Working Through It
How to keep building during this period of loss
The 67th GRAMMY Awards will not have much fanfare — most of the surrounding events, parties, and best-of-lists have been replaced with fundraisers and messages of condolence for those who lost everything during the fires. The 97th Academy Awards nominations have been delayed.
These events bring a lot of money to town—from the production crews to the catering to the event planners and more. But that pales compared to what the industry provides to the region, even in its smaller post-strike form.
Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world. The industry employs more than 680,000 people and contributes approximately $115 billion to the local economy. And for those independent artists bootstrapping their projects out of love and on personal credit, the luxury of canceling long-planned releases is impossible — regardless of how much they feel like they should.
Kapali Long’s recent EP dropped on January 10 as the fires raged. West of Texas launched its final music video related to its chart-topping Hot Motel Nights album on January 14, when the fires remained pretty much uncontrolled. Johnny Marfa and Lights had worked for nearly two months to promote today’s album release, which has all but stopped in recent weeks. Instead, Marfa put out a new song yesterday about the overwhelming loss we are all feeling.
The Glendale-based and still evacuated band, The Doohickeys, has music due out next Friday and will be holding their release party at the Margaritaville in Universal City Walk. Like many others around the scene, they will donate the profits of their merch sales during the event to a non-profit supporting musicians impacted by the fires.
All of these dates were picked months in advance. But the hills are still burning. Some of the people affiliated with these projects lost their homes. All of us are feeling somewhat lost.
And still, the work must go on.
Brea Burns, the Phoniex-based honky tonk artist and bandleader who spends a great deal of time in Los Angeles, also had a single drop during the earliest days of these fires. She was scheduled to hold her release party on January 9 at the Desert 5 Spot in Hollywood — which, of course, was canceled for safety concerns.
“My single has barely been on my mind,” Burns told me. “I’ve been in a daze and haven’t had the mental energy to promote my single if I wanted to, honestly.”
Right now, she’s more focused on “loving and caring for each other.” She will return to actively promoting her music “once it feels right.”
“I think at some point soon people are gonna need music as an outlet and to re-connect with their friends and communities, probably now more than ever.”