I had an uncomfortable meeting last night – and I’m still trying to put it all together in my head.
I think I’ve probably alluded to it before, that it’s hard sometimes to know whether a compliment is a compliment in The Scene – you don’t know if someone just WANTS something or if they genuinely admire your work. This problem is compounded by the fact that ilyAIMY is perceived (whether or not we are) as more successful than most other local acts, is known to be one of the longest-running acts in the area (rightly so) and that I personally have my fingers in a lot of things – on the boards of Focus Music and Takoma Park Folk Festival, my association with Teavolve and Busboys and Poets and Institute of Musical Traditions – the list can go on for quite some time – so does someone REALLY respect my opinion? Or at they just being politic? Do they REALLY like my music or do they just want a booking?
It sucks when any positive interaction is soiled somewhat by an underlying theme of “yes, but what do you WANT from me?”
And so last night, various local musicians and industry professionals who I don’t really know gathered together to chat about “problems on the scene” and some thoughts on how to solve them, but though I’ve known some of the people involved for a while now, and enjoy my interactions – I’m not 100% positive whether or not I’m sitting through a brainstorm session or a sales pitch. The problem solving is REAL – the problems are real – and a lot of the solutions are interesting and intriguing and have a lot of potential – and I very much enjoy thinking through everything – but I’m not positive if I’m being used and discarded, if I’m the token old guy who COULD be of some use – if people think I have a BUDGET…
I just don’t know and any conversation that verges into conversion, chock full of industry buzz words that sounds too much like my time working the corporate world where you promise the sky and decide whether or not to include oxygen and the colour blue later. And yet I don’t want to be too cynical on it all or too negative on new technologies and techniques because if streaming CAN provide better revenue, I could really, really use that – and if there were better ways to book gigs, I could really, really use that – but the tasking of artist vs product, staying in touch with fans vs the commoditization of people, art vs business… I WANT to trust people but…
I’m having…
Trouble.
BIRD! Dave Benham! Jimmy Stewart in the house! And Chuck the Madd Ox. Good to have Quinton Randall in the house – he surprised us by wandering in at the end of the night.
