BY SIMEON WALKER
We would like to give a warm welcome to Simeon in his first blog with CutCommon.
It’s fair to say 2020 has not turned out to be the year I was hoping for or expecting. Fortunately, I’m not alone in that, and I do wonder how we will all look back on this crazy and unprecedented time in the years and decades to come.
Working in music right now, and thinking through how to continue doing the job we love, presents significant challenges and anxieties to all of us – not least when it comes to releasing new music in 2020.
In the earlier stages of the pandemic, we were encouraged to practice more, compose more, and “use the unexpected extra time to be creative”. Anyone working in the creative arts knows how problematic that view is, and subjective. Were we not being creative before? What if circumstances made some feel less creative than before the new BC – Before COVID-19?
I’m sure lockdown has produced great results for many artists, providing some time to reflect and consider things at a slower pace. But what about everyone else who may have had a project or concert program mostly ready to go, and then…well, COVID-19 hit?
Working through an avalanche of new music
I’m a worrier and prone to indecision. In my corner of the music sphere, the avalanche of new music being released on a weekly basis is, at times, sometimes overwhelming. Despite its inherent and well-documented issues, we all know streaming is here to stay, and some of the good elements it brings – new musical discovery, and increased opportunities for unsigned and independent artists to release without the previous trappings of the music industry – have certainly allowed this scene to grow exponentially.
This new music has a multitude of stylistic prefixes to Classical – as many as you can conceive of: modern, neo, contemporary, post-, indie, ambient, electronic. And its growth has unquestionably been encouraged by the rise of playlists seeking to provide music for all kinds of moods: music for sleep, yoga, breakfast, bath time, chill, reading, focus, and countless others. I’m not sure what dictates if a piece of music is more suitable for accompanying a bath than for breakfast, but something that occurs to me from time to time is: perhaps music doesn’t always need to be listened to whilst doing something else. Maybe just listening to music for the joy itself can have merit. A listening-to-music playlist?
Despite the trappings of the modern music industry, my question remains: how can artists express their authenticity in this climate, reach their audiences, hope to grow and gain new followers, and how has this been affected by the pandemic?
Planning a 2020 album release
Having worked on the material for my new album for a number of years, we recorded it fortuitously in February 2020, just before anyone realised what was about to happen. Having always intended to release in late-2020, like many others I spent a while trying to decide whether to proceed with the plans in place.
A tough one for an indecisive worrier.
Quite understandably, other artists decided to delay their releases from the Northern Hemisphere’s spring/early summer to later in the year, as many of us assumed we’d have a better idea of the future by now. There was also an almost collective sense back in the early summer that a “we can’t allow this to stop everything” moment was a decision made by many artists, leading to a staggering amount of new music being released this autumn. In my scene, major artists such as Olafur Arnalds and Ludovico Einaudi have album releases out this autumn, alongside many emerging artists.
For more emerging artists releasing albums at the same time as the big names, it is a challenge to know how best to promote their work — especially without the usual lifeblood of live performance, touring, and selling merchandise in person.
How I faced the challenge of releasing my music during the pandemic
My new album Winnow is a musical progression and development from the solo piano works I have released to date. Featuring a string quartet, jazz-infused drums/percussion, and ondes Martenot, this project was an opportunity to spread my wings and extend my sound – all whilst remaining true to the spacious, restrained, and minimal approach which is at my core and I find most affinity with.
As an independent artist without label support networks and budgets, the challenge of growing and retaining an audience is difficult, especially in a pandemic through which live performance has been so restricted. I have found a few ways to approach this problem:
- Being confident in what I do. First and foremost, I have to love it. I feel like it’s sometimes seen as taboo to be outwardly effusive about your work. Whilst no one likes a show-off, just like any job, we should be proud of our work. And ultimately, if I don’t love what I create and release, how can I ask others to?
- Not hiding. Social media is simultaneously one of the strangest things about modern life and an incredibly helpful tool for engaging and connecting with each other. Of course, there are many checks and balances we need to embrace to ensure we remain healthy and use it wisely. But as an independent artist, it is an essential way of reaching my audience and sharing the story of this release in relation to the thematic content, and from a “how was it made” perspective.
- Being genuine. I don’t share every part of my life because I’m not sure putting every part of our lives on show is wise. However, giving audiences extra insight into the things which help define the artists we are – and the music we make, and the ways in which we find our inspiration – is a crucial way of enabling audiences to understand and connect with our music. By sharing something of oneself, it allows our audience a chance understand and appreciate our music with a clearer sense of authenticity.
- Telling the story visually. Through the photography and videography from my visual collaborator Will Killen, and the album artwork by Gregory Euclide, I have created additional context and meaning to engage my audience. Their work is truly stunning. In an increasingly visually stimulated world, it can be key to use a combination of music and visuals to tell the story you are hoping to convey.
- Renewal rather than revolution. Many of the artists I admire and follow closely are the ones who find new ways of developing their craft whilst remaining artistically authentic. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t feel free to make whatever music they want, nor am I arguing that artists reinvent the wheel with each release. But I hugely value being able to draw a line through the releases of artists I love and see their development; it reminds me of why I first became interested in them. The joy of this process then comes in hearing how an artist has found their musical expression, perhaps in unexpected ways over time. But simultaneously, the listener is able to hear their unique musical voice across all their work. This is an approach I aspire to with my latest album Winnow, so that listeners can track back to my original solo piano releases, whilst this album also represents a new expression of myself telling the story of my musical progression in an authentic way.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but are some of the key strategies I use to continue engaging with my audience as I release something into the world which has been three years in the making, and is deeply personal and meaningful thematically.
I remain hugely grateful for the people who follow my musical endeavours. My audience is filled with wonderful, inquisitive, and reflective people who are very generous with their listening, comments, and support.
I am committed to this idea of pursuing authenticity through the expression of my artistic intent. And in doing so, I feel I can repay my dedicated audience with an additional level of enjoyment, escapism, and soul-searching in these troubled times.
Experience Simeon Walker’s album through your favourite music platform or explore Winnow further on the website.
Images supplied.
