Photo by John Ulan
The world of corporate marketing was once Shauna de Cartier's gig. But, a music lover to her core, she was driven to follow her true passion. In the heyday of Napster and pirated music, she took a risk founding indie music label Six Shooter Records. (She remains one of the few women in Canada to own a record label.) Six Shooter now represents and records some of Canada's hottest musicians, including Whitehorse, Hawksley Workman and Amelia Curran. Though the label has grown and expanded, Shauna stays connected to Edmonton - one of two cities (the other is Winnipeg) in which Six Shooter hosts the summer music festival Interstellar Rodeo.
What inspires an MBA graduate to get into the music business? I took an entrepreneurship class during my MBA. We opened the textbook to page 1, and it said, 'Here are the attributes of successful entrepreneurs.' It was a list of who I was. I decided what I really want to do is go into business for myself and, specifically, go into music. I wanted who I am and what I do to be the same.
You started off managing Edmonton folk-rock band Captain Tractor. Even though that was the least-paying, least-secure job, it was also the most fun job that was on the table. I really learned a lot from those guys, and I started Six Shooter Records two years later.
Starting a record label in 2000 seems like spectacularly unfortunate timing given how the industry has evolved in the Internet era. [Laughs] It was sort of before anybody knew what was going to happen, so, yeah. While the Internet takes away some opportunities, it creates other opportunities. It makes it easier to get music out there. It makes it easier to connect with and communicate with people. I don't know if it would have been easier in the '90s, or more difficult. But, either way, it's not very easy to run a record label.
If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. I think everybody does try to do it. [Laughs] Lots and lots of people do, and fail.
But, 17 years later, Six Shooter's still going strong. We've been able to grow our business every year. Most of the artists that we manage are released on the label. We've found that those relationships, where we wear both hats [artist management and label], are the most fruitful, for both ourselves and the artists, because they become a high priority. This is probably the strongest time in our history, right now. The Strumbellas, a band we signed a couple of years ago, have a worldwide hit [Spirits]. Throat-singer Tanya Tagaq has won some very high-profile awards and [was recently] honoured as a member of the Order of Canada. That's pretty amazing. So, it's a really good time for Six Shooter.
You're a female-based company in an industry that's still very "testosterone-y," if that's a word. It's not a word, but I'll accept it.
Does Six Shooter bring anything special from that perspective? I try to champion women, and I hire a lot of women. I think [Six Shooter] brings a certain style or panache, a certain level of collaborative relationship building. [But] I never really think too much about the gender issue.
"Life is too short to listen to shitty music" has been Six Shooter's slogan from the get-go. Do you still believe that? From the get-go, yeah. My friend Bobbi came up with that, and I stole it
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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