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Former Powell River Idol winner raises funds to record songs

Country singer pursues professional career

A dream to become a country music star is starting to happen for a musician from Powell River, with help from the community.

Dawson Wikene, who performs by the name Dawson Jaxn, has always been a big part of the Powell River music scene; now with help and money from community members, he can record his own music.

Wikene grew up in a musical family.

“My mother is a musician and my grandmother writes music with my mom,” said Wikene.

At the age of five, when his mom played festivals in Kamloops, she would get him to sing Maroon 5 songs.

Wikene, who won Powell River Idol in 2013 and 2016, believes winning the award twice fuelled his passion for music. He said after winning the competition, he started getting recognized a lot more in the community.

“After the first year I did it, I sang [a Bruno Mars song] and everybody still asks me to sing that song, but it’s been a while and my voice has changed so I can’t sing it anymore,” said Wikene.

After winning for the second time, Wikene realized music is something he could do full time.

“I want to go into songwriting and go somewhere to record in a studio and really work towards making it possible to be a career,” said Wikene.

He sings country music, but will sing anything if someone makes a request.

“If people send me song requests on my Facebook page, I do my best to learn a bit of every song,” said Wikene. “Whether it’s country, pop, rap, rock, it doesn’t matter. I dabble a little in every genre, but my roots are in country.”

Wikene recently wrote “As Good as it Gets” but is not currently writing anything as he wants to grow in experiences so he can write songs true to him.

Alberta country singer Aaron Goodvin connected Wikene with a music coach who told him to start a Facebook page. From there his popularity started to grow.

His goal was to have 500 to 750 members within the first month, but in the first two weeks he hit 1,600 to 1,700 members.

He started getting shares from all over the country.

“This community has been incredible with supporting me by sharing my content, being my audience, the donations, and the love and support,” said Wikene, “I have people from New Brunswick messaging me saying to keep up the good work.”

After receiving a lot of support and people wanting to hear his music, Wikene decided to start a fundraiser to raise money to record at a proper studio.

The goal was $1,500 to be able to record one song with band members at a music studio. He has now raised around $2,550, as once he hit the goal, many community members wanted to keep donating so he could record even more songs.

Wikene said he is amazed by the community involvement and support. On his Facebook page, Dawson Jaxn’s Music, he posts livestreams and videos of himself performing.

Wikene is still taking donations toward his music at dawsonwikene@hotmail.com.