ECA Review - 2019-04-03

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
24 A pril 4'19 HANNA/CORONATION/STETTLER, AB. ECA REVIEW
Oyen local pursuing rap music career
Terri Huxley
ECA Review
With a passion for influential sound,
Shane Kimber, also known as OGR-
Scintilla on stage, has decided to follow
his heart by pursuing a career in the
music industry.
Kimber comes from the unique area
of Oyen, Sedalia and Youngstown as he
grew up on a ranch near these centres.
He attributes much of his work ethic
and down to earth
nature to growing
up on the prairies.
“More than anything
by far,
growing up here
has taught me the
type of work ethic
that I think is
needed because
like I just don’t
take time off,”
Kimber began.
“My personal time
is work and that’s
why being on the
farm is nice
because I go out in
the morning and I
work until there is
a moment I can
slip away and then
I go work on music
until I fall asleep.
It’s because I love
to work and see a
job get done well
and without that there is absolutely no
way I would even see the relatively
small amount of success that I have
seen now.
“I’m really just thankful for how I
was raised and where I was raised
because I feel like it has given me the
character that I need to succeed.
“Knowing that I have that and the
support of my family and community, I
just know that it doesn’t matter if I
wanted to be a musician or a doctor or
professional athlete. I just know that
those things have me set up so well to
go out and accomplish what I want to
accomplish.
50,000 digital streams
OGR-Scintilla has racked up over
50,000 digital streams since he started
releasing music last summer.
His Youtube videos have also produced
approximately 40,000 views.
OGR-Scintilla stands for Overgrowth
Renaissance which was a label he
began with some friends while
Scintilla is another word for small
sparks. Many from Oyen thought the
‘OGR’ stood for Oyen’s Greatest
Rapper.
The country kid-turned-rapper takes
a vastly different approach to his line
of work.
He starts by composing his lyrics the
same way he would with country
music and aims to be positive compared
to the majority of hip-hop songs
in this day and age.
“It’s funny because people don’t
think of that right away but I like to
point out to people that when you look
at how I write my songs, a lot of them
are very much written as though they
are a country song or a folk song and I
definitely don’t get inspiration from the
content of hip hop.
“It’s an interesting thing I like to
take pride in my songwriting.”
Kimber is often known in Oyen as
the swimming instructor after
teaching lessons over the past five
years as well as being a student and
playing sports.
His passion for music became prevalent
when he was a 13-year-old student
in Youngstown School. During his time
there in Junior High, he took guitar
lessons.
Kimber (OGR-Scintilla)
Image courtesy of Allie Bercik, @AllieFx
He spent some time playing around
with different lyrics and chords before
diving into computer work to learn
more about musical production.
Last year, Kimber graduated from
the University of Alberta with a science
degree in Kinesiology and played
on the volleyball team at the
Augustana Campus in Camrose.
“As I moved off to university, I was
exposed to new music. Some of the
musicians and stuff a lot of people were
listening to were
rappers and I was
interested in how
much emphasis is
put on the lyrics
and song writing
in rap. That’s what
drew me in that
direction,” he said.
He was not
totally infatuated
with old school hip
hop but more so
with the artists of
today like Tyler
the Creator and
Childish Gambino
as he views them
as ‘different ducks’
which is something
he identifies
with. He also looks
up to Willie
Nelson, Frank
Sinatra, and Jim
Croce.
“I guess they
are just different ducks and they’re not
afraid to be themselves. To me, I am a
unique person and I have unique interests
and I really like that so I would say
I really enjoy hip hop, R&B, rap, all
sorts of genres sort of thing and I try to
incorporate all that stuff into my
music.”
Since that time, he has been back at
the ranch helping his father as well as
continually working on his music.
The new musician does all the
instrumentation for his work for himself
and others on top of singing and
rapping.
“I’m stubborn in the way that I like
to do things myself and that definitely
comes from the farm,” said Kimber. “I
just feel like I can do this better myself.
When you’re a farmer you have to be
good at everything right? You’re a
mechanic and a biologist and a doctor
and all of these things combined. I
guess that transferred into how I want
to do music.”
The 23-year-old has taken a moment
to analyze his goals to align with his
core values of happiness, peace, and
high energy.
One way he has been doing so is by
understanding how he can raise people’s
moods.
Strikes a balance
between happy and sad
“I’ve shifted my goals from what can
I do for myself and how many followers
I can get and stuff like that to – now
that some people are paying attention –
how can I put as much goodness out
into the world as possible basically,”
said Kimber.
This route did not always come from
a happy place in the beginning.
Much of his inspiration derives from
less than pleasurable experiences
which originally acted as a coping
mechanism but slowly became a way to
share positive sound to others.
During his year at Medicine Hat
College, he felt it was not a good year as
he continually struggled with anxiety
and other mental health issues.
Although he was playing for the volleyball
team there, the team was often
cliquey.
“I’m kind of an out there guy like I
don’t mind being a little goofy and
weird. They all wanted to be really
cool and they stuck into a pack. I would
say that music definitely brought me
through that time and in the past I
would say that I did not make happy
music.”
Kimber used music as an outlet to
get himself through those difficult
times.
“I would write sad songs about the
way I was feeling and it helped me
rationalize my thoughts and it helped
me get it all out there so I didn’t have to
just let it eat up inside of me.”
Throughout this process, he has felt
the call to helping others after how
much music helped him through dark
times.
There are songs that Kimber has
tucked away but he mentioned there
will be a time when some may be
released.
“It’s just basically me discovering
who I am as a person and all of those
songs were very much written for me
and now I feel like I’ve found who I am.
Now I am writing songs for other
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people because music has had such a
powerful impact on my life. Now I
almost feel like I need to give back and
give songs to people so that they can
relate and can get through what they
are going though.”
He strikes a balance between happy
and sad with his songs so many can
relate to the words. He hopes to help
others realize that depression and anxiety
are apart of your life’s journey.
“I would go as far as to say that
music saved my life. It gave me a purpose
in life.”
The sky’s the limit when it comes to
making it big in the business.
“I don’t really have a ceiling. I would
like to focus on becoming a solo artist
for awhile. I was doing more mixing
and production stuff but I want to be
big. I want to be massive and I want to
collect a following and get a voice that I
can then use to push some positive
messages out into the world because
you don’t see that very much. You see a
lot of people succeeding with very negative
messages and I don’t like that.”
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