Hey, Davis musicians, this is a must-listen for you. Joel Daniel received his grant last year, and he and the city want you to know about it. Here it is, in Joel's words:
1) With the aim of bettering the quality of music that comes from Davis, I applied for a grant that I hope will impact it over many years to come. I have called it the Davis Independent Music Initiative (“DIMI”). The main parts of the grant are:
First, over the next few months, I will host a free and public series of talks aimed at songwriting and the process of recording and marketing a work. These will take place at Repower Yolo and will be hosted by Bike City Theater Company. This will be the first Wednesday in April (executive production), the first Wednesday in May (songwriting) and the second Wednesday in June (publicity/promotion). I hope this will be an opportunity for musicians of ALL levels to network, and to start to think about how to better their work.
Second, I will make an album of original music with a $5,000 contribution from the city. It must be done by June 2021. I will perform it out in public for free, and will host it online somewhere where the community can listen for free -- Spotify, etc., and,
Third, while the talks are going on, I will host a monthly songwriting critique workshop (most likely at Sudwerk) where members of the area (Sac, Dixon, Woodland, Winters, West Sac, are all welcome too!) can bring tunes they are working on (ALL LEVELS welcome, or even if you just want to listen), and we will workshop them and try and improve the quality of what people are working on.
2) I am working with the city to formalize this support for future years. It is the goal of the initiative that as long as the city continues to make funding available for the arts, they will create an ongoing stipend that allocates annual support to DIMI ($5,000 to $10,000). This will ensure that future artists continue to receive needed financial support, in order to foster the development of the emerging and talented local pool of musicians in Davis. While this is not a certainty, I feel strongly, in talking to members of the city arts commission, that this is something the city is very interested in supporting on an ongoing basis.
3) My ultimate vision with all of this is to open Spotify in 2030 and see 10 projects that were created through this program, and all say, from "Davis, California" in the bio line, starting with mine as the pilot. My secondary goal is to never hear "Mustang Sally" at the FarMar again (kidding, kind of).
This was important because I have noticed the quality and quantity of original music decrease over the years in Davis. There are a multitude of reasons, not least of which is there are fewer venues, no rehearsal spaces, and increasing rents (my own has increased 25% in 5 years!).
To receive all of the updates about the events related to this project, and hopefully the funding provided, and notifications about future grant opportunities, join the DIMI facebook group and/or send an email to davisindependentmusic@gmail.com or joel@thehoots.com.