HOW TO SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS, INDUSTRY WORKERS, AND YOURSELF DURING THE COVID-19 APOCALYPSE
Unfortunately, given the current world situation, we’re all being told to lock up shop and give up on any attempts at public socialising for the next few months. This means that many MANY people are out of a lot of work - artists, bookers, venue workers, managers, plenty of general hospitality staff, the list goes on. So, what can we do to support each other in this super f*cking weird time?
BECAUSE THAT’S WHERE WE’RE AT RIGHT NOW…
Unfortunately, given the current world situation, we’re all being told to lock up shop and give up on any attempts at public socialising for the next few months. This means that many MANY people are out of a lot of work - artists, bookers, venue workers, managers, plenty of general hospitality staff, the list goes on. So, what can we do to support each other in this super f*cking weird time?
STREAM STREAM STREAM
As many artists have been promoting, streaming and purchasing music (and merchandise!) is the main - and potentially only, really - way to support artists right now. With the majority of live events being canceled, largely due to capacity limits (now brought down to 100px for indoor events) artists and crew aren’t making back huge amounts of dosh that were previously planned for. Chuck ya favourite artists on repeat, and if you can, go ahead and buy that band shirt/album/cap/vinyl/various other merchandise items that you’ve been thinking about for months.
Spotify also pays a higher percentage to artists from streams from paid-membership accounts so again, if you can, stop putting off getting yourself a premium account, and stream, stream, stream.
Check out our Spotify playlist full of all-Aussie (and a few NZ) acts HERE and get yo’ streamin’ on.
CHECK OUT MY BANDCAMP, DUDE
Spotify and iTunes/Apple Music aren’t our only resources though! Go buy an album from the tonnes of unearthed artists on Bandcamp and Soundcloud. Bandcamp, in particular, are making a big move, waiving their revenue cut from any purchases made on March 20th (from midnight to midnight Pacific Time, which is 18 hours behind AEDT - for those of you on most of the south-east coast of Australia right now, that means 6pm Friday 20th through to 6pm Saturday 21st). What does that mean? It means that the artists are going to be receiving the FULL amount you pay for the purchase during those hours.
While your five streams on a song aren’t going to replace the fee from a major gig or festival slot, if there are thousands just like you and I, it could be the difference between paying rent or not. This will also help the involved studio musicians, songwriters, engineers, and producers get a little extra cash as well.
DON’T SKIP THE ADS Y’ALL
If you’re consuming through YouTube - DON’T SKIP THE ADS. Turn off that adblocker, get yo’ mouse away from that ‘skip’ button, and just give your extra 10 seconds to allow that monetized video to actually earn something for the artist/creator of the actual video.
SHARE SHARE SHARE
Share your fave artist/band’s latest (or not-so-latest) releases. Let more people know about all the awesome music you’ve got stockpiled, like a panicking boomer and their TP. Share articles like this to let others know what they can do to help. Share your own works - who knows, you might go viral, you might brighten someones day with new creative content, you might even inspire others to create - and in times like these, our imagination and creation is all we have and that can often go either way, lets’ try and keep it somewhat productive and positive.
KEEP UP WITH THE TIMES - or don’t
Thanks to the amazing technological development that is The Internet, we are able to keep up with consistent live updates from all around the world. While it is often something to be marveled, times like these combined with the frenetic nature of our news media, means that not all news is entirely accurate or helpful. Be sure to keep yourself updated with things like symptoms to look out for, new laws coming into place (such as the new event capacity limits), areas and behaviours of higher risk, and where to get your TP and pasta from, but please, if you know in yourself that negative, world-ending-style news and media isn’t great for your personal health, then perhaps avoid social media and do your best to accommodate for yourself - which leads us to our next point…
IF YOU’RE GONNA GO OUT, KEEP IT LOCAL, KEEP IT CLEAN
Do your best to support the local, independent stores. whether that be book and music stores, cafes and restaurants, small grocers, butchers…on and on. Keep it local where you can and obviously do your best to keep yourself clean, don’t touch your face, and wash your hands before, during, and after any outdoor adventures.
DISTRACT AND RELAX
No, I’m not talking to you, ScoMo - now is not the time for you to a) use this ‘pandemic’ as a distraction from your oil rigs or b) pretend this isn’t happening at all and go on a holiday. What we mean is, for those who struggle with anxiety and a range of other mental health issues that can be triggered and worsened in times like these, now is the time to crack out your own personal distractions and relaxations. Video Games? Go for it. Colouring books? Colour away! Visual art or musical creation - get on that sh*t. Solo dance party in your lounge like nobody’s watching? You guessed it. Although many of us are indeed out of work and do have a lot of stress to, well, stress about, now is also the time to take advantage of the current quarantine state of things and give some time to yourself - we literally can’t do anything else. Chuck on some music, go and sit in the sunshine (if you have some right now), read a book, eat some strawberries (seriously, why are there so many strawberries in stores right now?), slap on a face mask, make a cup of tea, draw, write, game - do whatever it is you can that will help you calm down and get you through the next few weeks as the news continues to develop. And as always, remember to sit up and adjust your posture, relax your shoulders, unclench your jaw, and breathe.
TREATMENT
Of course, we are in no way medical professionals, so please keep an eye on yourself and your loved ones and seek medical attention if you feel the need to.
For those in Australia, there is a 24-hour Coronavirus dedicated information line to call if you want advice before seeking an actual GP appointment - we would recommend using this line unless you are clearly ill and needing assistance as many doctors, clinics, and ER’s are being filled with many people who have a simple cold, taking appointments away from people who are seriously suffering - COVID-19 or otherwise.
Please call this number for phone assistance and advice regarding COVID-19:
1800 020 080
Please read up here for further information on symptoms, when to seek treatments, and other info and resources, and of course do your own research - but PLEASE, do not panic, do not bulk-buy items you do not need, and treat those who are still working during these times with the utmost respect - they’re human too and are doing their best to help the rest of us out.
Here’s a list of the major music industry developments and cancellations thus far, but of course there is always more to come.
Here at the BackBeat, we will try to bring you regular content as per usual - but given the circumstances certain guests and planned content will be impossible to provide for now. We are taking care of ourselves and we encourage you to do the same, and while we will do our best to keep you updated on our end, please check out this handful of other local music-based podcasts to keep you and your ears satisified;
What We Did On The Weekend
Backbone Sunday Sessions Podcast
The Loud Hour Podcast
Wall Of Sound
The Mosh Zone
The Killer Set Podcast
Our Mosh Pit
Chats with; Jess and Jay - Don't Fret Club
In our most recent episode, we chatted to Jess Hope and Jay Wennington about, well, everything. Here’s a funky snippet where we talked about one of their primary projects (amongst many others, including Bad Seed Agency), Don’t Fret Club, a podcast about mental health in the music industry - what it is, how it came to be, and where it’s going next!
In our most recent episode, we chatted to Jess Hope and Jay Wennington about, well, everything. Here’s a funky snippet where we talked about one of their primary projects (amongst many others, including Bad Seed Agency), Don’t Fret Club, a podcast about mental health in the music industry - what it is, how it came to be, and where it’s going next! Check out the full episode here.
When and why was Don’t Fret Club started?
JESS: It started about 4 years ago just before we moved out here. It basically started because I completely burnt out in the music industry, no other way to really describe it. But it was also kind of everywhere; it was in a lot of the interviews that I did, like mental health would always come up and at the time – it doesn’t really happen so much now but at the time it was always either edited out or glamourised, or I remember it becoming art of the taglines or headlines when it wasn’t really a major part of the story. I think back even 4 years ago people didn’t really know how to talk about it. I hadn’t really thought about doing a podcast, even podcasts weren’t big then, so I didn’t really even know how to do it, but it was the only way that it couldn’t be edited, we could kind of give people a platform.
The idea was to talk to musicians about topics related to mental health and it was kind of broad enough that people didn’t feel forced to say a certain thing or touch on a certain topic. And luckily, I obviously have relationships in the industry with managers and artists and people who knew the right people to be on it. So, we actually started the podcast with Jenna from Tonight Alive and obviously she was the perfect person to start with, she steered the convo as much as I did and was very open to that, but definitely when we started no one was talking about mental health in music honestly.
We’re still not completely, in terms of the wider music industry, but it was just to get the conversation out there and not have it changed or misguided or anything like that, it was exactly what people wanted to say. That being said, being a podcast format can be a bit tricky in the sense that a lot for the artists will come to us when they’re on their promo cycle or when they’re in the mind of being very positive, not really always ready to talk, so every interview is very different and 4 years on every conversation is new and kind of challenging because we have to put a lot of ourselves into it as well. In order for people to feel comfortable, we have to create that safe space and be quite honest and open, so there have been dips in it when I’ve personally been not feeling like I was in the place to do it or vice versa.
It’s definitely been well received here in Australia, and we’ve had artists from all over the world do it and luckily we can jump on the phone with them, but I always [preffered] the face to face time versus a 10-minute phoner - it’s kind of like, I’m not really willing to put someone in that position of having to go over delicate topics on the phone with someone they’ve not met, so a lot of the episodes are with people I know or have worked with a lot, or interviewed before, it was helpful that I had already done those things that so I had those relationships already there. It was basically something that I needed to hear, and nobody had made it yet.
There’s a hashtag ‘#ShreddingTheStigma’ that pops up a lot on your social media and the website, where did that come from?
JESS: We’ve done a lot of content and admittedly a lot of it isn’t even out there, we’re very protective of it and almost to our detriment a lot. We have a lot of videos and interviews and an almost finished documentary that’s just not out because we want it to be right and perfect, and we don’t want people to think that we’re trying to glamourize the topic, which since we launched has happened a lot. People launch clothing brands with ‘I Am Sad’ and they’re almost proud of that, and we’re very wary of the reception we were getting. Some people thought they kind of had to say that they were depressed so that they could be part of the club, which is not the case at all. So [Shredding The Stigma], it’s essentially what the future documentary will be called I think, tying it back to music and widening the conversation. A lot of it is around stigma and that people aren’t ready to talk about it or deal with it or kind of put in mechanisms for people to cope with it and that's at every level. Like its artists, managers, labels, its people at the venue, everyone, and there are different kinds of stigma at every level. So, I guess the hashtag is an overall kind of thing, to kind of battle that in a way.
A lot of people kind of think that we're at the point where we can talk about it and that the stigma is not there, but I think that’s just not the case. Obviously, it is in certain cases, but so often we talk about it and there's no kind of repercussion or act after that - there's no aftercare if you like. So, we still think talking is what's needed to kind of lead to the next step.
Do people from the general public come to you, either in person or online, asking for advice or telling you their stories?
JESS: Kind of. The ‘zine fairs that we've done, I think was kind of us there and offering that space for people to come up, but a lot of the time if I've ever brought it up people don't really realize, that either it’s us or that we've done it, or we haven't put a lot of ourselves. It's weird because even though there's obviously a lot of me on the podcast whereas on our socials there’s not. You wouldn’t know the people behind it, and even that was a transition from in the UK when we started, my profile as a writer was bigger there, so when I moved here nobody knew me, nobody kind of connected me to the podcast, which is a good and bad thing. It’s obviously important to have that so that people feel comfortable [knowing who they’re talking to] but it’s also good not to have a single face because if someone doesn’t necessarily feel they can identify with me, I don’t want that to stop them finding something in the brand.
And that branding change that we’ve seen on the socials and the website, what boosted that to be changed?
JESS: I think selfishly we just needed something fresh because we've obviously been working with the same ‘creative’ if you like for four years. And also, I think it's been kind of done and other people have done it and we just wanted to broaden out and I think we almost want it to become, well I think it's naturally become a wellness general space. It's not necessarily a heavy music thing even. And I want to, because we've done other content like video and some written posts and obviously we did a ‘zine and that was super popular - I want to make sure that it's maybe not even just a podcast or it doesn't just rely on that content and that other people can start kind of putting their voice into it without me even needing to kind of interview or do a podcast or anything like that. And we've kind of built the community but I think it needs other voices, not just mine and the person I'm talking to at that time.
So you’ve been primarily covering the heavier music but you talk about interests elsewhere, where else would you like to see it go?
JESS: Yeah that's kind of happened just again because that's where my relationships with artists are and I want to make sure that they feel comfortable. But we've actually done one with Kwame which is only out it’s like a 30-second video. He's maybe the first hip hop artist we've done and we've had we've been given the option recently of a few more, we definitely want to do more within that kind of scene, but it’s just it’s making sure we really know the artists and that they’re comfortable and not just doing it in a 15-minute phoner when they’re allotted that time, because we’ve done that and it’s just not ideal for either party, you’re not given the time to really delve deep or explain who you are.
JAY: Yeah it is tricky because like Jess says, with the whole you kind not necessarily ‘stick to what you know’ but like, all of our friends and the connections we have are in a heavier world and I think it's hard sometimes for merit to translate into other genres. For example, just under a year ago we were lucky enough to have Corey Taylor on the podcast, and if we mentioned that to kind of anyone in the alternative scene obviously he's like royalty and we're very proud of that because it carries a certain level of merit to his name, but to someone in the hip-hop scene or like an urban scene or even a pop scene to an extent it perhaps doesn't quite carry the same thing as it does here. I do think that we both feel that we've kind of hit a bit of a glass ceiling with the genre, I mean we've done the frontman of one of the biggest bands in the world. I think Jess and I both agree that there's only one person that we would like to do more and that is Ozzy Osborne. I think once we had those two, we could die happy, we’d be done.
JESS: I've not actually thought about it until this moment, about what he'd say, but I think the best ones we've had are where people have no inhibitions and say how it is and have a lot of stories to tell.
GABBY: I feel like he'd be an open book.
JAY: Definitely, though I'm not sure what language that book would be written in.
But yeah, I don't know. It's a good question. I don't know where it's going to go next and I think that's why we feel like internally we feel like we've perhaps plateaued slightly because we're a bit confused in ourselves where it's even going to go next.
JESS: We are very protective. We want to make sure it's done for the right reasons. We've had lot of offers from bands which obviously is amazing that people want to be involved but I always kind of want to make sure it's in their interests as much as ours and if someone's mentioned anxiety in one song on one album, it doesn't mean they're going to want to sit there and talk to Don't Fret which is absolutely fine. We’re kind of we're getting ready to record what I'm calling a second season. We've had a bit of a rebrand we'll finally bring the documentary out and then I think we'll just see where the conversation’s at and what people want Don't Fret to be and go from there let people kind of take it for what they want it to be.
We’d like to say a huge thanks to Jess and Jay, and all of our other guests, for dropping by and lending their time to chat with us .
Listen to this and more in the entire interview with Jess and Jay, in the full episode here, give them a follow below, check out our past episodes and stay tuned for our next one (and last one for 2019!) with Laura Imbruglia!
FOLLOW JESS AND JAY
DON’T FRET CLUB
FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM WEBSITE
BAD SEED AGENCY
FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM WEBSITE
