A trio of Airdrie artists are gearing up to give it their all at the Project WILD showcase finale at the end of the month.
Local country duo Flaysher and roots/folk musician Kyle McKearney landed in the top 12 of WILD 95.3 FM and Alberta Music’s Project WILD in 2021 – a professional music development program and a contest for emerging Alberta country and roots artists.
Following a virtual musical bootcamp this January, the upcoming showcase performances, which will be held Feb. 24 to 26 at Calgary’s historic King Eddy venue, will determine the top three finalists.
“I'll be doing some new stuff and some stuff from my record. It's going to be a really good time. I'm excited to be playing live again,” McKearney said, adding that he will be “putting it all out there.”
McKearney said he doesn’t really think about the competition itself or whether he will make the top three, but rather has appreciated working on his craft through Project WILD.
“It's been great. It has never felt like a competition. Everyone is very supportive of each other and very genuinely rooting for each other,” McKearney said. “I think that it's a good group, it's never felt like a war. It felt very loving and very fluid.”
The winner of the competition will be revealed on air on Calgary country music station WILD 95.3 FM at a date yet to be announced. The first-prize winner will be awarded $100,953, while second and third place will receive $75,000 and $50,000, respectively.
Brothers Brad and Ryan Fleischer of Flaysher said they are excited to perform their new single – Wild One – during the showcase on Feb. 26.
“There’s so much energy in it, it's really fun to play it live,” said Ryan Fleischer, “It's a great tune, and very relatable, whether you've been the one chasing a wild one or been the wild one yourself.”
The brothers pride themselves on being full of life when they’re on stage and delivering an energetic, inclusive, and welcoming performance.
Brad Fleischer said Flaysher’s fans played a big role in getting the brothers to where they are now, and they hope to share their gratitude at their showcase performance on Feb. 26.
As part of Project WILD, artists in the final 12 received a $5,000 development award and attended a music industry bootcamp designed to further their skills in performance, songwriting, marketing, media strategy, music business, music accounting, tour strategy, and social media.
Organizers moved the bootcamp to a virtual platform this year, in order to keep the program going due to COVID-19 restrictions that were in effect in January.
“There's been some development things like vocal coaching, fashion coaching, seminars. They've all been really great, very helpful, and eye-opening in a lot of ways,” McKearney said.
Participants also had to complete a series of challenges. McKearney said he most recently completed the collaboration challenge where he created a cover song with one of the other artists.
“We put out a cover of Hunger Strike by Temple Of The Dog song from the ‘90s,” he said.
Alongside the upcoming showcase, artists will hand in reports summarizing all the challenges they completed.
According to McKearney, challenges included a development task demonstrating how they would use $5,000 to forward their career, a merchandise challenge developing on-brand merchandise items, a charity challenge working with a charity to host an event and raise funds, a live voting challenge, as well as the collaboration challenge.
“I think the challenges have inspired me in a lot of ways. I've learned different ways to promote myself that are out of the norm,” he said.
The Flaysher duo noted they really enjoyed the charity challenge, where they worked with the Distress Centre of Calgary to put on a fundraiser show with the goal of raising awareness of and funds toward suicide prevention.
It was an event they had thought about doing for a long time, and Project WILD provided that extra little push to get the event rolling. Together, they raised almost $4,000 for the Distress Centre with a nearly sold out concert at the King Eddy.
“Mental health is a big thing, especially in COVID-19 times,” said Ryan Fleischer. “A lot of people had a tough time through that, so we needed to be there for them, provide some live music and provide a safe space for them to just enjoy being alive.”
The duo is looking forward to making the fundraiser an annual event.
Flaysher found that optimization and time management are a necessity in this program, and learned to find opportunities to tweak and enhance their craft. From a business standpoint, the duo both stated Project WILD taught them a lot about efficiency and how to be in tune with each other.
They’ve also been able to put together a team of people to help bring together projects and allow them to focus on the music.
The upcoming showcase performance is already sold out, according to McKearney.
While he normally plays hundreds of gigs each year, he has only been able to play a handful of gigs in the past couple of years due to the pandemic.
“It's giving me a lot of time to be creative and look inwards and write and just hone my skills,” McKearney said.
Even though the pandemic has been an adjustment, he thinks the outcome for him has been very positive.
“Project WILD is a lot of work and it's kind of given me time to focus on it and do it to the best of my ability,” he said.
Ryan Fleischer added that despite the program being virtual, they already met most of the other 11 artists and are good friends.
“They're the best in country music of unassigned artists from all of Alberta,” he said.
Project WILD was launched in 2014 and this year is the seventh and final installment of the $4.9 million program, which was funded by the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, according to a press release.
In 2019, Mariel Buckley took home the grand prize, followed by Mariya Stokes in 2nd place, and Blake Reid Band in 3rd place. The program did not take place in 2020 due to COVID-19.
This year's showcase takes place at the King Eddy in Calgary from Feb. 24 to Feb. 26, with doors opening every night at 7 p.m.
Alongside other artists, McKearney will perform on Feb. 24, while Flaysher plays on Feb. 26.
While a panel of industry professionals will score each live performance, fans can vote for their favourite artist between Feb. 27 and March 6 at projectwildcountry.com. Results from experts and fans will form part of the artists’ overall assessments.
Both Flaysher and Kyle McKearney can be found on Spotify, and interested listeners are encouraged to follow them to hear their newest releases.
