Music has a wide range of scenes, and this doesn’t simply just a piece of music that plays on your cellphone. Brian Walker is one of the legends in the Philadelphia music scene. He has been a performer on “A Day Without Love” for over nine years and has been on tour for five years. He also established his podcast named “Podcast Dreams, not Memes.” He has also worked on a documentary called Safe x Sound. Today, Brian shares details from his music career and his tips when going on a tour.

All About Safe x Sound

[0:57]

Safe and Sound was supposed to play on Center City at the American Vocal Academy. However, this was postponed due to the COVID-19 situation. They’re now pitching it in on various festivals, and they are also planning on online screening and tv viewing.

[01:28]

In 2019, Brian was touring in the US when he thought about filming a documentary about culture and music and why it happens, how it occurs, how people connect. He interviewed some people and his wife as the director and camera person.

Brian’s Tour in the United States

[02:56]

Brian has currently played into 24 states, and by the end of July, it should reach up to 47.

[03:51]

Brian’s goal is to play music and map where his music was heard worldwide.

[04:08]

One of Brian’s favorite small towns is in Greenville, South Carolina. The reason was discussed in his documentary. Memphis and Chicago are tied in his favorites when it comes to cities.

Brian’s Podcast – Podcast Dreams Not Dreams

[05:13]

The podcast was made with a similar strategy. He used touring, but it was a different motivation. Its motivation is to create an audio library filled with different stories of people in their careers.

[06:39]

Brian is currently at a point wherein people’s publicists find him instead of him finding them. They were able to contact him through his website. Aside from that, some of the guests are also from referrals of the people.

Six Degrees of Separation Rule

[08:08]

Brian has always seen the six-degree separation rule. Just like in his life, he was able to experience it himself with various people he met throughout his life.

Brian’s Definition of Art

[9:37]

Brian has defined art as an extension or abstract idea of human experience. Because in art, you are showing raw emotions, and they are an extension of creating a reality. For a human experience to be art, it needs to have a meaning or get people to react to it in some way.

Relationship between Intent and Response

[11:02]

Brian believes that there’s a gap between the intent of the artist and the response it receives. Sometimes people perceive the music differently from what the artist originally wants to portray.

Artistic Trends in a Community

[15:57]

While he was touring, Brian noticed different music being played in various cities. For example, in Chicago, they sing about pizza, toxic masculinity, or and being gay. This is because Chicago is a queer-friendly city. Meanwhile, in Atlanta, they are more likelty to be singing about racial activism and inequality.

[17:37]

As Brian was born and raised in Philadelphia, he had noticed various changes when he was growing up. When he was 16, funk bands and hip-hop rock bands were cool. During college, they were cover bands, and bands were playing 90s songs a lot more.

[19:25]

Nowadays, people play music depending on what they want and how they want it. Brian thinks that this is a step in the right direction and a step towards creating a world where people can do what they want to do and be seen. Brian believes that this resulted from various social movements during the past years.

Brian on Collabs

[24:25]

The full-length album was Brian’s most collaborative project he had done. He believes that he could grow as a person and learn new skills due to these collaborations.

Tips on Touring

[25:42]

In touring, make your email brief. Create merch that you think people would patronize. You must do market testing and evaluate your goals. Moreover, write for projects and expression.

To learn more about Brian Walker, visit his website:https://www.adaywithoutlove.com/

You can also follow Brian on his socials:

Facebook |Instagram |Twitter

In this episode, we have Nastasha Guy. She is a Paris-based interdisciplinary artist working primarily with collage, photography, and film. Natasha moved from Philadelphia after working for in Philadelphia after working at Paradigm Gallery. Today, she will talk about how she loves art and she established herself as an artist in Paris. Tune in to learn more!

Mowing to Paris

[0:49]

It's been seven months since Natasha moved from Philadelphia to Paris to do her master's in art history at the Sorbonne. She is also an intern at a photography agency which she works in the archives and editorial department, writing texts for photographers and translating captions. Natasha moved to Paris because the government is really good about giving people like artists, specifically funding and money. It's been exciting to see where she may be moving out of Paris for a little bit to another part of France later in the year. 

Networking and Community

[03:00]

Paris is a hub for art and fashion. Natasha feels lucky to meet people through friends of friends and then meet a variety of creatives. At first, she was late at meeting a lot of fashion people, which is very much not her thing, but it's interesting to learn about. French people are a lot nicer than they get credit for, most people give her slack if ever she's missing a vocab word, and some things are just better said in English or vice versa, better in French. It's been a learning experience for the French people and her that she has interacted with me and become her friends.

Life in Philadelphia

[06:14]

Natasha started working in paradigm gallery as a liberal teenager. She started part-time as an intern eventually worked there at post-grad as a gallery assistant, and was able to see the gallery's evolution, but also sort of like her evolution into adulthood. Jason and Sarah, the two co-owners, proposed Natasha organize and carry a show based around college because she saw her college work. And they were like; you might be good at figuring this out. And she was excited to work on organizing a show because obviously, it's generally a dream, but be about a medium that's so meaningful to her. 

Commissions and Pricing

[10:55]

Natasha considers herself a little difficult to work with because she thinks she works intuitively. It's easy to like to make your visual arts a solitary thing, so she thinks working with people on commissions has been a fun way to do that. Natasha is still working on being open and willing to collaborate with people. A lot of the times people other people feel uncomfortable giving feedback. Right now, she is still learning how to approach pricing her work. For a while, she just offered to reimburse for supplies, which was like becoming the bare minimum. But the technical things that you would expect other people to pay you for - that's what you should get paid. 

[15:18]

Many galleries don't have transparent pricing, there is something that's kept intentionally obtuse in the art market. It's sort of meant to be confusing and make people feel excluded.

Defining Art

[22:20]

For Natasha, art is instinctual. It works from instinct. It's like when you get into a state of flow when you're working. 

Expectations

[29:01]

There will be a gap between your expectations and the reality of your skills when you start. And also when you are established and are simply trying something new. You're not going to master your art in just one day or just one year, and probably not in five years either. Focus on mastering the project at hand. Then focus on the next project at hand. Then keep doing that day after day until you are finally a master at your art. It's important not to discourage yourself when your ability doesn't match your vision.

Learn more about Natasha:

Website: https://www.natashaguy.com/

Email: natashahannahguy@gmail.com