjoy doing it. :)

In the end, I have a video that sounds as good as I can make it sound, and looks as clear and bright as I can make it look. I’m a bit of a hack when it comes to these things, but each project I take on teaches me new tricks and ways to approach it, so I’m learning all the time.

ArtStarts: What excites you about working with and performing for young people?

Laura: For me, working with kids has been a longtime love. I grew up in a big family with a mom who went back to school while we were all growing up. She became a teacher and one of my considerations was to follow in that path myself. I ended up doing different things though, but when I was focusing fully on my music career, my young daughter’s teacher at the time asked me if I’d be willing to allow one of my songs be used in the school concert, which then led to a conversation about writing a new song for the concert, which led to a suggestion that I get the kids involved! The whole Snap-Tunes program grew from there and is such a fulfilling way to spend my workdays.

Because music connects us so easily with our emotions, it is a great tool to use with children as they learn and explore at school. The way they’re able to process their experiences through songwriting is so incredible. I feel so lucky to witness their deep thoughts and struggles, and to help them craft songs that help them work through these things. Working with many schools through the pandemic has been eye opening, as I’ve witnessed the profound impact it has had on children and have been able to help them work through the experience.

There’s just something so great about working with kids. They’re a little less reserved than us adults, more free to share their ideas, express themselves, laugh, and really invest in the process. I’m so lucky to do what I do. :)

ArtStarts: Can you tell us anything about the musical you’re writing?

Laura: I can tell you a little! I’ve been commissioned by Pacific Theatre in Vancouver to co-write a musical for an upcoming holiday season. I’m working with the amazing Shauna Johannessen - she’s writing the “book” and I’m writing the music, but it’s much more overlapped than that. I can’t tell you much more than this, but it’s going to be a whole new take on the holidays that centres around a small handful of women in a small town. It’s going to be hilarious, and beautiful, and I’m having a lot of fun with it!

ArtStarts: How can people connect with your work?

Laura: I have music in all the places you can find music. At this point, pretty much everything is under The Kwerks band name. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, anywhere! As the pandemic has dropped the bottom out of the performing industry, we’re just at the beginning of rebuilding our performance life and will be writing and performing in new formats over the coming months. You can keep an eye on our website www.thekwerks.com to see what’s going on.

We’re very grateful for Laura and all the artists who have had to adapt their art practice for a digital audience. A lot of work goes into creating digital performances.

Laura’s digital performance is available on our Facebook page until April 22. We’re gearing up to bring young audiences and their families performances at River Market all summer long so check out our events page and sign up to receive our newsletter.