MAKING UNUSUAL MUSIC

Scrap Arts Music
These fantastic musicians use recycled materials to create power percussion instruments. Drummer Gregory Kozak and architect/composer Justine Murdy decided that instead of throwing away old junk, they would use it to build musical instruments. Combining materials such as wood, artillery shells and submarine ballast, they create amazing sounds.
They were discovered by their current agent while busking on Granville Island. “One day a tourist on a bike handed us his card. That tourist is now our agent,” Murdy says. “He was the one who pointed us in the right direction. Nothing encourages you more than people believing in you.” She continues, “It’s hard to believe we’ve been going for 10 years now. When we started, we thought it was just some weird art project.” But a decade on and with a team of people who are not only percussionists but physical performers, Scrap Arts Music plays sold-out gigs worldwide.
“Everything we play is recycled from here in Vancouver,” says Murdy. “We love to show people that before you throw something away, give it a second chance.”

Robert Minden

Robert Minden
As a child, Robert Minden trained as a classical pianist. He then had to make a career choice: continue with classical music or move to theatre. The choice was obvious—he became an assistant sociology professor.
But he later returned to music, this time playing alternative instruments such as the musical saw, tin cans and waterphones. “It started by accident,” says Minden with a laugh. “It was at Expo ’86—I was asked to play the Folk Festival. I teamed up with my daughters and Carla Hallett as an artistic experiment. Ten years later, I was still performing.”
Minden and Hallett today perform a storytelling and song combination at local folk festivals and to children at inner-city schools, plus record sounds for art films.
“The saw is the one instrument that gets a great deal of interest, because it’s quite a difficult instrument to play,” says Minden. “People are always intrigued. We attract a lot of curiosity. I love seeing children who’ve grown up in an electronic world, suddenly having this sense of wonder on their face when we tune a glass bottle, for instance. Or coming up with a new instrument that we can amaze people with.”
Minden and Hallett are currently preparing their new show Hidden Elephant, which will be at North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre in October. Vacuum cleaner hoses are just one of the many unusual instruments they’ll be using.

LOOKING FAMOUS

Steve Rappard
Surely you’ve heard a rumour that you may bump into Demi Moore or Johnny Depp around the city. As a major hotspot for filming, Vancouver has always hosted a parade of celebrities. But don’t mistake one of the real celebrities for a lookalike.
For Steve Rappard it all started last summer when someone suggested he enter a competition for celebrity lookalikes run by local radio station Jack FM. Although he came second, Rappard hired an agent and landed parts in television ads.
He’s always grabbed headlines with his uncanny resemblance to Tom Selleck, even before he entered the lookalike biz professionally. Rappard explains: “I’ve been involved with the design of the Victory Ceremony stage for Formula One Racing for the past 10 years. I’d usually get a mention in the newspapers or evening TV news, saying ‘Selleck was seen in the Paddock with Stallone,’ or some other celebrity...signing literally thousands of autographs—my own signature, of course. I was on a movie set with Tom once. He thought it was funny how similar we looked.”

Luisa Marshall
You may have seen Luisa Marshall in May when her appearance at The Colosseum, at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, aired on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Marshall’s career path changed following a singing performance in Dubai in 1995 when someone mentioned her striking similarity to Tina Turner. Five years later, Marshall started the tribute act “The Queen of Rock and Roll,” which she says has boosted her career. The former marketing director, newscaster and public relations manager has been able to pursue her dream to perform and make a great living from it, travelling all over the world.
Marshall says that living like Tina Turner does rub off on her: “I’ve become her in a lot of ways, but I still try to keep my own identity. I’m proud to be part of the talent pool that Vancouver has. There are so many talented people who have yet to prove what they can really do here in their own backyard. It feels so much better to perform in your own city. How I wish I didn’t have to go anywhere. I love Vancouver!”