Why these musicians are drawn to a Charlottetown shed

In a Charlottetown backyard, a team isworking away to transform the inside of a little shed into a live music venue.

The group is part ofShed Sessions P.E.I., which began twoyears ago. Every couple of months, an artist is invited to come and perform.

The team films and records the session with professional equipment and what resultsis an intimate but polished video that artists have to promote themselves.

"It's just something that we're adding to the community because there's already such a rich culture of, like, music and art here," said co-founder VinodRamachandra.

"Sowe are also just being part of that and it's been amazing and everyone has been overwhelmingly supportive."

The shed, owned by one of theteam members, has been outfitted with a sleek, wood-panelled interior and is insulated.

The team, made up of producers, an audio engineer, a videographer and set-designer, all volunteer their time to make it happen. With each performance in the shed, the groupdevelops video concepts and set designs unique to that artist.

Until recently, the service was provided for free, but because of growingdemand, Shed Sessions now charges a small fee per sessionto help cover the cost of production.

"We weren't quite sure how it was goingto flow from the beginning, but it's kind of taken on a life of its own and it's come into its own," said producer Kirk Avery.

Their latest session featured Island rapper Chelsey Moisan, who goes by the stage name LxVNDR.She said she was drawn to the Shed Sessions because of its spreading reputationamongP.E.I. artists.

"I was hoping that I'd be able to get on at some point. So that was kind of like a milestone in my head that I would be on this," Moisan said.

"So for me it definitely means like I'm kind of stepping up in my career a little bit."

The lighting and film equipment is rented from Film P.E.I. Everything else is from the team'sown equipment.

Still, funding is a challengeand the group relies on donations to keep going.

But even though there's no profit, members of the team said theShed Sessions have no plans to slow down.

"We like to kind of bring it all together and it's just really for the love of it all I guess," Avery said.

Their hope is to feature more artists next year and to eventually expand what they offer beyond the shed.

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