In the Soil's homegrown talent
By LYNN PEPPAS FOR THE TRIBUNE

Welland Tribune
Thursday April 23 2009

A brand new music festival has been born in St. Catharines.

Called In the Soil, it celebrates emerging and established artists from the region, in areas of music, dance and drama. Welland area artists are taking advantage of the festival to showcase their own unique talents.

Two Welland acts taking part in the festival are Tebley Serf -- a drum soloist who incorporates DJ dance-techno music with original rhythms and beats -- and Major Chords -- which features original blues songwriter and musician Kevin Richardson.

Tebley Serf

Mike Zimic is the one-man talent behind Tebley Serf. He was born in Welland and has lived there for most of his life, but has recently moved to Hamilton to teach science and drama at a secondary school level.

Zimic said that he felt that growing up in Welland has given him a small-city advantage. He credited Central Music, the closure of Welland High, as two important influences that made him the musician he is today.

Zimic has played in cover bands in the area for more than 15 years. He got into music after his high school, Welland High, closed -- he was in Grade 11 at the time. He finished his studies at Centennial Secondary School where he met his long-time friend Dave Miller. Miller introduced him to Welland's music scene and became his band mate.

"There's something about growing up in a smaller town like Welland," he says.

When you get a group of (musicians) you stick with them, and grow with them, as opposed to larger cities with more opportunities to branch off and do other things."

Central Music, the legendary music store on Main Street has also been key to Zimic's originality in music.

"It's almost like a sitcom like Cheers. You walk in and people know your name," he said.

"You don't get experiences like that from corporate music stores. I like to think that I draw from experiences like that."

Zimic moved from cover bands to making his own techno-groove music in a bid to create something original.

"It stems from my anger that in the 70s, DJs took away all of my gigs," he joked.

Zimic serendipitously stumbled onto the festival on some-one's Facebook account while surfing the Net, and then approached one of the event's planners, Joe Lapinski. He performed at the festival's launch on April 14, at Stella's in St. Catharines.

"Stella's is an upscale martini lounge, and it really fit in with my music," he said.

"We were supposed to do a few songs, but I was asked to finish up with a 45-minute set. I got a lot of positive feedback."

Zimic praised the homegrown arts festival, saying that it was a good fit, in which to promote his music that he described as "outside of the mainstream."

"The idea behind In the Soil is to connect people who perform music that is a little more original in style, artists are a little further from the box. Tebley Serf is dramatic music that is out of the mainstream. This is a well-put-together festival with corporate support," he says.

"You've got people from within the mainstream supporting the arts that are outside of the mainstream, and I think that's pretty cool. That's what makes Niagara so unique."

Major Chords

Kevin Richardson is another homegrown artist who is scheduled to perform at the Sweetest Soil: Jury's Showcase today at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre. Richardson has the prime-time spot of 9 p. m.

Born and raised in Port Colborne, "in the shadow of the Shoe Factory on Neff St.,"

Lyrically, it's more of a Dain City blues, instead of a Mississippi blues.

Kevin Richardson, Major Chords

Richardson and his partner, now make their home in Dain City. He's been a large part of the music scene in St. Catharines for years with his band, Attic Daddy, in the late 80s and 90s. He's stripped back to a one-man show called Major Chords, and performs his original blues music.

"I do an older, country-blues with a lot of scraping, and stomping, and moaning, and all that," he said.

"Lyrically, it's more of a Dain City blues, instead of a Mississippi blues."

Richardson explained that there were a lot of local references found in his music, and it's these songs with a local bent that he'll be performing at In The Soil festival.

"I took it seriously that this was a local festival so I threw some songs into it and wrote a few others for it, that was concerned with local ideas. There's no shortage of things to write about from here," he added.

Richardson is also a visual artist, who admitted that he gets his best ideas from living in the area.

"I always find that having a boot around in the car, I come up with some kind of ideas for lyrics or a painting," he says.

"There's a lot of things I find interesting in Welland, it's such a multicultural city."

Tickets can still be purchased for The Sweetest Soil festival evening wrap-up on Thursday, April 23 beginning at 7:30 p. m. Call 905-688-5550, ext. 325.