How To Be An Artist Ally: Part 1

Or “7 Ways to Help The Bands You Love…

…A Guide For The Enthusiastic Fan”

It’s a tough ol’ business keeping an artistic career going. The constant need to feel like you’re moving forward, the increased control of the interwebz by large corporations (see this thread by Lee Parson‘s CEO of our online distributor Ditto Music for the sheer horror that is 21st capitalism in action – more on this in future posts), the sheer competition for time on radio and TV/sync, the hours in a van, the time away, the weeks of work that you’re not paid for, all while trying to your head above water while attempting to make something that resembles the art you’d like to create.

So in an entirely selfless move we’ve decided to throw together a short list of things you could do to help your favourite artist out.  You don’t just have to apply this to us… …but we do have a NEW ALBUM OUT!!!!! It was on the radio just now. Why not press play and read on!? It’s Pay What You Feel too, so if you like it, you know what to do.
:)

The Backdrop

Hope and Social have always been a DIY band, and are eternally grateful for the relationships we have with our fans. It’s through that connection that we’ve been lucky enough to get to make the art we want to make, on our own terms, play amazing shows and partake in some ridiculous nonsense with you all along the way. We’ve been doing this for a loooong time now though and as time passes and families and responsibilities grow, we’ve had less and less time to talk about the way this all works.

So for those who are new to us, and for the ones who’ve been on this journey with us all the way, here’s a few things from our perspective that you can do to help the artists you love (yeah, ALL artists, not just us!) afloat, with sail rigged high, moving forward, cutting through the waves of insecurity, financial insecurity and tiredness.

#1 Go to shows (and bring your friends)

Number 1 on the list (and this should probably be number 2 as well!) is go see shows. Shows are where visceral joy lives, and where artists get to have a face to face interactions with other actual human beings. There’s nothing better for an artist than to get to play to fans and newcomers alike. Audience and band members get to meet each other, and make connections beyond those that can be made through audio means alone. Shows help us build our community, and helping us do that is one of the most powerful and effective ways of helping out of all. Also the more people that show up, usually, the better the show will be! Better for the fans, better for the venue, and better for the artists you love.

Bring a Friend

Whether or not you can make it to a particular show yourself, recommend to a friend. If you like an artist, there’s a good likelihood that you’ll know someone who would also like ’em. It’s all well and good an artist telling you how great their new record is but if your friend recommends something, well, that has a whole extra weight.

Word of mouth is the life-blood of the vast majority of artists. We meet most new fans via introductions from lovely people like you bringing people to our gigs, so if you know someone who you think might get it, give them a nudge and see if they’re free to come to any of these…. and if that makes them happy too, then the world is a better place for it.

And hey, let’s make this all personal and ‘fess up. On our forthcoming tour, while all our northern shows are sold out or doing pretty darn well, our London, Wales, Colchester, Wales, Bath and Oxford shows are a way off from selling out. If you could put the above into practice, it’d give us a real lift! Maybe this’ll tempt ’em! >>>

Anyhoo, ta ta for now petal… part two of this post coming Wednesday…

Tour dates