Maybe you spotted the melted yellow logo on the counter of the Ship & Anchor. Or the unsettling cover featuring four uniformed individuals with lightbulbs in their faces caught your eye while you were grabbing vinyl at Sloth Records. Attendees of this past year’s edition of the Sled Island Music & Arts Festival saw stacks of it while grabbing passes from the backroom of the Delta Hotel.
If you’ve spent time in downtown Calgary in the last three months, you’ve likely spotted Reverie — Calgary’s newest music magazine — out in the wild. And if you’ve flipped through its pages, you’re officially a part of Calgary’s vibrant live music scene.
“Maybe you’re not really involved, and you don’t go to a lot of shows; well, this is an access point for you to now do so,” says editor-in-chief Jess Arcand. “I want to be more and more accessible and grow into this beautiful hub of creatives.”
Reverie started as an idea tossed around between Arcand and UCalgary student Gabrielle Cadiang over brews at I Love You Coffee Shop. The two met while hosting radio shows on CJSW and quickly formulated the idea for a blog focused on hyper-local music coverage. “We’re way more interested in the little pockets and gems of the city that are just not being talked about that much,” says Arcand.
Local photographer Shannon Johnston soon approached the two about getting involved. While rocking at South by Southwest in Austin last March, Arcand and Johnston envisioned physically bringing Reverie to magazine stands across Calgary.
“We have this passion to lift [Calgary’s] music community into the foreground,” says Johnston. “We are kind of in the middle of nowhere, and a lot of big tours don’t necessarily come [to Calgary]. But there are bands all around us that need a platform and need a voice.” Johnston now serves as Reverie’s photography lead, and her moodily lit compositions adorn the covers and various pages of the first issue. On the front cover is the aforementioned creeps with lightbulbs, the local post-punk band Brain Bent (of which this writer is a member). On the back cover is ½ of local art rock heroes Sunglaciers, standing in the middle of a blue and yellow cyclone that seems to suck readers in.
“Print media, for me, is this tangible moment of time,” says Johnston. “We’re archiving what’s happening here in Calgary and the things we cover.” Flipping through the pages of that first issue captures a broad swath of ‘24 Calgary counter-culture; hometown DJ Jonathan Crane explores our city’s burgeoning grassroots rave scene, artists like local guitar freaks Cheer to LA outfit Sextile reflect on the creative process, and Hemen Tor-Agbidye speaks about his journey from attending Sled Island to becoming its festival manager. In fact, Reverie’s first issue was launched at this year’s Sled Island, with a show on June 20 at the Ship & Anchor featuring performances from Mox Jet, Kue Varo, Samantha Savage Smith, and Heaven For Real.
“When [Calgarians] set our minds to do something, whether it be a band, whether it be us with a magazine, whether it be a promoter, even if it’s a DIY promoter, the bar is so high, ” says Johnston. “But there’s this passion within that says, ‘No, I’m going to do it anyway. I know I live in Calgary, and I don’t say I live in Toronto, LA, or New York. Yeah, I’m in Calgary. So what? I’m going to do it anyway.’”
Arcand agrees, and it’s why she loves the city. “What sets [Calgary] apart is the way our music community uplifts one another,” she says. “You can find your footing, and people are really eager to share and learn and collaborate… and that could be harder in other cities. There’s a lot of opportunity for growth and trying new things and falling on your face or succeeding and doing well. You can really do anything in Calgary.”
Reverie’s second print issue just hits stands on October 16. Read the blog at reverie-online.com.
