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Collective Conscience
by Deena Prichep |
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As the music industry has become more and more homogenized and less
geared toward artist development in recent years, music collectives
have been on the rise. Collectives function as support groups, loose
guilds, or DIY labels (or any combination of the three), helping
musicians develop their craft and navigate the difficulties in building
a career. By working together, members provide feedback, share advice,
resources, connections, and divvy up grunt work.
Although the benefits are clear, members face real challenges -
groups can be difficult to structure effectively, members can have
different goals, all-female organizations can be pigeonholed, questions
of quality control, etc. Running a collective is about bringing
people together, and as Jo Davidson, veteran performer and
founder of New York City's UrbanMuse points out, "No community
is perfect, as people are not perfect. It is important to have a
structure, even if it is loose sometimes." In any group of many
performers you are going to have many opinions, which can make structure
and organization difficult. As Catherine Moon of the Shee
Collective noted, "you have to give everyone the opportunity
to voice their opinion, everyone wants to know that what they have
to say is valued. It ends up taking a longer time for things to
get done, but in the long run it's worth it." Annie Shaw,
aka DJ XJS of the Sister SF collective, pointed out
the more practical aspect of member contributions: "People who feel
heard generally have more input and willingness to get off their
asses and work for the good of the crew!" Although the clash of
ideas can make for rough meetings, it can also lead to growth -
more than one member of UrbanMuse noted that they rely on each other
for a good kick in the ass (in a way that leads to artistic development
rather than bruising).
The question of quality control was also raised by many participants
- how to be inclusive while at the same time critical, increasing
your membership without compromising your standards (in a way that
will disappoint the audience). Some larger organizations, such as
Indiegrrl, solve this problem by having different levels
of membership: standard members have access to mailing lists, discussion
groups, and other essential information, while only approved performing
members can play in showcases. For smaller groups, the issue becomes
stickier: "you put yourself in the position of having to judge others'
level of talent, and it's not a position any of us necessarily want
to be in," said Catherine Moon.
Although collectives do face a few thorny issues, they seem more
manageable than the difficulties involved in going it alone. Collective
members repeatedly voiced the importance of the support their collective
gave them and how much they've learned personally and professionally.
Emily Zuzik, singer with the acoustic group Sexfresh
and member of the San Francisco Bay Area collective Divabands
spoke about "the support you can get, both in the musical and emotional
sense. It's different from the support you get from an open mike
- it's not just clapping, it's having your ideas challenged. It's
learning." This element of support can be particularly important
for musicians in tough markets, like the female DJ collective Sister
SF in San Francisco, which supports its members in a traditionally
male-dominated arena. For Rachael Sage, an accomplished singer
and member of UrbanMuse, the idea of a collective made perfect sense:
"It's hard enough to do this on your own… why not share the burden
with friends, and then instead of a burden, building your careers
becomes a shared goal among all of you, to help each other, to share
advice, to egg each other on."
The Independence Project, the Shee Collective, UrbanMuse
and Sister SF are four collectives with differing organization
and focus, but with the common goal of gathering to learn from and
help each other grow as musicians.
THE INDEPENDENCE PROJECT
East Coast singer-songwriter Rebecca Martin founded
The Independence
Project in 1998, using the experience and confidence she
gained as a major-label recording artist. The membership has changed
a bit, but currently holds steady at three artists: the soulful
folk singer Rebecca Martin, singer and scriptwriter Eric Metzger,
and the "70s AM radio meets neo-folk" trio Goats in Trees.
All of the current members are relatively experienced musicians
- between the three acts there are numerous radio appearances, showcases,
distribution arrangements, a Starbucks in-store rotation, and past
major label affiliation. The Independence Project serves as a member-run
label, management, and booking service for its members. After experimenting
with different methods of organization, the members decided to divide
particular tasks/areas (production, graphic design, etc.) among
them, and meet weekly to bring the work together.
Martin was initially inspired to work in a collective due to her
dissatisfaction with what she called the "narrow-minded, destructive
trends of the industry," witnessed as both a listener and performer.
"The industry is over, as it were," Martin sighed. "The thing about
working with a corporation - it's not only impossible, but it's
not appealing if you are looking to be creative and make a difference."
While Martin has avoided the mistakes of corporate music groups
(not hard, given the strength of her convictions), she works hard
to avoid the mistakes common to homespun indie labels. The Independence
Project has made a point of making careful performance choices,
to insure that solid venue and listener relationships are built.
They tour consistently in the same area (about every four months)
to get to know (and get known in) particular scenes. Bookings are
also carefully considered - members build good club relationships
by being realistic regarding venues.
SHEE COLLECTIVE
The New Jersey-based Shee
Collective (which takes its name from the powerful open-thighed
Celtic Goddess Sheela-na-gig) is also dedicated to "combating the
exclusivity of the music industry… [and] helping each other get
our art and music out to the public in a larger way" according to
founder Catherine Moon. The group started in 1994, out of a series
of women's coffeehouse performances in New Brunswick. Shee has a
larger, somewhat looser membership than The Independence Project,
and has focused on supporting local songwriters and spoken-word
artists through a series of concert showcases and a compilation
album. The formation of this collective seemed natural - as Moon
observed, "it takes an incredible amount of time and energy to promote
oneself successfully, time that we all would rather be spending
being creative. When working in a group, it frees you up more because
people take on different responsibilities, you divide up the work,
it's more efficient. Also through doing group shows we're all drawing
from our individual fan bases and are able to bring out more people
to the shows collectively." As the group has grown, they have branched
out to address women's causes on a larger stage, using their performances
to raise money for Afghan women's relief and other women's issues.
URBANMUSE
UrbanMuse
NYC is a dedicated group of eight New Yorkers who work to
collectively support the creative and commercial aspects of each
other's work. Members got to know each other through the local music
scene and music competitions, and range from award-winning seasoned
performers to (relative) newcomers. According to founding member
Jo Davidson, their mission is to "provide support to each other,
to encourage each other as well as encourage new ideas, and share
works in progress." UrbanMuse does not focus on performances, though
they all perform individually, and have done a few showcases together.
The main focus is the meetings, where, as member Rachael Sage noted,
they work toward specific goals: "to play each other one or two
brand new songs, to update each other on the musical activities/challenges
and achievements in each other's lives, to explore some kind of
general topic such as "success" or "faith" or "balance" through
readings, poetry… and wind down by just hanging out, talking, being
"friends"… not just peers!" The issues UrbanMuse deals with are
personal as well as professional - but music is often a personal
profession (especially with the added element of promoting yourself).
Urban country singer and member Amy Speace gushed about this
element of the group: "Better than an industry seminar, it's our
own library of ideas, inspiration, creativity."
SISTER SF
Sister
SF officially formed in 1997, but had its roots in an "itinerant
women's collective" of a few years earlier called "Your Sisters'
House." The group currently has 9 members, including a recently-promoted
intern and an MC/publicist. Sister SF is primarily a performance
group - they have several monthly showcases at local clubs, and
have also done a series of well-received one-off events. The structure
is loose (mostly E-mail communication with sporadic meetings) but
the balance of the group is important, according to DJ Annie Shaw:
"One or two super-organized types in the crew help keep track of
things, and one or two people with brilliant ideas… inspire the
others. A couple of people with great promotional skills keep the
partiers coming to events, and a few who are just plain old well-known
DJs provide star quality." In addition to showing female DJ talent
at club events, Sister SF also encourages DJs by creating a Web
site full of insider tips and techniques, to combat what Shaw calls
"the closed mentality of DJing, where trade secrets are kept and
cronyism is rife." Several of the participating DJs have their own
managers and/or booking agents, but the feelings of strength and
unity from the collective (as well as professional support in staging
well-attended events) seem critical enough to keep members involved. |
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_________________________________
Deena Prichep is a freelance writer living in Portland, Oregon.
She is also a contributing editor with Listener
Magazine and has contributed reviews to Fighting
Electric Records. |
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