by IDA JORGENSEN

Music fans with a zest for merch have a new way to promote their favourite bands, this time with an ethical kick.

The newly started Yellowbird Project is taking advantage of the traditional band tee’s popularity to raise money for charity. Through their Web site (www.yellowbirdproject.com), Montrealers Casey Cohen and Matthew Stotland sell shirts designed by musicians and donate the money to charitable organizations. The musicians decide which charity will benefit from their sales, and so far nine artists and bands have contributed to the cause. In the two months since the project launched, the founders estimate they have raised as much as $10,000.

The idea originally grew out of a dual desire to promote music Cohen and Stotland felt deserved more attention and to help others in need.

“Musicians tend to have extremely loyal and devoted fanbases, and they have the capacity to reach out to a lot of people,” says Cohen. “Not only does it give me satisfaction to know that when we sell a t-shirt, we are raising money for a good cause, but it makes me happy to know that now more people will go out and buy the artists’ material.”

So far, the organization operates out of Stotland and Cohen’s homes, where they hand-package each of the orders before mailing them. The project takes up most of their spare time, but does not substitute for a job. “Neither of us is making any money, and we won’t,” says Cohen. Although both are open to pursue the charity on a more permanent basis, they are still only in the preliminary stages. “I don’t know what to expect,” Cohen says, adding that both he and Stotland are surprised by the attention they’ve received. “We hope that it’ll last.”

Cohen isn’t the only one to hope the sales continue. Local act Stars designed a t-shirt to the benefit of le Chaînon women’s shelter. Even for a mid-size charity with a yearly budget of $2-million, the donation is much appreciated. “Right now we’re short on reserves in our eatery. So [even] with $1,000 we can stock up and continue to give our residents nutritious food,” says le Chaînon’s director Marie Hélène Houle.

Two of the most prominent artists to take part in the project are Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Australia’s Wolfmother. The musicians are given complete artistic freedom when it comes to their designs. In the latter example, that resulted in a lime green shirt declaring “Free the gnomes!” below a kilt-clad caricature specimen.

The project shows signs of gaining momentum, and although it has only been fully functional for a few weeks, more artists are adding on. Rilo Kiley’s shirt will be available shortly as soon as the members return from touring respective side projects and decide what charity will reap the benefit.

One of the project’s biggest breaks to date came when Our Lady Peace vocalist Raine Maida recently contacted them to express his interest in contributing a design with his multi-platinum recording artist wife Chantal Kreviazuk. The shirt should be ready by the time Christmas comes around, along with planned designs by Jose Gonzales and British band the Magic Numbers, who stumbled upon the project at the Osheaga festival in September.

In the meantime, the Yellowbird Project will continue to seek out new bands and more t-shirts, and Cohen is not ready to stop anytime soon. “The best thing about this project is that the bigger we get, and the more popular we get, the more money we raise for charity… Although this project is based in Montreal, we are definitely trying to think globally.”