Tag Archives: live music

Coronavirus and Musicians

(This is an edited post from my website homepage March 29, 2020.)

Like all musicians, all my gigs have been cancelled due to measures taken to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. Not only can we no longer do what we love– play our music live for people– but it impacts us financially as well. I ask music fans who haven’t lost your jobs to support your favorite bands and solo artists by one or more of the following ways:

Buy records– CDs or vinyl.
Some people, myself included, like to have physical copies of our favorite albums. For one reason, listening to a record on a good home stereo provides superior fidelity. Secondly, many record have cool artwork and information on them. Thirdly, music that lives in the “cloud” can disappear anytime because you don’t own it. Nobody can take a record away from you.

Buy paid downloads.
Unfortunately we receive virtually no money when you listen to our music on streaming platforms such as Youtube, Spotify, Pandora, etc. So if that’s the main way you listen to music, please consider buying some paid downloads to help us out. Bandcamp allows you to pay more than the listed price for a download to support the artist. And Bandcamp is a great way to discover new artists!

Join the Artist Fan Clubs.
Many bands and solo artists have a fan club on platforms like Bandcamp and Patreon, where you can make a regular monthly contribution. Please consider this, at least until we can gig again.

Attend Ticketed Live Internet Shows

In many cases, the only way to hear artists live during the shutdown is by live internet shows. Organizations such as Side Door sell tickets to shows using the Zoom software. Please consider paying more than the listed ticket price to support the artist.

Other live video streaming platforms, such as Facebook Live and Google Youtube, don’t pay us for our performances. (But of course they keep all the money from advertisers.) For artists who stil use these artist-hostile platforms, most will provide a way to tip them. Please consider doing so.

How You Can Help Me:
If you want to support me during the shutdown, the best way is to go to my Rob Roper Bandcamp Site and my Total Flower Chaos Bandcamp Site and buy Downloads, CDs and Tshirts. On the Rob Roper Bandcamp Site you will also find the Misfit Club where you can make regular monthly contributions. Misfit Club members have exclusive access to live recordings and things not available to the general public.

With a little support from our fans, solo artists and bands be able to get through this. As of this writing there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, but hopefully the day isn’t too far away when we can all get back to doing what we love– playing live music for you. And you can get back to doing what you love– going out to hear live music.

–Rob September 5, 2020

Building a Community of Misfits

I sent this email to my fan list yesterday:

It was probably back in 2004 or 2005 that I started going to see the Denver band, The Railbenders.  I liked their electric guitar-based, old school style of country music, with original songs by bandleader Jim Dalton.  Soon after, Jim started a weekly series of acoustic music on Tuesday nights, which he named, oddly enough, Acoustic Tuesdays.  I began attending those on a regular basis, and got to know Jim as well as many of the hardcore Railbender fans.

By then, I was attending almost every Railbender gig not only for the music, but to hang out with the new friends I had made.  There was a sense of camaraderie among the core Railbender fans;  a sense of community.

Since then I have gone through various encarnations of my own bands.  However, I haven’t seen that same sense of community among fans developing when I play.  I want to change that.  I want to develop this community further, for both my acoustic band, Scupanon, and with Electric Poetry, my new electric band.  It struck me that I have friends from various sources who have never met.  They should.  I know they would like each other.  I would like to use my music as a way of bringing them together.

So from now on, I’m going to make a conscious effort to encourage my friends and fans to come to my shows not only for the music, but for the opportunity to hang out with friends, and make new friends.  Like I did with the Railbenders.  Ever since my friend Kurt Loken labeled me “the troubadour of the misfit” back in 2009, my mission has to create and perform music for misfits.  What better way to bring misfits together, than at my shows?

A community of misfits?  It seems like an oxymoron.  Afterall, misfits, by definition, don’t fit in.  But maybe it could be done, if the music served them.  What do you think?

The next gathering of the misfits will take place on February 8 at Herman’s Hideaway in Denver.  Electric Poetry is playing, along with 4 other bands.  Your new friends will be waiting there to meet you.

Your fellow misfit,

Rob