What a year. In the midst of COVID, Black Lives Matter, the campaign, the election, and the insurrection to follow, what was our community doing? In particular  what actions did we take to survive and thrive creatively? What were we writing? How were we recording and releasing music? And perhaps most importantly, what did we learn that we want to carry with us into the light at the end of this dark tunnel?

Musicians, artists and entrepreneurs Rachel Garlin, Helen Austin, Kuf Knotz and Christine Elise faced the past year head-on, writing, recording and releasing new music. We’ve brought them together to jam on how they did it: what kept them inspired, how they managed restrictions and maneuvered within a music business redesigning itself by the minute.

During this one hour free discussion, expect to gain insight into self-motivating in the isolation vacuum; collaborating while countries apart; recording together remotely; and taking advantage of the most powerful digital platforms available to us to successfully release new music in innovative ways.

For a discussion on recording during a pandemic, we literally could not have a better sponsor! AirGigs is an online music marketplace that gives music creators direct access to world-class studio talent – anywhere there’s an internet connection!

Rachel Garlin

Artist, athlete, activist Rachel Garlin who seeks to swing and release through the adventures of life while collaborating and engaging with her community. What do you do when you come across a listing for a free photo booth, a handmade version of the kind they had at old-fashioned fairs? If you’re a songwriter like Garlin, you likely salvage the thing, set it up in your garage, and add it to a collection of found treasures displayed to walkers-by on your streetcar-lined sidewalk in San Francisco. You chat with neighbors and strangers, and jam alongside your wife and young kids—improvising lyrics and melodies while finger-picking on an old Gibson J-50 guitar. You’re a visual composer, with a strong dose of color synesthesia, so your songs are pictures; they range from concise musical snapshots to long-developed portraits with details only the darkroom of a poet’s heart can reveal.

Helen Austin of “Big Little Lions”

 Big Little Lions are a prolific cross-border duo folk-pop duo.

MC/ Poet/ Songwriter Kuf Knotz and classically trained Harpist / Guitarist / Pianist / Vocalist Christine Elise have created an outreach performance project combining hip hop/soul & classical music to foster community growth through musical expression.