By Gabrielle Bye, Westword | Students from the Detroit Institute of Music Education (DIME) Denver were left without the degrees and music education they were promised before the institute abruptly closed its doors last year, but they didn’t lose everything. The private school, which had been accredited by Metropolitan State University, had organically formed a tightly knit community of budding local artists eager to make a living in the industry and see Denver’s music scene thrive.
Enter Coastless Creatives, a musical collective started last February by a group of ex-DIME Denver students. This Saturday, August 21, the collective will host its first big show, at Your Mom’s House, 608 East 13th Avenue, to show Denver what can happen when artists lift each other up.
One of the founders of Coastless Creatives, Alex Creighton, already knew in his junior year at DIME that he wanted to start a music collective. When he discovered DIME was shutting down because it wasn’t financially lucrative enough for Metro, he decided to take that idea and run with it.
“So I’ve got a bunch of my homies that I went to DIME with, and I’m like, let’s try and create a community and a collective that can provide opportunities for all of us to keep making music together,” Creighton says. “And then to actually work toward supporting ourselves and making a living toward what we love to do.”
Creighton was supposed to complete his senior year at DIME, but instead transferred to the jazz department at Metro, earning a degree in a music program much more traditional in approach than DIME’s.
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Go here to read the full story:
https://www.westword.com/music/dime-denver-students-united-after-closure-to-form-coastless-creatives-12140869
Coastless Creatives Presents: Coastless After Hours at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, August 21, at COMBO member Your Mom’s House, 608 East 13th Avenue. Artists include: Fun Machine, a jazz pop fusion band; Transiit, a hip-hop artist with jazz and funk ties; R&B performer Lily Nova; Call Your Mom; indie/alternative band Blankslate; and stripped-down R&B duo Dog Tags. General admission is $10 ($15 if purchased Saturday). For tickets, visit Your Mom’s House online. https://yourmomshousedenver.com/
https://www.stellascoffee.com/
Gabrielle Bye is an editorial fellow at Westword, reporting local news; she previously covered Colorado politics for almost two years. In her spare time, she loves to enjoy nature and eat locally.
[Thank you to Alex Teitz, http://www.femmusic.com, for contributing this article.]
August 26, 2021| Music-Related Business| Barb Dye