Be in the Band Alumni: Noëlie Liard

We have been reaching out to past participants of the Be in the Band program to see where they have gone since joining us at the festival and how they remember their experiences. From an organizer perspective, it’s easy to see the transformation that youth go through over the years, however, it can be kind of tricky to quantify. We felt that it would be productive to actually chat with them later on in life to get a sense of how they feel that the program may have impacted their life. This is the first in a series of chats with a few participants since the program began in 2009.

Noëlie was part of one of the first Wakefield Community Centre Be in the Band programs. She started at just 13 years old and continued on for 3 years. She was living in Masham, Quebec at the time, a very rural community close to Wakefield. We have heard from other students in the area that living rurally can have many challenges for young musicians, the most difficult being connecting with other similar minded youth due to sheer physical distances. Be in the Band created an opportunity, through a partnership with the Wakefield Community Centre, for youth to descend on a central meeting spot for many communities in the area, to make music.

“Be in the band was truly a great experience for me. To be honest at first when I heard about the program I wasn’t sure it was for me. I was shy and I had never really been on stage before. I mean, I had done a few shows before but nothing like RBC’s Bluesfest! Throughout the program I got to meet amazing people that helped me discover a whole new side of music.

Saturdays with Be in the Band were always my favourite, not just for the music and all but because I made real friends during my time in the program. People who I probably normally wouldn’t immediately have gone to but that are now a very important part of my life. Before the program I was quite shy and very closed to new ideas, but being around other people, different styles really made me see a whole new side to music. In a lot of ways, Be In The Band made me more confident with myself. I am forever grateful for the amazing people from the program that helped me grow as an artist during this incredible journey and the friends I made during the program”.

She performed three years straight at RBC Bluesfest with three different bands as well as a number of Wakefield specific concerts, notably the Wakefield Canada Day festivities. She stays in touch with Pat Mayer and Greg Stone, her band coaches at the time, as well as many of the participants with whom she played during those 3 years. Now 21 years old, she claims that she she got her first job specifically because she had played at the festival. “During the interview, I said at some point that I had played the festival 3 times and they decided that I must have my s…t together and they just hired me on the spot”.

With her newfound confidence, Noëlie started up her own company doing modelling in Ottawa and Montreal as well as a makeup artist. Her sense is that the band forays into songwriting helped her to develop a confidence in her own creativity to strike out on her own rather than work for an agency. “There was something amazing about the songwriting process, where you come up with these ideas as a group or bring your own ideas in. You develop a trust in your own ability to turn ideas into something real, and then eventually get up on a stage and make it come alive. It’s kind of a model for turning dreams into reality. Now I’m making my dreams of starting a business, and being my own boss a reality”.

You can check out Noëlie on Instagram at: https://instagram.com/the_last_lugosi