The Beat Goes On

Survival of the Music Scene in London

Interview by Adelle Drover

The indefinite pause of our performing arts and entertainment scene makes the joy and escapism of live music seem a distant past and unattainable for the foreseeable future. Across the whole industry, artists, labels and venues are fighting to stay alive in the sudden economic downturn since lockdown. Adam Jackson from Sofar London, a global music organisation supporting local artists in intimate gig spaces, shows us just how Sofar and many other organisations are surviving in the new world of virtual gigs. It’s an important reminder that as keen lovers of many genres of music, we should continue to find ways to support an industry that breathes the heart and soul into our cities like London and bring them back to life. 

For those who don’t know, can you talk us through the ethos of Sofar? 

It’s essentially at its core an intimate secret gig. The whole premise is about musical discovery and making a space where people really listen and pay respects to the artist performing. As a guest you don’t know who is going to be performing on the night and you don’t know where it’s going to be. 

As an artist, I know this from playing in bars myself, it’s really hard to play to an audience who really care and really is paying attention to your music. The whole idea of Sofar is to get great artists in a room and audience of people and sit them down and tell them to shut up and listen. It is really quite magical. 

When otherwise would you take the time to do nothing else but listen to the music. I listen to tonnes of music but it’s usually on my headphones as I’m walking or on the bus or it’s on in the background when I’m cooking. So with Sofar, to just sit down and pay attention and do nothing else is a really unique thing. 

Tell me about your background and your entry into the music scene?

I’m from this place called Little Chalfont, it’s not far outside London but the music scene is barren. So I used to put on a couple gigs there and then I went to study in Birmingham. I got involved with the student festival and I started a student record label with a few friends. It was run by students, signing student artists, called New Street Records. It was designed to give student artists a platform but also industry experience. It wasn’t the most successful thing but we had a good time. 

I had been a massive Sofar fan for years and I used to think that you had to be personally invited to a show to attend. I ended up managing an artist who we signed to the label and then I was like “I’m going to get him booked for Sofar, this is my ticket into a show.” 

I got him booked in Birmingham on a houseboat. I was so excited and when I spoke to the people running it, I told them I had been trying to get into a show for ages. They told me, “you know, you could have just applied to get in but you can also volunteer.” It all moved on from there.

How long were you juggling Birmingham Sofar before you decided to focus on London Sofar?

About 1 year I was doing both. I was working a job in music sync when I first moved to London, cutting music to film, tv and adverts. Sofar was always my creative outlet that I could sink my teeth into and feel really passionate about a project when I wasn’t necessarily getting that from my day job. I used to do one show per month in Birmingham but in London we do around one hundred shows per month. 

How has the COVID-19 pandemic and city wide shutdown impacted the music industry and the London gig scene?

It’s not great. For the live scene in London, gigs as we knew them are not happening. That’s taken a massive toll on both artists and some of London’s most beloved venues. Some of which aren’t getting any support from the government. A lot of venues at the moment are facing closure because they can’t support themselves.

How serious is the situation for the long term? Will it be life or death for these venues?

It’s such a shame because it’s more than just venues going out of business. Some of the venues are the heart and soul of the city and part of the reason why London is amazing. It’s such an attraction to come here. There are so many small independent venues and I think in London, it’s a place where the majority of the population engage with those places, it’s not like other cities where people only go to gigs at big arenas when Lady Gaga comes to town. In London, you can’t really move around without interacting with some level of small independently run live music venue. It’s just devastating. 

I’ve followed this campaign called ‘Save Our Venues’ which is a trust you can donate to. They’re working with all of the venues that are struggling and not getting the support that they need to survive. There are a few venues in there like Troy Bar, which is a place I love going. There’s also Blues Bar in Camden, which has been doing daily live streams to fundraise to keep the bar alive. Then there’s The Jazz Cafe, a legendary venue that’s so well respected and such a goal for so many musicians to play, the fact that they’re struggling is really sad.

From the smaller, hole-in-the-wall bars to the bigger statement venues, everyone is feeling this economic crunch. 

Exactly, it’s weird. It’s a big hole left by live music. But during this time it has been cool to see the efforts to keep having some live experiences.

Right! So let’s talk about that more. We know everyone is hurting from the lockdown but let’s look at some positives. What are some of the things the industry is doing in this ‘new normal’ landscape?

There are so many artists that rely on gigging for at least part, if not all of their income. For them this lockdown has been life altering. It’s been interesting working with Sofar where we work with a large portion of those artists that gig for a living, and it’s been a challenge to figure out how we can continue to support them both in being able to give them a platform but also financially. It’s been an interesting time. 

We have a ‘listening room’ online which we launched crazily quickly once the lockdown started. The tech team pulled several all-nighters and built this amazing platform where we can have really high quality livestream sets from artists from all around the world. We can pay them a fee for performing and we also have a donation button. Fans and people who are tuning in who like what they hear can donate. 

Have you seen the audience become engaged in this new form of gigging? Is it a success?

I was really blown away by some of the donations that have come through. It’s so heartening. None of us were really sure how it was going to go. I love it. Nothing for me will replace the physical gig but it’s the closest thing I’ve found to having that feeling. 

Has Sofar ever explored doing online shows before?

This is the first time as far as I know. It’s a really new step for Sofar. It’s been amazing and it’s been really beautiful what we’ve seen and it’s lovely seeing every night who comes on to watch, there’s a bunch of people that have been at every show and we’ve done shows every night for the past several months.  

Looking forward, as we slowly come out of the lockdown and come into this ‘new normal’ world, how do you think this will change the music industry?

A lot of artists have been so resourceful during this time to figure out how they can continue to make music, collaborate and engage with their fans. I’ve seen really cool stuff on the artist side - collaborations, conversations, songwriting sessions over zoom, Instagram Lives - there’s way more than I’ve ever seen before. It’s given even more access and a closer relationship to artists. These things will definitely carry on, we’ve realised how much we can accomplish.

How can music lovers support freelance artists and smaller labels during this time?

A lot of people rallied together when the lockdown hit in show of support, but it’s still independent and lesser known artists that are struggling the most. Companies like PRS, Spotify and even Sofar have started various artists' funds. Having these fundraising opportunities to support artists has been really cool. Any freelance artist that doesn't know about those resources should definitely research it. 

As well as being the assistant director of Sofar, you are also a musician yourself.  Talk us through how you got started and what you’re working on at the moment.

I started as a jazz saxophonist and then I was in an indie band. For the last few years I’ve had that on a backburner because I’ve been so into the organising and the curation side of things, it’s something that’s really important to me. The reason I love Sofar so much is because I was one of those artists that was frustrated with the gig scene.  

I’ve been working on a new project with an old school friend of mine who I’ve always admired. He comes from golden age hip hop, a big J Dilla fan. He’s been a beat maker and made some amazing stuff with his own project Nomad. It took years of us occasionally messaging to see if we had time to link up and it never happened. Recently we both ended up in London and started this new project called Lavender and we’re about to release our first song. The music stems from us having our own influences and our own sounds in quite a natural way. It’s a mutual appreciation for our own ideas coming into a song. It’s interesting being back on this side of the industry, it’s a different world. 

Is there anything you’ve learnt from this shift into the online space of gigging?

The one thing we’ve both taken away - how important music is to us. In this time of uncertainty, there’s so much going on in the world but one thing that everyone turns to is art. Music is the go-to for so many people. I miss live music.