Bloggin’ The Moment: Live from the Salon de Musique Independent

by sarah pearson

Oh Independents…here we are - Risa, Alanah and me, ther powerhouse of table-guarding - with yet another Indyish table, selling yet more copies of the Assembly projectbook and showing off the “We Plug In” t-shirts. Musicians, producers, media-folk and plebians-at-large are dropping by, and we are explaining in both English and French what Indyish is. It feels a lot like the Fringe…except we’re inside now, in a dark warehouse-like space, and outside it’s a gloomy, deliciously damp Montreal Fall day.

I’m having a hecka good time chatting with other independent artist types about what they do. This is all so new to me…I’ve been working independently for only about nine months, having jumped into a freelance writing “career” pretty much by accident. I learn about the biz at the pace that I want to get more out of it. Every day is an unpredictable adventure.

Thing is, working independently is like that…most of the time, you start off by doing what you feel like doing. You learn what you need to know in order to keep doing what you feel like doing. As what you feel like doing evolves, you pick up new skills, make new acquaintances, develop new trades. Or suddenly you can discover that you are qualified to do work you hadn’t even thought of, just cuz you’ve built up some creds from dinkering around long enough doing what you feel like doing.

Anyhoo, I just had a great chat with the gentleman from the record label p572. He says, “When you first start [being an independent artist], you start out just having fun. Then after a couple of years, you ask yourself ‘why am I doing this?’” And that’s when you start to set goals I guess…that’s when you start to build your vision, rather than let the work grow organically.

It’s a lot like this Indyish thing itself. We are a community-building organization - the organically-growing network is as strong as the members who make it. As the network grows, so does our scope of projects. Indyish is a verb - it’s changing, growing, and getting better, much like the open-source code that backs it. There’s nothing like a shmoozefest like this for becoming inspired about where we can go.