Season 3 Day 38 - The Land of Milk and Honey
I started off today by a visit from a dear friend Moses Barrett of The Junebugs who wanted to come and share with me the changes he’s been through since moving back to Portland last year. The verdict was in and things are looking pretty great for Moses as his income from music is on the rise and he is receiving regular strong bookings for The Junebugs. Moses explained to me that he has managed to network and gain contacts in the corporate world to perform at various corporate events from parties for clients to award ceremonies. He has also been enjoying the summer season and the opportunities it brings, from playing at the zoo to the opening of patios in bars giving consistent seasonal work. Moses is close to being able to quit his job and just do music, although he feels reluctant to do this as the job provides insurance and stability as he needs an income to support his living costs.
Moses is incredibly positive about the opportunities presented to him here in Portland and feels that there are a lot more places paying him for gigs than in Vancouver, BC where he lived before as a full time professional musician. He feels he has a community here where gigs are traded between them and help each other with contacts and advice. Moses categorises his bookings as being mainly one of three things: bar gigs, corporate events/weddings and personalised recordings. The latter can be explained as people wanted to record their own material for fun and wanting professional musicians to play with them. If he can’t do an offered booking he will often pass it to another member of the community knowing that he may be passed other work in the future creating a positive community.
I then headed into town to Rontoms to meet with local radio presenter Jeremy Petersen who is also the lead singer in a covers band performing songs by The Smiths and Morrissey. Jeremy explained to me that local radio isn’t paying enough attention to the local music available in Portland with the major local stations being fixated on billboard chart music. Jeremy over the past year has joined X-Ray FM radio station, a station that focuses on encouraging and fostering local live music in the spirit of the X-Ray café the name sake of the station. We also talked about the political situation in Portland with Jeremy expressing a feeling that because the arts portfolio isn’t with the mayor there has been a change in terms of the city hall support for the arts. Where there used to be PDX Pop Now concerts at city hall Jeremy feels there is a void and perhaps that the city was spoilt with a Mayor such as Sam Adams.
We also talked about the various musical communities in Portland and Jeremy talked about some of the cross pollination projects happening in Portland citing as an example TxE’s ‘Vs Portland’ record in which the hip-hop group utilise Portland indie rock music samples in a unique collaboration. Jeremy remains hopefully that these kinds of collaborations will continue and feels the genres are constantly influencing each other even if it isn’t immediately apparent. Bills at shows are also starting to reflect diversity in Jeremy’s opinion with indie rockers playing with electronic musicians and rappers. As Portland has developed over time it will be interesting to examine musical collaboration in the city and see if the changes in the city’s landscape will create more interaction in the scene to fight negative change and instil positive steps.
