WHY KIWI ARTISTS MUST RE-TUNE CAREERS
The day the music died is more than just an old Don Mclean lyric for some musos, who’ve had to find other strings for their bows. By Bonnie Flaws.
MIKEWeston knows it pays to be flexible.
Having taken turns at being musician, designer, producer, art collector/dealer, music promoter and curator, sometimes all at once, he is that rare beast able to straddle the worlds of art and music and now runs his own artist management business, The Area, now in its 20th year of operation.
Weston started out in the early 1980s Dunedin sound movement asamusician, and relocated to Auckland in 1985. He worked successfully from the late 80s to late 90s as a multimedia artist, operating a series of studio and retail spaces catering to the avant garde of local music and art.
‘‘I was running an art dealing business in parallel and doing some event work for hire; product launches, art commissions, video installations for nightclubs, ad work. Just whatever to pay the bills.’’
‘‘Being an independent producer I was very involved in the peripheral stuff around music. The photography, graphic design, print production, art direction, which operates theoretically in service to the music-as-product.
‘‘But it became increasingly clear that the other stuff was taking over as product.’’
And it was this early realisation that has ultimately stood him in such good stead to survive the collapse of the music industry in the early 2000s.
Musicians may have it worse than ever, and highly successful acts are making most of their money from touring, not sales or publishing.
There were decadeswhen it was ostensibly possible to earn a living from music – but that was before the phenomenon of digital file sharing and later, music streaming. ‘‘With the end of the music products being money making, I could see the writing on the wall,’’ Weston – who now collaborates with street artist Otis Frizell – said.
‘‘If I hadn’t moved into art I’d be completely screwed. The big difference with me and Otis is that we’re accustomed to doing it for ourselves as promoters. We’re not beholden to a parent company dictating direction or deciding investment priorities, so we’re not vulnerable to being dropped or shelved.
‘‘I have continued to make music but have no expectation of makingmoney out of it. We have established audiences that know the spectrum of what we do – the media channel is sort of the same.’’
Weston said Spotify has ‘‘completely f..... it’’ for niche artists. ‘‘It’s not just that people can get it for free, it’s that they stream all of the music, all of the time, for free.’’
Weston cites the the plight of his friend and collaborator, David Harrow, a British electronic dub producer based in LA who has worked with Kiwi bands such as Headless
Chickens and Salmonella Dub, as an example of how it all went wrong.
‘‘He’s amajor talent with a long-term career and a huge published back catalogue of recordings. He’s widely revered as an innovator. The difficulties he has had dealing with the current musical climate is overwhelming.’’
Harrow says writing, touring, re-mixing and production from the 80s to about 2000 gave him ‘‘a very comfortable living’’.
‘‘I was signed to previously successful record labels under different artists names and projects. And although my releases were well received, the sales just seemed to plummet. When people began just giving their music away I kind of believed it was all over and to a certain extent it is.’’
He now collaborates with Weston.
‘‘I asked him, do you have something else that can be the money maker? And at the moment, he doesn’t, so I’m working with him to restructure his personal operation, to interface him more directly with his personal audience, and to foster revenue streams that will allow him to keep creating.’’
The latest iteration of The Area is opening a new gallery and studio in West Auckland with a stated focus on artists who cross over the music/art divide.
‘‘I am interested in maverick artists that have broad multimedia capability. They crossover, they are involved in making their own image, their approach is art rather than pop songs.’’
One of his cohort is Brisa Roche´, an American musician and artist based in Paris. ‘‘The conversation started around remixing, some help with promotion and gig booking, but it’s evolving in the direction of collaboration. Her social media presence is really viable,’’ said Weston.
Roche´ has worked as a musician under many different types of arrangements – most recently, she went the independent route to fund and release her latest album, Father, produced by UK musician producer John Parish.
‘‘For years I was able to more than survive off music. I was working and making records and getting royalties or master rights for this and that.
‘‘I bought a piece of property and then as my skill set grew and as I becamemore and more efficient, the streaming took over and different things changed, and my age changed and it’s gotten harder and harder.’’
And the multimedia approach?
‘‘In terms of objects and selling things that I create, this is the beginning. I’m not really convinced about combining them in terms of having the items that I’m trying to sell directly relate to the record. I think my goal would be for my fans to be interested in whatever thing I ammaking. But if you took away the object and try and consider yourself just a person or an artist creating multiple things that your fans can grab onto and order, I do think there’s a future in that. But it’s hard to collect those people.’’
‘ It’s not just that people can get it for free, it’s that they stream all of the music, all of the time, for free.’ MIKE WESTON
‘For years I was able to more than survive off music. Then streaming took over and ... my age changed and it’s gotten harder and harder.’ BRISA ROCHE´