Gord Downie, Ron Sexsmith, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Snow and David Usher are among the artists contributing to a new charity single recorded this week.
Money raised by the song, “Buried Heart,” will go toward a transition and detox centre for female drug addicts and sex trade workers.
While the original idea for the song came from the horrific disappearance of over 50 women from the seedy East Side of downtown Vancouver, it is now meant to raise awareness for women who turn to the streets as a way of life and can’t find a way out.
Statistically, by the time these young women hit 18, the average sex worker has already been on the streets three years. Many come from abusive households or have been abused by someone they trust.
“I know a lot people who were prostitutes, who didn’t have anywhere to go,” says Snow, on why he felt it was important to be involved with the project.
“I sing about (one of these women) on my first album, on ‘Ease Up.’ It was about my cousin. I tried to help her. She was messed up on drugs and this and that. So I know more about it than a lot of people.”
Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Wyckham Porteous’s original intention was to sell a commercial single of the song to raise funds for a small memorial statue to the missing women, believed to be dead and buried on the grounds of a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, BC.
Robert “Wille” Pickton has been arrested and charged in the murder of seven prostitutes. Some human remains and women’s belongings have been found on the farm.
“I wrote the song because after it became clear that all the missing women were being found in this one spot,” Wyckham explains.
“They kept referring to it in the papers as a ‘pig farm’ and I found it particularly annoying because no one looked for them when they went missing, and then their final resting place gets referred to as a pig farm and I thought it would be nice if they were given some kind of dignity.”
After he finished writing the song with Gary Durban and John Ellis, he and Durban set off on an energetic tour du force, gathering names of other artists who wanted to contribute to the track or companies who wanted to donate services and goods.
“We realized we could do a whole lot more than just a little statue,” says Porteous.
Via Nova Transition Society needs $158,000 to set up a four-bed house for women wishing to get off the streets. The short-term housing and counseling program will allow some 50 women to go through its doors annually. The monies raised from the sale of the CD single will go directly to a foundation, which will administrate the funds. If the final numbers don’t reach that goal, Durban vows to come up with other charitable programs that will.
After some brainstorming sessions in Toronto this week, Durban and Porteous would like to maximize sales of a commercial single, as well as garner airplay on the appropriate stations. So it is necessary to do several versions of the song — the original pop/rock version; an urban version for the youth market; and a country/folk version.
The recordings sessions have also been filmed, for a music video, as well as for an enhanced CD. Arc 2 shot in Vancouver and Buck Productions in Toronto both donated their services.
The Vancouver arts community has stepped up enormously. Arc 2’s Andy Chu is the primary backer, financing flights, hotel rooms, packages, web site and administration. As well, Durban, who is the main producer of “Buried Heart”, enlisted the help of John Wozniak, of Marcy Playground, who owns Mushroom Studios, and he rounded up a massive chorus of local musicians, as well as well-known names like Colin James, 54.40’s Neil Osbourne, Todd Kerns, Jordy Birch, Spirit of the West’s John Mann, Rich Hope and Chin Injeti.
On May 23, Porteous, Durban and project manager Tatiana Nemchin flew to Toronto and immediately holed up at The Gas Station for recording sessions with Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, Barenaked Ladies’s Steven Page, The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie, and Sarah Harmer.
The 25th was spent at The Rogue Studios with ex-Junkhouse frontman Tom Wilson, Mary Margaret O’Hara and Ron Sexsmith. The evening of the 27th saw the last-minute additions of David Usher, Esthero, Snow and Sarah Slean laying down their respective vocal parts at EMI Music Publishing Canada’s in-house studio.
“It’s important (to participate),” says Slean. “Putting a price on certain levels and classes of human life is disgusting and has to be stopped. Somebody has to care about them. What kind of world do we live in?”
Porteous, Durban and Nemchin met with almost all the major labels in Toronto, while in town, about pressing and distribution, as well as ideas for other artist contributions. The three are hoping to start the roots and urban music versions in Vancouver and return to Toronto in a couple of weeks to complete them. The Warehouse Studios in Vancouver has donated time to mix the results.
“I’m so down for any cause that’s for sisters,” says Esthero. “Crimes against women are some of the most disgusting, horrific and sickening. I’m actually impressed that it took three men to write this song and to think about this and have it disgust them.
“The world revolves around good and positive and if something so horrific inspires something so positive, I really believe it’s not how many people you reach, it’s how deeply you reach each one. Three men were obviously so deeply reached by this that they wrote something about it and they’re going to share it with the world.
“That’s a way of looking at the good side of things and that beautiful things can come out of horrific events, and hopefully they can pass on that knowledge and they pass on that sadness and they pass on their disgust with those sorts of things. It brings awareness to it and that always a good thing.”