No Gatekeepers
Why I'm putting on my own show this month without a promoter
Get tix for June 23: Cadence Weapon and the Forager Band at Cameron House
The live music ecosystem has become more difficult to navigate than ever in recent years. There are significantly more artists performing than ever before. The loss of alt-weekly newspapers has made it so that fans usually only hear about shows after they’ve happened. Margins are thin on all sides and it’s been challenging for promoters and venues as well.
Playing shows has become one of the more stressful parts of being a musician. Rather than a direct communion between myself and my fans, the days leading up to the show have become a tiresome chain of obligations. The onus to sell tickets largely falls on the artist. I’ve even had to pay for my own postering. And if the show doesn’t sell out immediately, it can feel like the promoter already sees the show as a failure and the extent of their involvement from that point on is putting a veggie tray backstage.
No one else is going to care more about my show than I do, so I decided to see what it would look like if I took on all the risk myself. I wanted to have an intimate show where people would get to hear Forager live with the entire eight piece band. I booked Cameron House for June 23rd on Queen St. West in Toronto, a classic venue that has some jazz vibes that felt appropriate for this album.
I even set up my own ticket provider and I’ve been exclusively using my channels to promote the gig. The results have been really encouraging. I think people want more opportunities to support artists directly. I’ll probably try to do similar direct shows in Montréal, Hamilton and Edmonton in the future, so stay tuned for that. Until then, looking forward to June 23rd!
The show is nearly sold out (!) so get your tickets now:
My new book Ways of Listening is out everywhere. It’s been so gratifying to see people posting the book in the wild and resonating with the message inside. Writing a book is such a private, arduous experience, so it’s a strange feeling when it’s time to talk about it in public. If you do check it out and vibe with it, it would mean a lot if you could rate it on Goodreads.
The Walrus published an excerpt from the book over the weekend, you can read that essay here:
The final book event of the season for Ways of Listening is tonight in Montréal with Hua Li 化力 at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly at 7 pm. Come say what’s up!
Happy to announce that I’ll be playing Folk on the Rocks in Yellowknife on July 18th!
I got to talk about the ups and downs of CanCon on 99% Invisible
You can find me updating my playlists or hanging on TikTok, Instagram and Bluesky. You can listen to my music on Apple Music, Bandcamp and Spotify. You can get Cadence Weapon merchandise here. Pick up your copy of Ways of Listening here and please rate it on Goodreads.