The Portland Music Foundation plans to help musicians learn the business of bringing the house down
The Portland Music Foundation, like many artistic revelations, was born over a round of microbrews at a downtown bar. In the spring of 2006, Adam Ayan, a Grammy-winning mastering engineer who has mixed music for bands like Nirvana and the Rolling Stones at Portland's Gateway Mastering and DVD, shared a drink with Portland music scene notables like Lauren Wayne, the New England concert promoter for Live Nation; Mark Curdo, a DJ for Portland rock radio station WCYY; and Sam Pfeifle, the long-time music writer for the city's alternative weekly newspaper, the Portland Phoenix. As the conversation turned to cultivating the area music scene, Ayan remembers that a local country band jamming a few feet away, The McCarthy's, was all but ignored by the small crowd. That lackluster audience inspired the group to action. "The support for the music scene within the [Portland] community could be better," Ayan says.
By the end of the evening, Ayan says the group had launched the Portland Music Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching musicians how to develop their bands, cut records and rustle up fans for their local concerts.
On Oct. 18, the foundation held its official launch party and membership drive in a conference space at the Portland studio of radio station owner Citadel Broadcasting. Ayan, a 32-year old bass player and the chair of the foundation's nine member board of directors, says more than 300 people showed up to listen to music from singer/songwriter Emilia Dahlin, music producer and DJ Moshe, and local bands like Dominic and The Lucid. Ayan says 76 people signed up at the event for the organization's annual membership, at a cost of $20.
"Now that we have members and the [music] community knows about us, I'm sure the community will help this grow over time," Ayan said after the launch. At press time, the foundation had over 100 total members.
For the time being, the organization is run entirely by volunteers, and will use much of the $2,300 it made at its only fundraiser to date, a Diageo liquor tasting in September, to rent space at the St. Lawrence Arts & Community Center for the foundation's music workshops. These workshops, on music scene basics like how to know when your band is ready to play out and how to attract media attention, are free for members. In January, the first installment, "Orientation: Or, help, I'm stuck in my garage," will be free to the public. The workshops are taught gratis by members of the board, but Ayan says the foundation plans to eventually build in a budget for guest speakers.
"At some point, we would like to have a small staff," says Ayan, sitting in the lounge at Gateway usually reserved for rock-and-roll royalty. "It would probably be one person, but I don't see that happening in the first year. I'd like to see this start small."
Ayan says PMF has applied for nonprofit status and plans to support its inaugural-year's operating budget — Ayan pegs it at around $15,000 — with a mix of fundraising revenue, membership fees and grants. Though the board hasn't come up with a specific timeline for growth — preferring, as Ayan again stresses, to take small steps first — he says within five years he would like the foundation to have a paid executive director and an office in Portland that musicians could use to network within the music community, make fliers and research gigs and touring.
There are 443 bands registered with the Portland Phoenix's 2007 "Band Guide," a listing of musicians in Greater Portland and the best available catalogue of the area's ever-morphing music scene. "For such a small town," Ayan says, "there's an awful lot of talent around across a span of genres."
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