Interview: ARISE Music Festival's Luke Comer and Shannon Bock Preview ARISE Online NYE 2020 with Desert Dwellers and Reminisce on the Meaning of ARISE
Image courtesy of ARISE Music Festival
New Years Eve is going to look much different from normal this year - but there are forces at work on the quest to ring in 2021 with as much joy, excitement, and yes, music, as ever. One of those forces is ARISE Music Festival, who is throwing an online bash, complete with performances from Desert Dwellers, Magic Beans, Spectacle, and Melody Lines, live painting with Laura McGowan, poetry, interviews, and more. Meant as a global celebration of the things that bring us together as a community, the night will also serve as a means to raise money for the performers and for all artists affected by the Covid-19 pandemic through donations to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. It has been such a gift to work with ARISE Music Festival as partners to Rocky Mountain Virtual during these past 9 months, and I can’t imagine a better way to end 2020 and look toward a brighter future. I had the extreme honor of interviewing ARISE’s Executive Producer, Luke Comer, and its Marketing Director, Shannon Bock - the two people responsible for creating the magic that is ARISE Online. For developing information and real-time updates, don’t forget to follow ARISE on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Let’s start with introductions:
Luke, can you tell me a little about yourself?
Luke: As a kid I liked to play the drums, draw pictures, write stories, and build forts in the woods with my friends. I am still that kid, trapped in an adult’s body, operating professionally as a writer, director and producer.
Image courtesy of Luke Comer
When did you discover your love for music?
Luke: When my parents took me to see Buddy Rich play the drums when I was about seven. I was sitting real close to him - and was just blown away. My mother told me I needed to learn algebra before learning the drums? But I learned anyway. By the time I was ten or so, I was drumming for my band Chopped Liver - and a rock star for the several hundred kids at my junior high. These days, I still play the drums but mostly inside my own head.
…and how has it influenced your life?
Luke: For me, music is kind of like the wind. It blows into the still and perhaps frustrated and oppressed parts of my mind, bringing motion and feeling. And occassionally music blows me into communion with others, at places like Arise, into great, rhythmic swells of dance and freedom.
Shannon, can you tell me a little about yourself? When did you discover your love for music and how has it influenced your life?
Shannon: I was just a little kid—climbing up on the countertop so I could reach to put an LP on the record player. Everything from Elvis Presley and The Who to Michael Jackson, B.B. King, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Mickey Mouse, Bing Crosby, and the the list goes on.
I grew up in Memphis, so it was easy to find good music. All you had to do was walk down Beale Street, turn on the Grand Ole Opry or go to a friend's house. From rock n' roll and the blues to R&B, folk, gospel and even some country music, you could hear something no matter the time of day. I'll never forget when I asked my parents for my first cassette tape. I was about six years old and it was Christmas time when I asked them for "Elvis Presley: Aloha from Hawaii." I still love that album-the first live show ever to be transmitted around the world by satellite technology. Oh if Elvis could see us now!
Music has always been at the center of my life. I played piano and danced ever since I was little, but it wasn't until I was older that I
realized that my love of music was appreciated from behind the curtains. I was in my twenties when I realized that my true passion is to help people discover talented musicians and live music. There's nothing better than that moment when the band is performing on stage and the audience is in perfect sync with them—in the moment, singing, dancing, cheering. A beautiful chemistry occurs, a special moment when I know all of the hard work was worth it.
If you could describe ARISE Music Festival in two sentences, what would they be?
Luke: Communion with music, art, people and nature. ARISE Music Festival strives to inspire beautiful and powerful experiences within the community through vibrant and transformative music and artistic expression.
What do you hope ARISE Music Festival means to the people who attend it?
Luke: The gigantic, sleep-over party that:
Encourages everyone to banish both the social and material boundaries experienced in their normal life.
Encourages everyone to connect with their neighbors, with nature, and with the arts in all of its expressions.
Encourages everyone to overcome their own inhibtions and sweat and move; share and connect; teach and learn and explore the mystery of their existence.
Encourages everyone to open their own heart and mind, discover their own power and morality—and care for themselves, their community and their world.
What’s your favorite part of ARISE Music Festival?
Luke: Discovering new experiences—perhaps new music most of all.
Can you tell me a little about the ARISE Online series?
Luke: We are striving to bring the festival experience online, focusing mostly on music, but also visual art, poetry, theater and many other elements.
How did you come up with the idea for ARISE Online?
Luke: As soon as the pandemic struck, someone working for ARISE stimulated my interests in Online events. Soon thereafter, we partnered with Rocky Mountain Virtual (RMV), who appealed to ARISE because they were first to market and focusing mostly on developing artists.
However, I was not willing to devote many resources to a concept that was, perhaps, just relevant to the pandemic. So we developed the concept of Arise Online, which is perhaps most germane during the pandemic but designed, nontheless, to keep going after.
You have a very special ARISE Online session set for NYE. Could you tell me a little about it?
Shannon: Streaming from Colorado Sound Studios on December 31 beginning from 9:00 P.M. MST, fans, friends and family can tune in for ARISE Online and couch surf their way to the new year with concert-quality performances, newly released music, exclusive interviews, live painting, poetry, interactive chats and even more to be announced soon. ARISE Online will premiere on Facebook and YouTube as a free, streaming celebration headlined by music producers Amani Friend and Treavor Moontribe of Desert Dwellers and recently streamed performances by Magic Beans, Spectacle, Melody Lines and live painter Laura McGowan. The experience is sponsored by Sierra Nevada, Verde Naturals/Dablogic, Denver Westword, Rocky Mountain Virtual, and SharedViews Media.
In lieu of a ticket, viewers, who have the means, are strongly encouraged to thank ARISE Online performers with a donation of $10.00 to $20.00, or an amount that feels most comfortable to them. A portion of the proceeds also benefit Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. By donating, viewers are entered to win official merchandise, future concert tickets and more.
How has the music community come together to support ARISE Online?
Shannon: Even though we haven't been able to come together and produce a live festival this year, the musicians, artists and crews have graciously shared their time and talents with us to create ARISE Online. It's been an honor and pleasure to work with everyone involved, including our friends at Rocky Mountain Virtual, Denver Westword, KGNU, Adventure Lodge, SharedViews Media, Sierra Nevada and Verde Natural/Dablogic. With their help and dedication to the music community, we've been able to push the limits of live-music and keep our doors open virtually.
As part of the ARISE Online series, you’ve donated part of the proceeds to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. How did you choose this organization to donate to?
Shannon: From the beginning of the pandemic, it's been ARISE's mission to help support the artists, musicians, creatives, and industry workers effected by COVID-19. Sweet Relief has been helping musicians in need since the early nineties and their new Donor-Directed Fund makes funds available to be used specifically for musicians and music industry workers afftected by the Coronavirus. Funds raised go towards medical expenses, lodging, clothing, food and other vital live expenses to those impacted due to sickness or loss of work.
Photo by Andrew Wyatt
What do you want to say to the struggling music community right now?
Shannon: Even though we can't be together this year doesn't mean we can't Arise together! Let this be a time when you seize opportunities you might have once dismissed - be it a new collaboration, a virtual streaming experience, a different artistic medium, or pushing the limits of live-music. This is the time to arise and create new artistic mediums that will be pertinent now and into the future.
What’s something you’ve learned in 2020 that you’ll apply to the rest of your life?
Shannon: Don't neglect the insignificant moments or turn away from the most difficult challenges you might face; These are the moments when true beauty and creativity are inspired. Be persistent, be true to yourself, but more importantly think beyond yourself and seek ways to help someone else. Alone we can't get too far, but together we can do anything.
Image coutesy of 2ber
What’s a thing you never thought you’d miss about live music until Covid-19 took live shows away?
Shannon: Haha! Getting a wet willy from a random fan (true! happened at a Slash and Myles Kennedy show), the long, late nights getting ready for a show, or the sticky floors and vile bathrooms the morning after a righteous concert. I knew I'd miss the live music and the fans but never did I think I'd miss those off moments you couldn't predict.
How can the music community support ARISE Online and ARISE Music Festival during these strange times?
Shannon: Don't give up on us! Don't stop watching the show, even if it feels different or a little strange. Until we can come together at the festival again, join us in showing our support of the musicians, artists, poets, industry workers and more by tuning in to watch the show. Give a tip, tell a friend and we'll get through anything we have to face.