Salt Lake City and Ogden have always been the music centers of northern Utah. But what about Cache Valley?
“New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, Southern California area, those are the places people flock to, to be in music.," said Kyle Wesley, a recording artist, music producer and industry consultant based in Logan. "And that's where a lot of the music publishing opportunities are, it’s where a lot of the record label opportunities are. I guess if you want to compare that to Cache Valley, Cache Valley isn’t quite that way as far as the opportunities it offers for music, but I still believe there is a ton of untapped talent. It’s just not necessarily being cultivated as much.”
What he means by cultivated, is that Cache Valley has a certain paradigm about the music industry that is preventing it to grow and change.
“You’ve got these music moguls that are so very visible in the public eye globally, that they kind of set this perception baseline, where people say, ‘Oh, you want to be in the music industry? Good luck because you’re never going to be a Beyonce, you’re never going to be a Drake, you’re never going to be Toby Keith.' But that’s really not what the music industry is. There’s a whole entire ecosystem of monetizing art that has not as much to do with the huge public perception of what it is,” Wesley said.
So what kinds of other careers are there in the music industry?
“Maybe you don’t have a knack for playing a musical instrument," he said. "Maybe you can’t sing or don’t like to sing, or maybe don’t do any of those things. But maybe you love music still. For crying out loud, be a manager, manage a band, manage an artist. Or be a music publisher, I mean, the business of a music publisher is to make money for people’s songs. Or start up an independent label. Just getting to know the different aspects of the industry can open up a whole world of possibilities that you didn’t really know were there.”
Just recently, Whysound Music Venue went through a new set of administration, and at the same time, The Cache Venue was opened. Logan also holds the annual Block film and art festival, and Summerfest Arts Faire which are both very musically oriented. Perhaps these are a few examples of the music industry taking part in Cache Valley’s entertainment life.
“People need to understand that. People need to understand that you can make a sustainable career out of music. It’s no different from anybody else who wants to start up a business. It’s a risk. If you’re going to be an entrepreneur, you’re taking a risk,” Wesley said.
