We are proud to have Music Declares Emergency as 2023’s guest curator for the 52nd Regina Folk Festival!
ABOUT OUR 2023 GUEST CURATOR:
Music Declares Emergency (MDE) is a group of artists, music industry professionals, organizations and music fans that stand together to declare a climate and ecological emergency. We believe in the power of music to promote the cultural change needed to create a better future.
MDE’s RFF curatorial selections include Abigail Lapell, Logan Staats, Shad, and The Weather Station.
RFF had the opportunity to ask each of them two questions:
Why is it important for you, as an artist, to support climate action?
How does sustainability factor into your work as an artist?
Check out each artists thoughtful answers below xo
“Addressing the climate crisis is the defining challenge of our era. As an artist, action on climate is important to me, in part, because music and art have such unique power to bring people together and inspire collective thought and action. Arts workers also have the platform and community networks to help raise awareness, start conversations and organize for meaningful change.”
Abigail Lapell
Why is it important for you, as an artist, to support climate action?
“One of the things I've always aimed to do in my music is look at and name some hard things--hard realities, difficult feelings--in a way that hopefully helps people do the same. I think that's a key social function of artists in general. One of those hard realities that's been on my radar lately is our climate crisis so I'm just trying to look at that in my music and hopefully help us approach that reality rather than hide from it.”
Shad
“For me, climate change and indigenous resistance are one and the same. Alongside saving the land, cultural resurgence is an integral aspect of indigenous resistance that I embody in my work. It's all intertwined.”
Logan Staats
“It is important for me as a citizen and a person. There has never been a more important issue in the history of humanity and that is not, in any way, an exaggeration. Nothing is untouched by the climate crisis and nothing could be more destructive to people, our society, our culture, and our world. I think everyone on earth today has a moral and emotional responsibility to engage with this crisis and of course to support climate action. I don't think it has much to do with whether or not I am an artist, it has to do with being a person.”
The Weather Station
“At this point climate and sustainability basically cut across all areas of social practice, political policy and personal experience. So it feels like an ever-present part of everyday life. I've been part of a few really fun projects that explored sustainable and carbon-neutral ways of touring, including a bicycle tour and bike-powered music festival. Lately I've been thinking and learning more about how individual artists -- and the music industry at large -- can embrace sustainability in big and small ways -- from cutting down on air travel or plastic water bottles to fundraising or spreading awareness and starting conversations with audiences. Finally, a lot of my songwriting is inspired by natural landscapes, seasonal rhythms and imagery: forests, rivers, mountains. To me, music is an important way of connecting with a sense of wonder and belonging, of connectedness with a larger community life on the planet. I think my work as an artist helps sensitize me to the deep terrors and joys of that experience. ”
Abigail Lapell
How does sustainability factor into your work as an artist?
“I have lots of thoughts about sustainability in my work as far as my own personal energy, creativity, physical health, mental health, etc. But in terms of how my work affects the sustainability of our shared home, I have fewer ideas sadly and really no special insights. I'm grateful for organizations like Music Declares Emergency for leading that conversation in our industry about how we can be more environmentally sustainable. We need it.”
Shad
“As so much of my work is an ode to the natural world and my connection to it, of course I have to walk the walk as well. If I'm not touring then I'm on a frontline, and when I'm touring I'm using my platform to spread awareness.”
Logan Staats
“I always direct my booking agents to route reasonable tours that don't require a lot of back and forth travel, I try to avoid domestic flights and I often drive rather than fly, and I limit plastic on the rider. However, I don't think any of that makes my work sustainable and I would never use that word to describe my work or my life. While of course there is nothing about writing songs or singing them that impacts the atmosphere, in order to engage with any aspect of the music industry, whether it's streaming, vinyl, or touring, my work becomes enmeshed with fossil fuels, in some way or another. This is not unusual, it is simply a reflection of this moment in history, and is the nature of most of our lives. Our entire society and country is deeply embedded with fossil fuels and they are implicated in everything we touch. This doesn't mean we should not try to use less, of course we should, but until we have actually taken climate action, and actually begun phasing out fossil fuel use entirely, as science is clear we must on a tight timetable, much of what we do is not sustainable from a climate perspective.
I hope for and fight for a world where everyone has the ability to live a life and do work that is genuinely sustainable within the limits of our particular planet and our particular atmospheric limits.”
The Weather Station