For a trio of emerging artists, a showcase that starts in Somerville
Acouple of years ago, when three Berklee students discovered their voices meshed in perfect harmony, they put together a few low-key shows. They played two house concerts, and then a Sofar session in a boutique hotel in Allston.
“You could feel it when that set started,” recalls Jim Lucchese, CEO of Sofar Sounds, the Somervillebased company that fills the growing void in intimate performance venues by presenting live music in unexpected spaces. “That was one of the most special Sofar moments we’ve had.”
That folk-pop vocal trio, Tiny Habits, has been on a dizzying trajectory ever since. Ahead of a headlining tour in Europe, the singers Maya Rae, Cinya Khan, and Judah Mayowa sold out the Royale for a hometown concert on Saturday.
“It’s a testament to how you build an audience,” says Liza Levy, president of the Salt Lick Incubator, a nonprofit artist development project launched by former Berklee College of Music president Roger Brown in 2022. She’s been on tour with Tiny Habits, one of the first big success stories to come out of the Salt Lick program. (One of those early house concerts was in Brown’s living room.)
Beginning Thursday in Somerville’s Davis Square, Sofar and Salt Lick will present their first national tour together. Featuring the onetime YouTube sensation Alex Blue, Brockton native Léa the Leox, and rising TikTok star Claire Ernst, the “Portraits & Memoirs” tour will travel from New York and Washington D.C. to Atlanta, Chicago, and Nashville.
Lucchese first teamed with London-based Sofar founder Rafe Offer after his previous company, the music data platform Echo Nest, sold to Spotify. Sofar now has about 75 fulltime employees, he says, and a network of independent curators who have produced shows in alternative venues — breweries, landmark buildings, warehouses — in nearly 400 cities around the world.
Léa the Leox, who recently moved to Los Angeles, has been playing Sofar shows for several years. She recently toured arenas as a backup singer with Mariah Carey, but for her own music, she prefers connecting on the personalized scale that Sofar provides.
“I love performing, and I feel that my music translates best through live performance,” says the songwriter, who has an EP dropping later this month.
“I haven’t been on a Sofar lineup where I didn’t like the other artists,” says Léa, who specializes in confessional, R&B-flavored songs. “Sometimes there will be a hip-hop artist and a country-folk artist, and I think that’s what’s so beautiful about it.”
For Levy, the songwriters on this first collaborative tour have demonstrated an ability to connect with listeners in the virtual world; now they deserve an opportunity to build a live audience. Alex Blue (known as Alex G in her YouTube days) stepped away from the pressures of maintaining a wildly busy online presence. After a hiatus, ready to return to performing, she sought a supportive community and has found it in these promotional partners.
Ernst, a New Jersey native now based in Nashville, has earned praise from a chorus of established stars on social media. Barely in her 20s, she has already landed a publishing deal.
‘Audiences still want to discover live music, and artists still want to connect with audiences in small rooms.’
JIM LUCCHESE
CEO of Sofar Sounds
“She just vomits hooks,” jokes Levy. “Everything she writes is so catchy.”
While cities including Boston welcome more large theaters to accommodate the top tiers of the concert industry, smaller spaces for emerging artists continue to get priced out of the real estate market.
“The demand hasn’t gone away,” says Lucchese. “Audiences still want to discover live music, and artists still want to connect with audiences in small rooms.”
The music industry veterans behind Sofar and Salt Lick are hoping their teamwork leads to improved opportunities for some of those upand-comers.
“We know they’re gonna go and smash these crowds,” says Levy.