All about music: New business moves into Strathmore

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

At 13 years of age, watching his two older brothers’ jam sessions, Daniel Wiewel wanted nothing more than a guitar.
Yet when his parents finally made his dream come true, the task turned out more difficult than he imagined and the guitar sat collecting dust for a couple of years.
As fate would have it, and Wiewel’s love for punk music mushroomed, he gave it another try.
Since then, the now 30-year-old has been unable to put his guitar down, has turned his passions into a lifestyle, and is now spreading his fervour and expertise through one of Strathmore’s newest businesses: MaxSPL Music, the town’s only music retail and lessons store.
Wiewel, who has been teaching music lessons in Calgary for the past six years, recognized the market in Strathmore and took the plunge to fill the void. With a diploma in music performance and contemporary vocal from Red Deer College, the new venture offers guitar, piano and drumming lessons as well as a chance to pick up a stringed instrument locally.
“I always had it in the back of my mind that it’d be fun, but I didn’t think that I would ever take the jump because I’d been working at the same shop in Calgary for six years,” said Wiewel. “Some people don’t like to know what’s behind the curtain, where I like to know just how everything works. I studied a lot of music theory, and when you’re there it seems boring … when all I want to do is pick up this guitar and make noise. But just having that background knowledge and knowing how everything works, I’d like to give that to people.”
Since his teenaged years, the talented musician expanded his musical pallet from punk music to encompass virtually every type of genre, from the sounds of the Beatles to Great Big Sea to the Tragically Hip. Together with some college friends, he also formed the band Lion in our Name that recently took to the stage at Strathmore’s Battle of the Bands contest.
In the past, Wiewel was also involved in punk rock bands, church choirs, college choirs, folk groups and even a pirate-themed Celtic band.
Now returning to his roots – born and raised in Strathmore – Wiewel teamed up with younger sister Julia Dobbin, a music specialist at Rundle School in Calgary, to teach introductory piano.
“Daniel is a kind and down-to-Earth gentleman, and you mix that with his outgoing personality and strong musical talent, and you have yourself one fantastic music teacher,” said Dobbin, who has a bachelor of music (BMus) from the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus and an after-degree bachelor of education (BEd) from the University of Calgary.
“He has always overflowed with great ideas so I am not surprised one bit that he ventured into opening his own business. We had a house full of instruments growing up with all three of my older brothers playing guitar. He was always listening to bands I had never heard of yet, practicing and experimenting writing his own music, and performing with bands ever since he was a teenager. He would pick up a guitar and play away the day.”
While the walls at the store are lined with hanging guitars, ukuleles and banjos, plans are already underway to expand in the adjacent room to allow for a set of drums and offer group lessons and clinics, and the possibility of audio recording.
MaxSPL Music is located at 104 3rd Avenue.