The trees are now almost completely bare and on some streets the confetti of Fall colours are slowly fading into Winter brown.
Most of us have been stuck at our homes for the better part of April and May trying to come to terms with the vast variety of changes and trying to figure out the road from now on. A good friend asked me a while ago what my answer would be if someone had to ask what I had done with my government enforced two month sabbatical. It's great question and it got me thinking.
Personally, May has been an interesting month. All over the world artists started finding ways to connect and reconnect with their audience. It started with musings and pictures on social media and evolved to live streaming from their mobile devices. Pretty soon Drive In gigs got scheduled and studios started allocating space and infrastructure to host high quality, professional Livestream shows. What started as a spark in the darkness of living with a pandemic and having lost most opportunities to make a living transformed into fire that is gaining momentum daily. Streaming Studios and Internet based crowd funding platforms joined hands with artists and it is slowly becoming possible to generate some kind of income.
The most amazing thing about this whole phenomenon is that despite being far apart geographically, artists and their fans have never been this close and so reliant on each other. Fans can now directly support any artist and work they find meaningful. Even better, artists are receiving direct messages and comments via comment bars on Livestream shows or via Instagram, Email and Facebook Messenger. Whether that is what all artists want is a conversation for another day but I personally enjoy engaging with my audience.
Here in Pretoria, South Africa I had the great honor of working with Jaco Naude and his team at Audio Culture. They are a bunch of young, talented and dedicated individuals ready to take on any challenges in a professional, no bullshit kind of way. I worked with Jaco on several projects over the years and I had no doubt in my mind that him and his team would be interested in setting up a Livestream platform where musicians could show up, plug in and do a show while using "tip jar" , donation and crowd funding platforms to earn an income for themselves and to connect with their audience. It was not without challenges but we approached it with all the tenacious ambition that I had come to admire in the Audio Culture team. I played two shows in May and we used BUSQR as our donation platform. I was overwhelmed by the messages, comments and donations we received. Despite hard and uncertain times people made donations but most importantly engaged with us. It was a strange feeling playing into the proverbial abyss off the interwebs and I missed the noise of the audience but I had the incredible Fritz Gun playing guitar on both shows and together we had a digital, artistic conversation with the people who were watching. We reached our target thanks to the generous donations and Jaco invested in several pieces of equipment to ensure a world class Livestream Studio would be available for many years to come. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support, love and spirit.
Next week I'll be going into the studio with a couple of incredible musicians to start working on a full band recording that will hopefully see the light in the Spring. The plan is to record, mix and master the first three tracks. We will then, with your support continue recording songs every two months or so until we have a full album of songs. I will be using Livestream and BUSQR and if you feel that you'd like to be part of making this full band album a reality you can directly support me. There will definitely be a show of gratitude for your support in some form or another.
The other really easy thing you can do to help is to tell your friends about the music. Stream and share my songs and enjoy them. They are yours.
As the world is slowly reopening and waking up from a terrible hangover we are called upon to contribute in rebuilding the economy, relationships and ourselves. Many suffered great loss and will be suffering for years to come. It is up to us to help and carry our fellow citizens, friends and family. We will have to look deep into ourselves during times of impatience, frustration, fear and confusion. All of us will be making this up as we go along and kindness, acceptance and compassion will go a long way.
Support your local restaurants, bars, businesses and farmers. Let's all choose to be kind and thoughtful. It would be a shame to return to the chaos, intolerance and aimless persuit of earthly possessions and instant gratification.
I will now pour myself a little bourbon on ice, hold the guitar a little closer. Smell the wood and metal of the strings. I will sing a song about love gone wrong. Feel the vibration of magical music through my chest and cry a tear for our perfectly broken world.
J