Angel investor behind holy union

A prominent Winnipeg businessman is behind an unlikely union between a local Juno award-winning band and a historic city church.

Mark Chipman, owner of True North Sports and Entertainment and the Winnipeg Jets, purchased the St. Michael and All Angels’ Anglican Church in June, which offered salvation to its struggling congregation in an agreement to use the church as a recording studio.

The Bros. Landreth, composed of brothers Joey and Dave Landreth, are moving into the space, which will also host their label, Birthday Cake Records. The musicians will share the church with the congregation.

Chipman, who brokered the deal personally — not on behalf of True North— did so out of his love of Winnipeg’s music scene, which he described as among the “richest and most vibrant” in North America.

“For several years I have been looking for a space for our community’s best musicians to have a home to collaborate, to create and to share their gifts with other aspiring artists,” Chipman said in a statement to the Free Press.

“This location is a perfect fit for those plans, and we are thrilled that it also works for the community at St. Michael and All Angels’ who will continue to celebrate their faith for years to come.”

St. Michael, located at 300 Hugo St., is the only Anglo-Catholic church in Winnipeg. City records show the land was purchased in 1912 and the building was erected, and later expanded. It’s been listed as a historic church with the City of Winnipeg since 1989, records show.

Operating under the Diocese of Rupert’s Land, St. Michael has celebrated more than a century of sacrament, ceremony and Sunday service, said Rev. Lauren Schoeck.

Featuring vaulted ceilings, stained glass and a current congregation of around 25 people, the church struggled amid the COVID-19 pandemic when its flock dwindled to just 10 parishioners, she said.

“The diocese had started saying, ‘You’re dwindling down all the money you have and even if you use every penny, you only have so much time left,’” Schoeck said.

“When the option is close or get creative, you get creative.”

The dominoes that led to Chipman’s purchase began to fall a decade ago after a chance encounter with Joey, who was performing with Doc Walker, the Manitoba country music group.

“He came out to see us play, but I did not know who he was,” Joey said about Chipman. “He was just Mark, who was buddies with the band.”

The Bros. Landreth had recently released their debut album Let it Lie (which would later go on to win the roots music Juno in 2015) and Joey was handing out copies of the record to “everybody that I knew,” he said.

“This location is a perfect fit… and we are thrilled that it also works for the community at St. Michael and All Angels’ who will continue to celebrate their faith for years to come.”–Mark Chipman

“I handed one to Mark and that began the relationship.”

The friendship between Chipman and the brothers continued; with Joey describing him as a “massive music fan.”

“He’s a real champion of what (musical talent) is coming of Winnipeg and Manitoba, specifically, and he has really, decidedly, wrapped his arms around it and cares about supporting it,” said Dave.

Chipman, who plays the drums, has “held his own” during jam sessions with Joey and his former bandmates from Doc Walker, Joey said.

“He is actually quite a good drummer.”

More than five years ago, Dave and Stu Anderson, the CEO and artist manager behind Birthday Cake Records, were searching for a place to house the music label.

Chipman offered them a room on the third floor of the Burton Cummings Theatre.

The 500-square-foot space, wedged between the men’s and women’s bathrooms, became their home base and was where Joey recorded his second solo album Hindsight.

The record label now boasts an eight-person staff and manages at least 28 musicians who perform an array of musical stylings, from roots rock to indie pop, hip-hop and R&B — including artists such as Begonia, Royal Canoe, Leith Ross and Fontine.

Birthday Cake outgrew the Burton Cummings “broom closet,” so efforts to find a new creative space began, Joey said.

While St. Michael was never officially listed for sale, one of its clergy members is friends with Winnipeg singer-songwriter Steve Bell, Schoeck said.

After learning the church was at risk of disbanding, Bell mentioned the space to the Landreth brothers, who took the idea to Chipman. A year later, the deal was struck and ownership of the church changed hands, Joey said.

When the congregants learned a gaggle of musicians was slated to move into the parish, they met the news with skepticism but warmed to the idea, Schoeck said.

“They wanted to know what kind of music, if it was profane or if (the musicians) would be hanging off the rafters in here,” Schoeck said, laughing. “Then, when they learned about Birthday Cake and more about the brothers, they were very excited.”

The Bros. Landreth expect to record their next album at the church, where they will experiment with the acoustics in different rooms, such as the lofty sanctuary (where Sunday service is delivered) or the intimate chapel (which hosts smaller services on Thursdays).

“All the little corners and nooks will behave differently when you put different instruments in them, so we are super excited to get in there and start putting microphones on stuff,” Dave said.

“We’ve always been very interested in gospel music… so I think we will get to play with the space and take advantage of where some of this music originated.”

The band’s first rehearsal sessions will begin in August inside an upstairs room that had functioned as the Sunday school.

Schoeck said the partnership with Chipman answered the prayers of parishioners who were searching for a way to save the church.

“Having this beautiful, historic building means there are all sorts of beautiful, historic problems… so no longer having the burden of the upkeep of the building really releases the congregation… to continue to be in Winnipeg,” she said.

Gordon Goldsborough, head researcher at the Manitoba Historical Society, said he hopes the venture will light the way for other struggling churches.

“There are numerous other churches that are in the same position, so I’m hoping they can take inspiration from this example,” he said. “What it illustrates is that there are creative things you can do with the space that don’t necessarily riff on religion.”

Goldsborough credited Chipman for championing the initiative, calling it an “out of the box” solution that fit perfectly.

“The whole idea of a church is to be inspirational. The sound of the music and the sound of voices, that’s part of the experience, so it makes sense that they might use it for this purpose,” he said.

He referenced Canadian rock band Cowboy Junkies, who recorded The Trinity Session album in Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity in 1987.

The album won the Polaris Heritage Prize in 2015, honouring it as the best Canadian album of the 1980s — a possible good omen for the Bros. Landreth, Goldsborough said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022.  Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

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