The Newsy Neighbbour Magazine
August Issue 118
Article Provided By: Kyle W Penn
The
Beautiful Scars
Helping to Build a Community
of Music
Music has always been one of the most formative and
influential forces in my life. Music has helped me grow into the person I am
today, but it’s also played a much larger role in my life. I’ve made the
friends I have, done the things I’ve accomplished, and live the life I do
largely because of the impact song and rhythm has had on my life. Never has
this been clearer to me than during one evening spent this summer with local
band The Beautiful Scars.
It was a warm evening in July – warm being an
understatement, actually, as this particular night came on the heels of a +30°C
day – when I drove out to Strathmore. Arm resting outside the window, dry heat
blowing and swirling around inside my car, prairie scenery whipping by, I was
heading out to meet up with The Beautiful Scars. A three-piece consisting of
Kevin Knopf on guitar, Kurt Rock on drums, and Darren Genoves on bass, The
Beautiful Scars haven’t been around for a very long time. However, like myself,
each member of the band was drawn together through a mutual love of music and
song: Knopf and Genoves met through a mutual friend and started playing music
together thanks to some guitars hanging on a wall, while Rock was added to the
mix later on through the recommendation of a friend due to his prowess behind
the drum kit. Ultimately, then, The Beautiful Scars came to be thanks to the
exact same force that has been so influential in my life throughout the years –
the power and community of music.
This evening was going to be a bit of a special one, however,
because I wasn’t headed out to a bar or venue to see The Beautiful Scars
perform. Rather, I had been invited to their private gig space, for a front-row
view as the band worked out their set for their upcoming Battle of the Bands performance
at Legends on August 3. To speak to the power that music has to bring people
together, it was actually at an earlier Battle of the Bands showcase that Knopf
had invited The Newsy Neighbour to come and check out the practice that night
in the infamous Popcorn Studios – so-named for the time it had once served as a
private residential screening room, complete with old-school popcorn popper and
theatre seating!
As I made myself comfortable in one of the plush,
multiplex-style chairs, Knopf, Rock, and Genoves got set up and joked back and
forth with one another before playing a set so tight and well-rehearsed that it
seemed more like an on-stage performance than a casual band practice with an
audience of one. It was clear that while The Beautiful Scars have only been
together a short time now, each member brought both immeasurable amounts of
talent and decades of experience to the table. The bass lines punched and
snapped as Genoves walked up and down the neck of his instrument; Rock’s hooky
drum fills burst from the nooks and crannies of every song; and Knopf’s
lyricism and guitar work were nothing short of electrifying. No two songs were
alike, but each riff and lyric fit within the bigger sound of The Beautiful
Scars with unquestionable authenticity – a difficult feat to achieve, that. It
was an incredible treat to experience such an up-close and intimate look at the
inner workings of a local band, and I humbly thank The Beautiful Scars for the
opportunity and invitation to be there that evening.
After the rehearsal had wrapped, Genoves, Rock, and
Knopf sat down to chat with me. We waxed philosophical about music, recording,
and the pains and pleasures of rock n roll. With an EP in the works and a busy
schedule of touring ahead of them, The Beautiful Scars have an eventful and exciting
year on the horizon. I’ll often dedicate swathes of this column to meaningful
quotes from conversations I have with local artists, but I’ll beg the pardon of
The Beautiful Scars to instead allow me to focus on something else I took away
from that evening. Speaking to the band that night, and being privy to such a
unique experience, the topic of a music community kept coming up again and
again. It was how the band met, and how I had met them. It seemed that over and
over, throughout the course of our conversation, we kept coming back to how
incredibly important maintaining a healthy music scene and community really is.
The Newsy Neighbour has always been about fostering
and growing local community. Whether it be within Langdon, Chestermere,
Strathmore, or one of the outlying areas, the mandate of this magazine has ever
been to promote local goings-on, and to bring people together. In my opinion –
and in my experience – there are few convergences that exemplify the positive
elements of supportive community more than a strong and vibrant local music
scene. I’ve been dedicated to this monthly music column not just because
writing about music is fun (it totally is!), but because in the back of my
mind, I hope that it’s working towards building a scene of music where people can
come out to shows, meet new people, have a great evening, and rest assured that
they’ll run into friends there that they know and love, each and every time.
All of the most important people in my life, I’ve met
through music – and I want nothing more than to help create and be part of a
community of music-lovers where similar bonds and relationships are formed on
the regular. There is an astounding wealth of talent and personality within the
music scene in our varied towns and hamlets, and it’s exciting to see a real,
solid community start to form and coalesce within the midst of it all. Music
begets music, and community begets community. I can’t encourage everyone
strongly enough to keep making music, to keep playing shows, and to keep coming
together for the love of rhythm, lyrics, and musical talent. The music
community out here is only just beginning to come into its own – and it’s
dedicated bands like The Beautiful Scars (and people like Knopf, Rock and
Genoves) that are going to help it grow bigger and more supportive yet. Keep up
the good work, everyone – you’re doing your community proud!
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