GREAT MUSIC STORIES LAUNCHES WORKING MUSICIAN SERIES

8th October 2020 0 By John Deaux

Great Music Stories is launching a new interview series looking at the specific challenges presented to working musicians since the outbreak of Covid-19.

Following controversy earlier this week when a Government Minister was reported to have made remarks about musicians seeking other employment, the new weekly series of 10 60-minute interviews gives a number of working musicians from the new rock scene the opportunity to tell their story and share their experiences in coping and adapting at an unprecedented time for the rock community.

The new series also coincides with new YouGov research for Great Music Stories which reveals resurgent interest in guitar-based music among younger people – with 79% of under 35s expressing an interest in the rock genre, overtaking the more traditional older rock audience (75% among over 45s and 67% of over 55s).

GuyB at Great Music Stories comments: “Like many other outlets, Great Music Stories has been supporting this wonderful new generation of artists since 2015. During our series of lunchtime lockdown interviews in April it was apparent that every artist was facing the challenge of adapting with gigs off for the foreseeable future. It was during this series I was fortunate to speak to Mike Ross and Matt Mitchell and these interviews focused the mind on what it’s like for those musicians for whom in income from music literally is the thing that feeds the kids and keeps a roof over their heads.

“With the prospect of a challenging winter both in terms of rising Covid numbers and the economic impact really beginning to become known, I wanted to do a project just on working musicians. The fan and industry outrage early this week, whether the comments made were misquoted by the media or not, underline that this is a difficult time for musicians and given the value of arts to the economy, musicians justifiably should feel they are supported and respect like any other business sector or professional. Respect and support are the key words here.”

This Friday at 7pm on Great Music Stories, the interview hour will focus on Matt Jones from Twisted Illusion, who has created a series of albums during lockdown and displayed a work ethic that would put other business sectors to shame. The series will give musicians the opportunity to talk about the challenges, but there will also be stories of artists that have adapted and flourished. GuyB hopes the series will be a catalyst for greater respect and support for musicians as well as sharing best practice on approaches that work.

This weeks hour will airing at 8pm on new station greatmusicstories.com radio – itself a product of lockdown – and marks the 900^th interview hour with rising rock musicians since the project started 6 years ago.

Website: www.greatmusicstories.com