May (Delia): How Can a Musician Help the Climate?

You might be wondering how you can be "of use" as a musician amongst all the scientists and politicians - but is their message actually being listened to? Maybe you do have a secret weapon after all...

How can a Musician Help the Climate? 

Stevens & Pound live in the UK, whose government is currently bringing in some of the strictest anti-protest laws in the West (see this article from Amnesty International), which has been especially motivated by local groups like Extinction Rebellion or Just Stop Oil. This Public Order Bill has meant that caring about the environment and making some noise about it is actually illegal - in fact drumming in a protest would now be a criminal offence. 

But whatever you think about these climate activists, the political progress on the environment is frustratingly lacklustre given its urgency and it really feels like the important players do not want to listen to the growing body of evidence that the scientific community are continually reporting. 

But wait a minute..Who is more obsessed with listening than musicians? 

Percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie’s motto is to “teach the world to listen” and her new foundation now facilitates conversations between medical staff and patients, makes calmer sonic environments for children in care and teaches the curriculum to children through sound. This is all from a deaf musician who has had to reframe what listening means perhaps more than most. 

Hang on a sec..Who has access to a public platform and a conscientious audience all the time?

A couple of years ago the BBC Proms was “interrupted” in the interval by Just Stop Oil protesters. But when protesters interrupted this concert in Switzerland, Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski by refusing to continue the concert until the activists had had an opportunity to share their message, saying “Let them talk” or he would himself leave the stage. Your audience have literally left their couch to come and listen to you - this is an amazing opportunity. You often don’t know how influential the people in your audience are or will be one day. If you change their mind, they might change a key player’s mind. One person at a time. 

If you are a musician, then you can also be a curator..

And choose or write music inspired by the climate. This version of Vivaldi x Climate Change's Four Seasons - The [uncertain ] Four Seasons - which uses algorithms to run the original score through a programme related to 300 years of climate data from 1720 - 2020, reducing for example the amount of birdsong included in 1720 and increasing the severity of the weather in unexpected seasons. 

You are an Artist..your hands are/shouldn’t be tied - and it is your role in society

A lot of seemingly green organisations like the National Trust or the Environment Agency are working within such strict protocol or relying on interlinked corporate funding or governmental policy that individuals within these institutions are powerless to truly speak out against a system. It then falls to those more independent voices in society - charities, academics and very importantly, artists, to think critically and publicly. And the power that an artist has to translate this into a tangible communication the public can understand (as opposed to deliberately obscured legal jargon or highly complicated academic papers) is a huge power. 

EarthPercent

If you are interested in automating your environmentalism into something you are already doing, consider signing up to EarthPercent. It uses the royalties system (so in the UK - PRS for Music) and gives you a code allowing you to designate the planet as a “co-writer” of your music and giving the charity a percentage of all the music you write. So for example, we could do 40% Delia, 40% Will, 20% Earth if we wanted. The charity actually only suggests 1% as a starting point and artists include Coldplay, Jacob Collier and Emeli Sandé. 

Reframe your Activism using Powers you Already have

Force of Nature teach the next generation of climate activists “Theory of Change” asking you to reframe your activism as something that doesn’t have to involve standing in the street or getting arrested, but using the power you already have to make change. Climate change is the most pressing issue in our society and we would encourage you to consider it in every aspect of your life. Don’t let perfectionism get in the way of action. We know that already from the practice room as performing musicians! 

Here are some examples of climate-centred projects I've created of late:

• The Silent Planet - our double concerto for percussion and harmonica/melodeon plus climate activist reimagining Holst’s Planet Suite with an additional movement - EARTH

  
  

• Regenerate - Seasons For Change - Delia’s reimagination of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with violinist Simmy Singh (as featured on Sky Arts) using and improvisatory orchestra and additional percussion soloist to introduce more extreme weather and start a conversation around climate change

  
  

• Bodies of Water - a protest piece by Delia in her hometown of Hebden Bridge commissioned for their annual Arts Festival, bringing together local orchestras, choirs and wild swimmers to generate a through-composed 30-minute work inspired by Ted Hughes’ writing on nature to challenge the Calder River as being the second most polluted river in the UK

Next year we'll be working with the Robert Macfarlane on our additional composition to Holst's Planet Suite - Earth - and I will be writing a Forest Percussion Concerto - yep, you heard it right: playing the forest as a percussion instrument.

Delia x