Last year Alex Cuba, the Latin-Canadian music sensation from Smithers BC via Cuba, won the Grammy for best Latin Music Album of the year, Mendo.

But this Grammy award winning album wasn’t recorded in the fancy, high-priced studios of LA, New York, or even Toronto, it was recorded in Cuba’s home recording studio in Smithers.

Which got us thinking, if Alex Cuba is recoding Grammy winning albums in Smithers, who else is recoding and mixing? Turns out there are more than three professional recording studios in little old Smithers and they’re all producing top quality music that could soon follow in Cuba’s footsteps. With a deep rooted history of music in the Bulkley Valley, it’s no wonder musicians flock to this community. The only question is, who will win the next Grammy?

Today we’ll chat with Elijah Larsen, Colin Maskell and of course, the one and only Alex Cuba about why they felt the need to build recoding studios in Northwestern B.C. and how they are helping to elevate Northern B.C. music culture.

But first.

More than 300 fires are burning across BC at the moment, many of them in the Northwest Fire Center. The Powers Creek wildfire, just a few kilometres from Smithers, has been burning since Saturday with dozens of fire crews, machines and water bombers attacking the fire over the past few days. Although evacuation alerts and orders have been issued for some residents of the Hudson Bay Mountain Road area, smoke has dissipated and several fires are now under control. However, fire bans are still in place for the entire province and communities remain on edge as hot and dry weather is expected to persists into the coming weeks.