Mi'kmaw recording engineer celebrates year at Shiftwork Recording

A Mi'kmaw musician and recording engineer from Natoaganeg is making his mark on the Fredericton music scene after opening his own downtown recording studio.

Dylan Ward grew up in the community also known as Eel Ground First Nation, not far from Miramichi, where he was inspired to play music by his older brother and was later motivated to record his own music after watching local hip-hop artists.

"My friends that I grew up with were all into music and at one point we were all in a band together and it was just our thing to do," Ward said. "When you're a kid, there's not really much to do up in Eel Ground."

Ward's keen interest in recording his own music, and the music of his friends, while in high school has now turned into a career.

Since graduating from the audio engineering program at the now-defunct Centre for Arts and Technology in Fredericton, he has been recording other musicians.

He is thrilled to have a permanent studio space that he shares with friend and visual artist Stefan Westner.

"We're a small province here, but we have a lot of really, really talented people, and we need more people working on the music industry professional side," Ward said. 

"Having more people who can record and more people who can who can just help artists and their art is definitely needed here in New Brunswick."

Ward hopes he will be able to pass his love of music, and audio engineering, on to others who want to get into the business.

"I would love to foster that kind of curiosity in somebody because it's super fun," Ward said. 

His new recording studio is called Shiftwork Recording. He loves the name because it reflects the work that goes into producing art.

"It's still a job, it's still a career and a profession, so we're still punching in and out and doing the shift," he said.

"I couldn't imagine ever calling this place anything other than Shiftwork. It's just such a great name."

Recording as a full-time gig 

"When I got the space, I kind of gave myself some time to really see if I could make it work," Ward said. "I gave it about a year and it was working, which was really exciting."

Since Shiftwork Recording opened about a year ago, about 10 different artists have come through the studio to record their music.

Last year, Ward enrolled in the Joint Economic Development Initiative's business incubator program for Indigenous entrepreneurs. He acquired business management skills and carved out a business plan for the studio, so he could someday be a recording engineer full time.

"I decided to take the JEDI incubator program, which was really helpful and really gave me a good solid plan to help me do the studio right, in the way that I wanted to do it," Ward said.  

'Very immersive' session

Ward said his experience as a recording engineer has helped to elevate his own band, Marian, and given him the opportunity to help other young artists. 

One of the artists Ward has worked with and recorded at Shiftwork is blues musician Quinn Bonnell of Esgenoopetitj First Nation.

Ward recorded Bonnell's most recent album, Wonder, at Shiftwork, and it was released this past November.

Bonnell said the "very immersive recording session" provided a creative space filled with instruments.

"We did a lot of live off the floor, which I think is what he's really trying to get better at —  recording bands in their live element," Bonnell said.

Ward and Bonnell have known each other since high school. Ward also recorded Bonnell's previous release The Night before he opened up Shiftwork Recording.

"It's very cool to see how he's been making his way up the ladder," Bonnell said of Ward's development. "It's really good to see him really progress as an engineer, producer and artist."

Bonnell said he's proud of how Wonder turned out. He credits Ward with always being receptive to ideas and helping him to translate them sonically into something he was excited about.

Shiftwork Recording will have an open house event on Friday to celebrate its first year of recording Fredericton's musicians.

The open house starts at 6 p.m. at Shiftwork Recording at 384 Queen St. on the third floor.