TMUsicians foster a community of opportunity and creativity

By Mitchell Fox

Raphael Schmitz Mayer started attending open mic nights only a few weeks after he emigrated from Brazil. The now-fifth-year marketing management student knew he wanted to put his love of playing music to the test so he was willing to wait up to four hours at a bar to be called up to the stage.

For students looking for their place in Toronto’s music scene, there are places to find a sense of community and tap into their creative engine.

Mayer is now the host of TMUsicians’ open mic nights at the Met Campus Pub, where student musicians are not only finding an opportunity to perform and improve, but a place to connect with others in a collective passion for music as a creative outlet.

TMUsicians is a student group at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) dedicated to providing anyone at the school who enjoys music with an opportunity to perform, network and gather as a community. They host music production workshops, open mic nights every Wednesday, songwriter circles every month or two and a Battle of the Bands at the end of the school year.

Mayer said when he learned about the group’s open mics at the end of his second year, he felt like he had found a place to apply his experience in events and marketing along with his passion for music.

“It’s really important to find a community,” he said. “To find a place where you can meet folks who have the same interests as you and appreciate what you do.”

At the open mics, Mayer helps set up for the performances and introduces each act, making people feel comfortable with his cheery demeanour. He said going on stage is “scary for everybody” so the open mics aim to help students develop confidence.

“The idea of the open mic, it’s basically to be a safe environment [where] people can practice or just have fun. But a lot of people go there to show their talent, to show music that they compose themselves,” he said. “It is the safest place possible.”

Daniel Shatil, a second-year global management studies student, played at the TMUsicians open mic for the second time on Oct. 30. Though he has played guitar since he was 13-years-old, singing is relatively new for him—this was only his fifth-ever performance.

“I was thinking I wouldn’t like this or it’s not kind of going to be my thing,” he said. “But the minute I did, I felt this rush of energy and support and really, the next level of my music journey.”

Shatil said he found the club when looking for a “place to hang out with other musicians” on social media. Now that he has progressed from being comfortable performing in front of his family to doing it in a bar, he wonders if he could move onto a bigger crowd.

“Get out of your comfort zone,” he said. “That’s the one lesson I learned from doing this.”

Shatil was not the only one to identify newfound comfort at the open mic nights. Sia Prasad, a fourth-year RTA media production student, and Rania Makhlouf, a University of Toronto student, performed together as “The Barbies” on Oct. 30 for the second straight week.

She learned about TMUsicians while working with the RTA Media Production Course Union at an open mic and decided to bring Makhlouf with her to the group’s events.

“I’ve invited all my friends, from RTA, from TMU and from other universities, because I love the environment,” she said. “The vibes here are amazing. Once you start singing and you get up there, everyone else starts cheering you on.”

Makhlouf said she didn’t have the confidence to go up on the stage until she started seeing more and more people do it the first time she went out to a TMUsicians open mic night.

“It’s a good way to test it out, [what] it is like to perform, what it is like to be in front of a crowd,” she said after The Barbies’ performance on Wednesday.

Along with going on stage as a duo, Prasad and Makhlouf said they had a lot of fun meeting people who share a love for music and a willingness to try out performing. At the end of the first open mic they went to, the entire group joined in with both singing and dancing.

“I don’t think I have ever been to a university event with so much openness to finding new connections and bonding with other people,” said Makhlouf.

Prasad said music has played a pivotal role in her life as she learned violin as a child, performed in an international choir and has always liked to sing. She said she reconnects with those memories on Wednesday nights.

“I’ve had a very close relationship with music. Going to these open mic nights, it brings me back to my childhood,” she said.

“Once you start singing and you get up there, everyone else starts cheering you on”

Fourth-year professional music student Carina Bianchini is the performance chair for TMUsicians. She said it is important for students—in the music program or not—to have a place to destress and meet people at the club’s events, especially since commuting and being a university student can make finding time for those things difficult.

“I think it’s nice for people who aren’t necessarily pursuing music to still have the opportunity to just come and hang out, get to know people,” she said. “At the end of the day, I don’t think anybody dislikes music, right? So it’s just a good time.”

Chelsea Collins went to TMUsicians’ first open mic last year, hosted at the Sheldon and Tracy Levy Student Learning Centre before the Met Pub was open for the semester. Now in her second year of the RTA media production program, she attended her fourth songwriting circle the day after performing at the open mic.

“I like talking to other artists and making music with them, because all of them are so talented and I love being around other talented musicians,” she said.

Collins knows well the connecting nature of music. Her parents met in a marching band and made music a major part of their life—her mother played trombone professionally when she was younger and her father is a music teacher.

“You can’t really get a name for yourself or anyone listening to your music if you don’t have a community around your music,” she said.

“It is the safest place possible”

Thursday’s Halloween songwriters circle was hosted in the professional music lounge on the third floor of the Rogers Communication Centre. With pizza and treats to add to the fun, a circle of students formed on the carpet in the middle of the room. Mayer and Bianchini took the lead alongside TMUsicians social lead Christina Kennedy, kicking things off for the group to join in.

Bianchini said the circles are a space where musicians with a variety of backgrounds, experiences and writing processes can come together.

“When we put that all together, it really makes for just a great jam session,” she said. “Sometimes we walk away with full, complete songs. Some people have ended up releasing those songs.”

During Thursday’s songwriting circle, the group connected not only musically but as friends. As Bianchini and Kennedy finished the second chorus and moved into the bridge of the song the group had been working on for much of the session, the group mixed in a series of chants. “That’s Chad.” “You are Chad.” “I am Chad.” “We are Chad.”

It might have been the end of the song or it might have been a stray from focus, but the purpose of the event stood out—everyone connected. For Bianchini, those moments reflect the laid-back nature of these circles.

“At the end of the day, we all have different walks of life and things that we experience, but we have a lot of shared experiences…that’s how certain themes, like a Chad, or heartbreak, or whatever it is, come into play,” she said.

Mayer told “The Barbies” as they got off the stage on Wednesday that they should try creating and recording a song. He said they were already friends and having fun so he wanted to push them to do something more. For him, that reflects what TMUsicians’ events are all about.

“One of the best ways of creating engagement…it’s from music.”