“Hello, I’m Matías Muñoz, I am the owner of Fono Hi-Fi Lounge, previously the co-owner of Cinqhole and Ottawa Showbox and I’ve been involved in the music community for a long time, since 2012 and very excited to be embarking on this new endeavor with Fono and involving so many new people and getting reacquainted with the music community after we had to close Cinqhole during COVID in 2020.
So it’s been a few years since I’ve been involved but really enjoying getting back into it and overall I’ve always been a community-oriented person, I’ve gotten so much out of being involved in the music community since starting my first music blog in 2012, talking about local musicians, reviewing local albums, getting festival passes and enjoying checking out those performances.
I got into local music in 2012 when I moved to Ottawa from London, Ontario after my masters degree in politics. I kind of thought that would be where my career would lead me but then I soon found out that wasn’t really my calling, I found that I was drawn to bands and shows and DJs and festivals and that music was always a passion of mine but I never really knew how to implement that into my real life or my career so I decided to just have a creative outlet which was starting a music website called Ottawa Showbox. That’s kind of how I got in, I got to meet a lot of bands, I got to make some really close friends over the years and people really appreciated having somebody locally that could like write about music and provide some insight and some content for the music that they had worked really hard on so it was a great way for me to meet lots of artists in different genres and different parts of Ottawa that were already doing something really interesting with music.
I became really fascinated with spaces and music and performances and putting on shows a few years after I started Ottawa Showbox. It started with just writing about music but then we got into promoting live music. Using that Ottawa Showbox platform I started putting on shows at local venues like Pressed, Raw Sugar Cafe, Bar Robo, Mugshots, Babylon and a few others.
Babylon, yeah also sadly missed for sure. It’s a bigger venue so I wasn’t putting on too many shows there but we did a few nights there over the years and got to know some of the staff and the owner really well.
I think that small intimate performances and spaces for music to be made are really important. We’ve all been to larger music venues with big stages and PA systems and it’s a whole operation but I think there’s something really to be said about a small intimate space that doesn’t always have to be a music venue. I think that transforming spaces into spaces that can be used for art or other things as well is something that’s really important for a city, especially the kind of grassroots ground level of art that’s being made here.
Here at Fono, we’re mirroring that ethos of DIY from Cinqhole days but making it with better equipment. We have more people that we can work with. We’re able to utilize the space with lighting and projections and make it feel immersive and those are things that really make performances memorable and make artists want to come back and perform here. But also keeps it affordable. My concern has always been to keep music live affordable. Help bands keep money in bands pockets without having to take too much out of that. I think the model we’ve created with Fono allows for that to happen. Where the first step for bands is to be able to play in these kinds of spaces is really important. For younger newer bands, an affordable venue is their first foray into performing live music for people. If there are financial barriers like venues taking cuts of merch and there’s a venue fee and all this stuff. I get it a lot of venues have to survive too but the model we’ve created allows us to do shows but we also have different revenue streams to keep things going. We have a lounge in the front where we can do corporate events during the day, we have different ways of bringing in money so we don’t have to charge bands an arm and a leg in order to play here.
I am driven by creativity and not just my creativity, but the creativity of others. That’s what gets me going and I realized that I love helping to make things happen. I see the importance of art and music in a community and the impact it has on people’s lives and in that community not just economically but also quality of life. I’m privileged to be able to provide the space for artists to showcase what they work really hard on and so if we can work together to create this ecosystem of supporting each other and making community spaces truly community spaces. Which means trying to break down barriers.
This space is fully accessible. We want to make sure it’s a place where everybody feels welcome and that it’s reflective of the community that lives here. I’m 40 now and turning 41 soon, like it’s our responsibility now to help pave that road for younger people to be creative and inspire them that it is possible to play shows and learn instruments and make art. That is what it’s all about.”
Matías Muñoz
Owner of Fono Hi-Fi Lounge
@fono.613
