Episode 70 : Why Do We Keep Making Music?

Who are we actually talking to? What are we trying to fill, to repair, to affirm? What are we trying to prove – if anything? And perhaps the question that sometimes hurts the most:  is there even an audience for what we create?

As indie artists, I think we’ve all asked ourselves these questions at some point.

Maybe after releasing a track that disappears almost silently into the endless stream. Maybe while looking at numbers we promised ourselves we wouldn’t look at. Maybe at 2am, while working on a song nobody asked us to make.

And yet… we make it anyway.

Claudio recently answered this question on my blog, and his words reminded me of something important: there will never be one universal answer. We all have our own reason for pressing record again.

Maybe that is precisely the point.

Welcome to Episode 70 of Le Salon Indie de Mitxoda.

And tonight, the answers come through music.

Marla Fredonne passed through the Salon, before Walters Fall gave us a perfect little dose of resilience with Weary Wings, the kind of energy that tells you to keep moving despite everything life keeps throwing in the way.

Then, straight from Romania: Tweener, back in the Salon with only their second track sent my way, Fallin’. Magyarul is müködik!

Sziasztooook!

The regulars from J&M Band returned too, firing off a rather peculiar Italian Job, while just before them Ian from The Sanctity of Crows, shook the machinery with his latest opus, Arrival.

Different countries. Different sounds. Different reasons to create.

And still, somehow, we all end up in the same room.

One last thing before I leave you with the music:

Hey Cinco Dave – happy birthday!

And if you still don’t know him, go have a look – and a listen, over at the online radio On the Air Tonight. Another person keeping independent music moving, one track at a time.

And for the final stretch, we headed south.

First to Barcelona with Saturna, before crossing over to the Basque Country for Aschen, a Basque metal band bringing the episode to a heavier, sharper close.

Aupa Euskadi!

Seventy episodes.

Maybe I still don’t know exactly who we are creating all this for.

But you’re here.

That already feels like a pretty good answer.

Welcome to the Salon.

Love you all,

-M