_{Words and photo by Joe Metro}

As I prepared to leave last Tuesday, I asked my roommate if he’d like to go to a town hall that I was headed to. He quickly perked up. You see, Mr. Roommate is a middle school history teacher (God bless his soul), so a local government town hall immensely piqued his interest. His interest waned just as quickly as it had risen when I told him it was the Provo Music Scene Town Hall. He bid me farewell, resigned to stay home. I was nearly late and can only blame my proclivity for Hungry Hawaiian’s musubi. (This isn’t sponsored, but musubi is easily a nine-cow snack.)

Show Promotion

This month’s Town Hall started with a “spiritual thought” discussion led by ABG’s John-Ross Boyce, inspired by a meme which read, “I hate that our phones have convinced the most impressionable among us that a world outside of three social media platforms isn’t possible anymore.” This opened up the conversation on ways to accomplish the same things without relying on social media, including:

• Provo has numerous telephone poles, which provide excellent real estate for posters
• A reminder to bands to ensure fliers have QR codes

Show Locations

The need for non-indie-focused venues/shows held a lot of attention amongst the group, and as a result, house shows were discussed. Sam of 3hive reminded the gathering that a house show is just a colloquial term for DIY. He made the point that DIY shows can be anywhere that isn’t a traditional venue and should be for exploration, saying, “Try whatever you want to try.”

Colin Foy later brought up the point that DIY shows allow for more than just a 3-4 band bill, where the night ends at 10 PM. If 5-6 bands bring 12-15 people, you are sitting at 60+ people for your DIY show. This also allows for great exploration of cross-genre shows.

Fern McKenzie of Velour Live Music Gallery also encouraged bands to book with Velour, especially if they are a non-indie band. “Promote and sell tickets, and you’ll most likely be invited back.” They made it a point that Velour has hosted more than just indie bands, especially recently.

Community Building

“To have a friend, you need to be a friend,” said JR. “To have people come to your shows, go to other bands’ shows.” The best way to receive support in the scene is to support the scene.

Darcie Roy educated the audience on the Downtown Arts Stroll, which happens on the first Friday of every month and features art across a dozen or so downtown spaces. “There is always incredible busking,” she said. JR jumped in and invited people to enjoy the art and potentially find someone to put together their album art or take photos.

This brings me to my biggest takeaway from last Tuesday night: Support more than just local music. Support local art. Support Provo. A member of Beautiful Cryptid encouraged people to get involved in Provo City politics. They are currently assisting a local candidate and have had productive conversations with them regarding the local scene and its needs. They made the joke: “because they are local politicians, they haven’t been corrupted yet and are willing to listen.” At the end of the day, the leaders of Provo want to do what’s best for Provo – all of Provo. Getting involved can help inspire the change we want to see in Provo. Something that I have come to realize as I’ve lived in and around Provo for the better part of 15 years is that there is ignorance surrounding the scene’s existence. By getting involved with local politics, we can be a voice for what the scene needs.

Colin Foy shared the knowledge that Provo City allocates money to the arts, and it generally goes unused. By speaking up and being seen, we can work towards using those resources for the betterment of the scene. Whatever resources we have now can help build a foundation and help develop an infrastructure that can be scaled as more resources become available.

Calls to Action

• Fern: Break down walls. “Go to a show this month that you weren’t planning on going to… you’ll be surprised.”
• Bly Wallentine: Ask yourself “What can I do for the scene?”
• The question was asked if Provo Music Magazine is accepting new writers. Yes, we are! There is some stigma surrounding PMM that we only review certain bands or certain genres, but honestly, we don’t have a large enough pool of writers to be wholly diverse. We want more voices to speak on Provo music.

(Lastly, this is a reminder for Colin Foy to create a Provo Music Discord server as a way for the scene to easily stay connected. Colin, you swore you would create this. Don’t let us down!)

The Provo Music Scene Town Hall is held the first Tuesday of every month, at 7 PM, in the basement of 3hive Records on East Center Street in Provo. See you at the next one on Tuesday, October 7! Be sure to follow Downtown Provo to see the map for the Art Stroll!