Shirin Delsooz

My Life Adventures and Thoughts

Since We’ve Had Nice Weather…

This is how life has been so far since the weather was reasonable in Montreal!

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St. Jean Baptiste festivities in my hood! Hangin’ with Lex. I like the colours on that church.

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There was a community gathering at the mile end, and they had a board for people to write what they want to see in their community. Someone wanted trees, another person wanted a gorilla park, and another person wanted just monkeys…

Review of Lydia Ainsworth at the Slut Island Festival in Montreal

I saw Lydia Ainsworth at the Slut Island Festival. I loved it.
 

First of all, unlike other indie concerts, I could actually hear the music. The sound wasn’t pummelling my ear drums. Lately I’ve been tricked into concerts with some gear head machos who like to blast distorted guitars and all their glitzy gizmos to hide behind how terrible their songs are. They aren’t good enough to captivate the audience, so they crank it over crowd chatter.

 

Luckily, this concert was part of the Slut Island Festival, so it was a macho-free zone. And Lydia’s set was focussed on music. She is a film score composer, so it was interesting to hear music as an art, and not a gimmick or a vanity trip. I liked how the musicians wore masks, as if to say, ‘hey, don’t look at me and judge me! Just listen to the music!”

 

There were acoustic instruments, violin and cello, a laptop for the back tracks that had all the glitter, harmony and beat, her synth and voice. Perfect set up. Perfect levels. It was just right, like honey to my ears.

 

She played her songs from her latest EP, including my personal favourite, Malachite.

 

So there, I wish I attended more concerts from the Slut Island Festival because, let’s face it, most of the music scene, even in Montreal, is dominated by cisgender males. And, speaking for myself, and many other people I know, it is intimidating for anyone else to come into the scene. We need festivals like this on a monthly basis at least!

 
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Run Away – Real McCoy – Piano Cover

Another song from back in the day, this one is a unique song because it has politically charged lyrics which never happens in dance music. I wonder if any drunk guy in a club caught this.

 

Musicians: Do NOT give into “physical submission requirement”

Here is an excerpt of a letter I wrote to an organization:

“I am absolutely horrified by your physical submission requirement. It goes against the values of human decency. Do you love the arts? Do you love this world? Do you hate capitalism? If you answered yes to any of these, then you must remove this requirement immediately.

Let me go by each question one by one.

Do you love the arts?

I love the arts. I would love to spend the afternoon playing music. Since I work many hours just to keep a roof over my head, I cherish every moment I can to play music. As far as I know, this is an economic reality for the average Canadian artist. Mailing a physical CD requires an entire afternoon. It includes printing a cover, burning a CD, buying mailing supplies, going to the local post office, and spending at least an hours worth of minimum wage to mail it out to you.

I have two afternoons a week. I would much rather use that afternoon to play music. I’m sure many other artists would prefer to do so as well. Marketing should be the last and easiest thing to worry about. We already put in the effort into creating music.

Do you love this world?

Think of the trees we cut for the cover art and envelope.
Think of the chemical processing and plastic for the CD and it’s case.
Think of the burning fossil fuels to deliver the package.

Every gesture counts. And there will be no arts, or even life if we create an inhabitable environment for ourselves.

I’m not saying I live my life 100% eco friendly, but I try my best, I even started composting last year. There are some really easy ways to do your part, like eliminating this rule.

Do you hate capitalism?

Enjoying a physical possession is part of consumerist culture. It leads to hoarding, disgusting land fills, and messes with your self worth. Capitalism is a system built on greed, which does not bode well for the arts, which is why they are starving.

So why would you ask them to pay an hours worth of minimum wage to mail you something?

This letter took me about an hour to write, but I am sacrificing this time hoping that you would eliminate this rule in order to become accessible to all artists of all economic classes in an eco friendly manner.”

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Save money and invest in digital marketing.

Let’s say the cost of packaging, mailing supplies, stamp, CD, cover art, case, time equals to $10 each, do you know how much you could do with that?

$10 can go into a digital marketing campaign where you can guarantee that people saw your ad. For next to pennies, I have ads appearing on RollingStones, Vice, and Pitchfork. But you have to be careful, you have to be an expert at this or else you could waste a lot of money, however it is worth learning about or paying a consultant. I do online marketing as a living, and I passed the AdWords test.

$10 spent on a package to an indie organization, blog or a campus radio is very hit and miss. You don’t know for sure where the CD goes, and chances are, they will throw away your CD. I love what they stand for in theory, but I’ve volunteered for one of these organizations, and it broke my heart to see so many CD’s go into the trash. Broken dreams, broken planet, broken money (that could have been a nice meal for the starving artist). In 2014, I wish all music organizations put a stop to asking for physical CDs. Enough is enough!