The Meaning Of Music

03/12/2008 by ville.

On Saturday I went to a gig in town. Astoria 2, downstairs from the main bit. Incidentally, that’s where I had a gig the day before I got married, many seasons ago. Like nowadays, G.A.Y. was the popular club back then and it was in Astoria 2. They went on after the rock gig. Little has changed. My father-in-law’s speech had a funny passage about how great it was to get a new son into the family, but what was he trying to tell us by playing a gay club before the night of his wedding…?

The band I saw were Lost Aura. Very good stuff indeed. I first saw them about 6 months ago. Progress has been made. Seems to me they’re doing it for the right reasons. They love to create, love to perform, they don’t care what other bands are doing. They do their thing because it means so much to them.

And then I got home to see a documentary on the birth of the LA music scene in the late 60s. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young featured heavily. Joni Mitchell did. On the business side David Geffen was interviewed. You know what got me? They talked about music in a way that I rarely hear. Even the business guy talked about it in a more human and passionate way than most musicians these days.

I flipped to another channel to see X-Factor stuff. The difference couldn’t have been greater.

And then I got to thinking about the emails I exchanged with a business angel who wants to invest in new tech businesses that operate in the field of music. He cited SliceThePie and Sellaband as the kind of groundbreaking businesses they would be interested in.

The bottom line is this: both on the side of the creators of music and the men in suits, all you hear is chatter about the music business. The new models with which to make money. New delivery methods.

Very few speak about the art. A plausible mission for artists is to make people appreciate being live at least a little bit, as Kurt Vonnegut used to say. So it goes.

In huge contrast, Graham Nash, who was a huge superstar with The Hollies in the 60s, dropped everything in his life - deal, family, friends - to move to LA to be with Crosby and Stills. He loved the sound their voices were making so much that he didn’t care what else happened.

Do you think that any one of the little shits on X-Factor would do anything to jeopardize Simon Cowell’s/Louis Walsh’s affection?

Would Scouting For Girls write about anything that was relevant in the world today if it hindered their chances of getting on the radio?

OK, I hate old guys who say that the 60s were brilliant and was the best ever guitar player. He wasn’t.  is….

But however modern and forward looking one is, one can’t but think that somewhere along the way something cool happened and then it got lost. Where are all the artists who write about what’s going on in the world? I agree, there’s a lot of pussy and bling going on in the world, too, and it deserves a mention or two, no doubt. But I’m sure that there’s more to life than that.

So, when we sat down with Esteban to discuss their ideas, we decided to sponsor a child in the third world. Settled on this little boy from Honduras. His family live in a mud hut. They use the field for their number 1s and 2s. Drinking water is a kilometer away. Esteban’s next single will be the first step of many in securing funding for a sponsorship project that will send money to our kid’s neighbourhood for vital community projects. It’s long-term, starting wth the proceeds of Esteban’s next single Shanty Mansion going to that purpose. We, The Animal Farm, have contributed personally to the cause, as have Esteban.

If there is one Christmas single you should buy this year, it isn’t the one designed to make a rich man even richer. It’s the one that will make a small difference in little boy’s life half the world away.

More about this very soon…

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