The committee for culture and heritage for the municipality of Potton has created a new initiative called the “Potton Garage Band Project.” The project is meant to bring together amateur musicians from the Potton area and to provide a space for artists to create, play and to learn from one another.

“The purpose of this is that there is a lot of music being played and I love music, but I don’t want to be a professional,” said Daniel Rivest, member of the committee who proposed the project to the municipality. “I’m thinking that maybe others are like me. People that like music, like to play, and again, don’t necessarily want to be a professional at all.”

Rivest said that the municipality has provided a space that will allow musicians to come together.

“Thanks to the municipality we were able to make arrangements. So right now, we are using a basement of a church. We had our first session last week. We reserved the location for every Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; it’s an ongoing thing.”

The Potton Garage Band sessions are free, but people do need to bring their own equipment.

“We also have a mentor program and we actually had a couple of people reaching out to me for mentoring.”

Rivest emphasized that one of the most important aspects of the project is to meet people.

“In this case here, people with the same interests. It’s to bring people together. I moved to Potton 11 years ago, but then again, we live in our little life. You need opportunities like that in order to gather together and go from there,” he said.

The goal of the Potton Garage Band project is for those that are participating to play something together that “makes sense.”

“It’s a bit of a challenge. Thanks to the mentors, we hope that with time we’re going to be able to speak the language of music together,” said Rivest.

Rivest noted that the Potton Garage Band sessions are not a music class and that people have to have a basic understanding of music.

“But even if you have good knowledge, you can always learn,” he said.

If all goes well, Rivest said they hope to provide shows to the public in the future.

“If some organization wants to do some fundraising and they don’t want to pay for a band for example that could be one thing,” he noted. “(…) There’s another agreement that we also have with the municipality. In the case that we do something public, the municipality has equipment that they will make available. They will make the space available, you know very convenient.”

While the Potton Garage Band sessions are for Potton residents only, Rivest said that he hopes to see other municipalities implement something similar.

“I just want to make sure that we are really accommodating the Potton people. On the other hand, if this goes well I would encourage other municipalities to do just the same. Sometimes they may have room available, space available, they may have that,” he added.

For information on how to reserve your space with the Potton Garage Band project, visit Potton’s webpage.

Listen to the full interview with Rivest below: