DECEMBER 18 2O14 • UWINDSORLANCE.CA //
Mike Ure Band Release First EP
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JOLENEPERRON
Editor-in-chief __________________________ For men. Four Songs. One goal. For the very first time, The Mike Ure Band will be releasing a four song EP during a release party Dec. 21 at Venue Music Hall. The band is composed of University of Windsor nursing graduate Mike Ure as the rhythm guitar and vocals, university communications graduate Alex Seguin as the bass player and background vocals, second year university music student Aidan Johnson-Bujold as the lead guitarist and background vocals and fourth year university music student Brandon Lefrancois as the drummer. For two years the band has played a number of shows across Windsor and Essex county at venues such as the Rock N’Rodeo, Caesars Windsor, The Bull N’Barrel and many others. All of that work has lead to the band taking a road trip to Florida to record their first ever four song EP, which they said wouldn’t have been possible without their acquired fan base. “Being all students and working fulltime and doing music, we didn’t have the money to do what we wanted to,” said Johnson-Bujold. “We’ve heard about bands doing this Kickstarter and asking their friends and families and fans to help fund this in any way they could and we thought that if they could help in any way it would be super, super helpful and it blew up and it was awesome … we are so appreciative and we really couldn’t have funded this EP without them” Prior to the trip, the band opened a project on Kickstarter and asked everyone they knew to help them
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The Mike Ure Band rehearsed in studio Dec. 11 in preparation for the EP release party which will take place Dec. 21 at Venue Music Hall. Band members left to right: Aidan Johnson-Bujold, Brandon Lefrancois, Mike Ure, Alex Seguin. [Photo by // Jolene Perron] achieve their goal by donating whatever means they could to the cause. According to the website, Kickstarter is “a new way to fund creative projects,” both big and small. While Kickstarter themselves are not involved in the development or projects, they provide a platform and resource for artists, musicians, filmmakers and designers to achieve their goals. In just nine days time, the band reached their goal of $2,000. In total, $2,400 was raised through Kickstarter, and an additional $300 was raised at Ure’s parents store, Ure’s Country Kitchen. “It’s pretty amazing, we know we have the fan’s support behind us,” said Ure. “They’ve always been there
Policy
“more communication about this in the new year.” While there are no students currently working on the policy group, Clayton Smith said he’d be seeking input from the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance to appoint or nominate a student to serve. Smith added he has been in contact with President Ronnie Haidar to assist in finding a student voice. Haidar responded, saying it was a good sign the university was looking to incorporate the student perspective. “You definitely need a student perspective in the working group,” Haidar said. “Being a student on campus, you have specific concerns, specific questions that need to be addressed.” While Haidar does know of a few
students who may be interested in serving on the policy group, he did not want to potentially exclude other students who’d be willing to take part. “It’s good that we have faculty, administration and students that are working together to make our campus as safe as possible for everybody,” Haidar said, adding that he would discuss the matter with his board to find a solid candidate for the position. “We have a lot of passionate, intelligent and able student that can contribute to this initiative.” Possible candidate and newly-elected student Senator, Farah El-Hajj, made the creation of a sexual assault policy a core part of her election platform. She said during the campaign she was “approached by a group of full-time undergraduate females who wanted to inform [her] on this issue and their
from the start, coming to our shows … They just want to see us do good. It’s cool to have them be a part of that process, making this EP with us.” The band agrees, this EP is The Mike Ure Band through and through like you’ve never heard them before. As Johnson-Bujold puts it, the songs are “definitely summer, not bummer,” as the band made sure the songs were as fun as possible. Seguin added, the music reflects the band’s personality. To be able to go out on a trip such as this one and record their music together benefits the band in more ways than just their musical career. “We kind of push each other in a cool way that, when we’re tracking or doing something in the studio, there’s always great support and feedback,” experiences on our campus.” “It is important that the student union is advocating for this policy to be implemented, as it would be a benefit to all UWindsor students,” El-Hajj said, adding it is important to reach out to other student groups like the Organization of Part-Time University Students and the Graduate Student Society to incorporate an array of student voices. While the working group moves forward with the creation of a sexual assault policy, the UWindsor campus has a solid foundation of sexual assault prevention and educational efforts, mainly the Bystander Initiative. The initiative, according to it’s website, is “designed to help students realize they have the confidence, capacity, and the will to intervene if they see a sexual assault in the making.” One of the architects of the initiative, Dr. Charlene Senn, is also working on the policy group. Senn said the Bystander Initiative and institutional support from the
said Lefrancois. “There’s never any moments where anybody is putting you down because you messed up. It’s always ‘yes, that was good, but can we elaborate on that, let’s try to improve on this,’ there’s never any moments where you’re like ‘okay, you’ve done this how many times? Let’ get it right.’” The four agreed when a song is produced with a positive vibe, it reflects in the finished product. Going forward, the band hopes to get attention from local radio stations and get their new songs on the airways. Ure said radio is one the hardest things to accomplish, particularly without the funding, but that doesn’t mean they won’t push to make it happen.
university “has raised the profile of the topic of sexual assault on campus amongst administrators, staff and students, more so than other campuses.” Senn said it’s difficult to find best practices as there are so few Canadian universities that have one in place. She did, however, point to Lakehead University’s nine page policy as a particularly good example. For the University of Windsor, Senn identified a number of issues she’d like addressed in the policy. Often times the mandatory reporting of sexual assault can deter victims from coming forward, she said, which can be addressed through an “anonymous or confidential reporting,” allowing campus police to be aware of an increase in sexual assault without re-victimizing survivors through the reporting process. One of the main goals, Senn said, is to have survivors continue their education on campus. Even though the university can’t necessarily im-
While The Mike Ure Band still feels the nerves settling in, they are certain their fans will be impressed with their product. Lefrancois said he hopes people will be “flying off the rafters” during their release party because he and the rest of the band are excited to show people what they’ve accomplished. “I think there’s some underlying thing when you play music with people – there’s a certain connection that forms and you want to try to exploit that as much as you can to get better,” said Seguin. “Whenever we go places away from here and we work, I feel like we develop that connection even more, for some reason, I don’t know why … we start to get a better feel of how each other think musically.” pact how the criminal justice system works, the policy should operate on a foundation of “care and support” for victims. That could involve, Senn said, a general statement on the unacceptability of sexual violence, increased training for campus staff to assist victims, as well as an increased amount of information available for those seeking help. She pointed to a lack of information on the university’s website around what victims of sexual assault should do to seek help. Currently, those seeking information will be brought to a student counselling page on mental health which covers both sexual assault and sexual harassment, as well as community resources which aid victims, like the Sexual Assault Crisis Centre of Windsor Essex County. “Sexual harassment policies aren’t meant for sexual assault,” Senn added. “People on campus don’t know what students should do.”