Roger's Neighborhood: October 2008

This blog was originally published in 2008 - It's tough to be a touring musician these days. Whether its dumping a pile of crap from your tour bus toilet, or expanding your carbon footprint to Bigfoot-size, the music industry has by definition an uneasy relationship with the environment. Everything from the manufacture of Media - tapes, CD's, DVD's - through the manufacture instruments and amplifiers to the largely disposable process of recording, touring, and performing live music. Since musicians, like social science teachers, are generally of the sensitive liberal type, the environmental impact of their profession has, like global climate change, become an increasingly heavy burden to bear.

the future of music?Musicians are beginning to change their work (and play) habits in an effort to reduce their environmental footprint. One promise of digital music is the reduction of environmental impact of media. While the non-recyclable jewel-case, plastic CD, and glossy paper liner notes have been improved over the years, industry reluctance to relax its jihad on file sharing (still legal in Canada) and agree on a standard format to distribute music online has slowed the conversion of musical culture to direct digital recording, exchange and playback. Some Canadian bands, led by the Barenaked Ladies, are looking to reduce the environmentally wasteful production of CD's by releasing their music on a memory stick. It is re-useable, and eliminates the need to press and package CD's. The mainstream music industry views this nascent trend with alarm, because it opens the way for unauthorized reproduction. But the bands see it as an extension of what already happens: they sell live shows to fans on line, digitally record their studio work, and regularly "update" their material with new recordings.
Other musicians are also trying to help the environment and continue to make a living. Sarah Harmer recently observed that while it is fun to tour, "I don't really need to be a big live act in England. I am six hours or less from Chicago, central Canada, and the northeast U.S. I can tour there." Other musicians, like the Dave Matthews Band, are buying carbon offsets to cover the environmental impact of their tours, while others are working with tour caterers, vendors, and other parts of their tours to reduce waste, spread a pro-environment message, and demonstrate their concern for the planet.
But what about musical equipment? While it would be nice to have electronic equipment run on renewable energy, there is not much room to maneuver for a popular touring band in this area. The materials used in the manufacturing of musical instruments have long been the subjects of environmental controversy. Rainforest hardwoods, whale oil, ivory, pearl, abalone, and chemical finishes also have a profound impact on the ecosystem. For the past 30 years, Yuen Shi-chun, a civil engineer, artisan, musician and environmentalist, has spearheaded efforts to update traditional Chinese instruments to use more ecological materials. The Huqin, bowed instruments played like a cello, are constructed of a wooden or bamboo core cylinder, with a long neck and pegs. The cylinder was traditionally wrapped in python skin. Yuen replaces the reptile skin with a recyclable PET latex membrane. Considering that it took 60,000 endangered pythons per year to meet the demands for the instruments, Yuen's innovation is having a Bigfoot-sized environmental impact. This time it is in the right direction.
— Roger