Pop-Up
From the 19th– 24th October I was in Old Street underground station in London for the 6th Empirical pop-up. It’s always a rewarding and tiring week when we build, run and perform in a pop-up shop that we’ve shipped from London to Cheltenham, Birmingham to Berlin. We play for 4-6 sets a day, for free, for anyone who wishes to listen: Startled commuters, inquisitive office workers on their lunch break, nonchalant hipsters who stroll in confidently as if to say ‘Of course this is here’, plus music fans and fellow artists who have heard what we are up to.
I recently noticed a poll conducted by composer and saxophonist Steve Lehman, which asked fellow composers and bandleaders which performance opportunity they valued most: One band in one venue for one week or seven bands in one venue for one week. The results were 76% in favour of the 1-1-1 opportunity. Although it’s undoubtedly very beneficial to see other ensembles perform, I can’t help agreeing with the majority; after a week at the pop-up I can say that I’ve made a small but tangible step in the right direction and the same goes for Empirical as an ensemble. This might be an obvious conclusion, but the fact remains that it is rare to get the opportunity to perform so extensively in front of a listening audience, with residencies at established venues so hard to come by. As a result, all four of us have become acutely aware of how these weeks add up to substantial musical training and conceptual refinement. It also provides us with a useful platform to reach out to new audiences, many of whom would not voluntarily seek out music that incorporates improvisation.
In this age of self-PR it can sometimes be a challenge to connect to the fundamental ideas and experiences that lead to becoming a musician in the first place. The pop-ups have snapped some of those back into focus: Pursuing the experience of being in the present moment during a performance, honing one’s craft personally and collectively, bonding on and off stage with other musicians and sharing music with different audiences. Perhaps most fundamental of all: Being interested and therefore taking pleasure in the process, as opposed to concerning oneself with ‘being interesting’