Are you looking for some beats to put your lyrics to? Well, look no further than award-winning Erick Michael and his E Michael Productions.
The Nuchatlaht First Nations youth has been making music for more than two years, and has recently turned his hobby into a money-making venture, thanks to a little prodding from teacher Mr. Barber and the E-Spirit business plan competition hosted annually by the Business Development Bank of Canada.
The E-Spirit competition is for Aboriginal students in grades 10 to 12. It develops entrepreneurship through a series of projects that leads for some to an all-expenses paid trip to a national gathering, this year held in Winnipeg from May 15 to 17. There, the top 50 teams of 500 from across Canada present their business ideas during a tradeshow, group presentation and take part in the E-Spirit awards ceremony.
Erick has just returned home to Ocluje from Winnipeg where his team picked up the Social Media Award, one of 13 honors given out annually.
“E Michael Productions created the most activity on our Facebook page,” said Dianna Hudson, Aboriginal Banking Manager with BDC. “During the second social media challenge, they generated the most votes and likes, as well as comments. Over 200 people voted for the EMichael Productions facebook page. This was the deciding factor in the award.”
The award goes to the team that participates in the Social Media challenges, is actively involved in E-Spirit Social Media (Facebook and Twitter) through comments, submissions of content and provides feedback through social media.
Buddies in the music biz, Damien Cox (vocals) and Kyuquot’s Darian Baker (piano), have had Erick’s back since the beginning and work with the beat-master on his creations. Currently their library includes 18 instrumentals which can be leased for use, or purchased outright.
Erick has clients and works with artists all the way down to California. In six weeks he’s already tripled his projected income for the first four months of his business, he said.
Erick admits that when he started to compose on a free download called Fruity Loops Studio the results were “pretty bad”, but you can hear how far Erick’s developed by visiting his Youtube site at http://www.youtube.com/user/Michaelboy08
Now he provides backtracks and digital overlays for vocal artists using his original instrumentals for a very reasonable fee.
If you’re interested in more information about his work, contact Erick at EmichaelProductions@gmail.com.
