Meet some of the music industry leaders and professionals joining the team to guide this year’s participants
Tamara has been a therapist and educator in Vancouver for over 25 years. She has taught a wide range of people including many young emerging artists how to understand their mental health and care for themselves in their work. She is dedicated to helping people combat negative thinking patterns and self sabotage so they can achieve their life dreams.
As a counsellor, she specializes in relationship therapy, trauma and transforming defeating behaviour patterns.
She deeply believes people can and do change.
Brandon William Fletcher is a Director, Producer, Graphic Artist and founder of Faked Potatoes, a creative studio based in Vancouver. His images and work have been commissioned by a wide range of clients including M83, Manila Grey, James Reid, Curtis Waters, Warner Music Group, Universal Music, Art d’Ecco, Kandle, Blonde Diamond, and SAXX Underwear Co.
In a past life, Fletcher was the Creative Director/Manager of the award-winning Canadian live music venue Habitat as well as Creative Director for the $10.1 million award-winning PEAK Performance Project. He was nominated for “Video Director of the Year” at the 2017 Western Canadian Music Awards, made the Long List for the 2021 Prism Prize for “”Best Music Video of the Year,”” and sat on the Board of Directors for Music BC from 2018-2021.
Potatohead People (Nick Wisdom & AstroLogical) is a Canadian hiphop/electronic producer duo from Vancouver, BC. They first met in a community baseball league in early high school and joined forces through their love for J Dilla and Madlib. In 2008 they began working together in the hip-hop collective Elekwent Folk; soon after the two producers formed Potatohead People, and began to focus on creating forward thinking instrumental music.
Over the span of their career the duo have released 3 full-length albums and worked with such artists as De La Soul, Redman, Phife Dawg, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Illa J, T3 (Slum Village), Moka Only, Kaytranada, Pomo, Ivan Ave and The Pendletons. Called a “formidable tandem” by OkayPlayer, their sounds have been championed by the likes of DJ Spinna, Soulection, Nightmares on Wax, Questlove, Big Boi and more.
Vel Omazic has been CMI’s executive director since co-founding the not-for-profit organization in 2011. CMI provides customized professional development and ongoing mentorship to emerging artists, managers, and industry professionals across all genres of music. Vel has worked in the Canadian music industry for three decades, having served as Vice-President, National Promotion and Media Relations for Sony Music Canada for 10 of those years. He got his start in the National Promotion/Publicity department at PolyGram Records. Prior to launching CMI, Vel was VP Marketing & Communications at Green Living Enterprises, an environmental consulting, marketing and events agency. He is an active member of the Advisory Board for Toronto Metropolitan University’s Music Den, a hub for music tech and next generation music companies, and an Advisor for Platform’s Music Tech Accelerator program (Reverb) in Calgary. Vel is also on the Advisory Board for Gatecrash Music’s AMPLIFY Incubator in Mumbai, India, which is modelled after CMI.
Kate joined the team at Canada’s Music Incubator (CMI) in 2017 and through her current role as Programs Manager, she designs and executes several of CMI’s core and custom professional development programs, and actively contributes to the successful rollout of all CMI programming. Kate also plays integral role in funding and sponsor relationships; Board of Directors engagement; marketing; analytics tracking; and strategic planning.A performer at heart, Kate holds a Bachelor of Music Degree and a Post Graduate Certificate in Arts Management, both obtained at Humber College.
Denise De’ion is a Juno Winning Music Producer, artist and songwriter from Toronto. Some of her most recent accomplishments include Haviah Mighty’s Juno Award winning album Stock Exchange and the Boi1da and Bacardi Music Liberates Music Campaign. She has had placements with Bulleit Whiskey, Netflix, Kim’s Convenience, etc. In addition, she has also participated and won several beat battle competitions including winning Canadian Beatmakers League (now Global Beatmakers League) in 2020, the IStandard beat battle at the 2019 Ascap Music Expo in LA, and being in the top four of the Remy Martin Producer challenge in New York.
Negele Hospedales is a versatile communications specialist focused on optimizing digital strategy and brand development. He develops, formats, and scales brilliant campaigns with his clients and brings them to life in modern and exciting ways that captivate existing audiences and identify new opportunities. He has worked with Universal Music Group in the UK and the USA to develop digital strategies for developmental artists and collective brand strategies for imprints and sub-labels. Negele has also worked directly with artist teams across all genres and territories, including Cordae, Chance the Rapper, Juls, Jarreau Vandal, and Grace Weber.
Creatively, Negele is also an established photographer, writer, and content creator.
Myya is a Producer/ Singer- Songwriter, engineer from Toronto, Canada. She is known in Toronto for competing in “Battle of the Beat Makers” (A beat battle held to showcase global talent). Graduated from “The Remix Project” a music development program that has given rise to stars such as Jessie Reyes, Grammy nominated producer “Boi1da” and more. Was enrolled in the “Women In The Studio” program with the Canadian Music Publishers Association which focuses on furthering the careers of female producers in the music industry. She is currently a part of Timbaland’s “Beat Club” and lastly, has landed sync placements with companies such as Samsung, Adidas, RedBull and Netflix. On the artist side she has amassed over 10M streams on all platforms and has worked/ written with some respected artists in the music industry.
Cam Tatham, better known by his stage name, Sleepy Tom, is a Canadian music producer and DJ. He released his first EP, The Currency, via Brooklyn-based tastemaker label, Fool’s Gold Records, in March of 2013. Subsequently, he delivered supercharged dance music through influential imprints like Mad Decent and Spinnin Records, and performed high-profile sets at prestigious events like the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) and Made in America. In the summer of 2015, he collaborated with Diplo on the now Platinum-certified hit “Be Right There”, which peaked at #2 on the UK Dance charts, Top 10 in the UK Charts and #8 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic charts. Sleepy Tom has also worked with other established artists including Anna Lunoe, Grandtheft and LIGHTS, as well as providing official remixes for Zeds Dead, Martin Solveig, Porter Robinson and Dillon Francis amongst others.
Natasha Dion is an interdisciplinary Creative Producer, Director, and Designer working in the creative and corporate sectors. Her diverse skill set has led her to work on projects overseeing campaigns, branding, design, video, and social media. Since her studies at Emily Carr University of Art & Design, she has been working in Music and Entertainment and is currently Head of Creative at Chaos Club Digital.
Colleen Venables, professionally known as Crush, is a Canadian record producer, songwriter and instrumentalist. Crush has worked with the likes of Wondagurl, 6Lack, Londoncyr, Sofaygo, Jugger, 88glam, Grace Weber, and Machine Gun Kelly.
Colleen was born and raised in Armstrong, BC, where she started learning the violin and piano by the age of 4. Quickly realizing her musical talents she started competing in both instruments, and won 1st prize in the Canadian National Music Festival (string division) at the age of 16.
Crush began producing music at the age of 19, using the musical training she had gained over 15 years it was not long before she started working closely with Wondagurl, producing and writing arrangements within the Wonderchild team. In 2021, 88glam album “New Mania” was nominated for a Juno in which she shared production credits.
Elisa Pangsaeng is a Canadian producer, songwriter, educator, recording, mixing, mastering engineer and all-around studio rat.
After visiting her first recording session in 2006, she was hooked. Her deep love of music and technical obsession collided here. Hard work and dedication has since earned Elisa a reputation as a talented and highly skilled engineer, working out of studios such as Van Howes, Hipposonic, and Monarch Studios in Vancouver, BC.
Elisa fosters safe spaces for creating in the studio while brining focus and energy to every session. An affinity for tight arrangements, minimalism, and rhythm, characterize her unique production aesthetic. Select clientele include MILCK, GRAE, Yukon Blonde, Xana, You Say Party! Kinnie Starr, Said The Whale, & Shad.
Her interests includes video games, listening to pop music at uncomfortable loud levels, shoes, squishy cats, compression, tape, and tubes.
Carol-Lynne Quinn is a Vocal Coach, Vocologist, Singing Rehabilitation Specialist, Vocal Producer, Tedx Speaker and Artist. She has the pleasure of working with badass JUNO award-winning artists, major label artists, actors, speakers and emerging artists. She is passionate about combining Athletic Voice Science and Soulful Connection. Data Meets Soul. She utilizes voice science technique that focuses on vocal health, vocal rehabilitation, vocal strengthening, range expansion, lung expansion, tour prep and more. Vocal Soul first comes from the fact that she believes in vocal freedom, in authentic artistry and creating a safe place of vocal discovery. She has toured for over 15 years and understands how training your voice with intentional athletic techniques creates an incredibly powerful instrument that will show up for you each and every night. Her main focus is empowering artists to reach any vocal goal they may have while making sure they remain who they are and keep their voice authentically theirs.
She is the creator of ROAR, an accessible platform that gives you access to vocal training programs, vocal workout challenges, live master classes and many other resources focused on athletic voice science, soulful connection, vocal empowerment and community. She currently coaches over 150 humans through out North America, coaches for Canada’s Music Incubator, the JUNO Awards Master Class, Project Wild, National Music Centre of Canada and lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Some artists she works with include: Mother Mother, Celeigh Cardinal, Blonde Diamond, Hotel Mira, Louise Burns, Rare Americans, RIELL, Rachael Schroeder, Sam Lynch, Amelie Patterson and more. Her mandate is to help empower others to understand that their voice is a muscle and muscles can be trained, rehabilitated and transformed. It is her goal to be a partner with vocalists and help them build complete trust and freedom in their voice.