How does the music community address this moment?

I spent Monday at a climate conference organized by Brian Eno's EarthPercent. One of the highlights of an inspiring and empowering day, filled with insights and signs of how music is making a difference, was hearing a letter read by music and climate journalist Greg Cochrane (whose name will be familiar to anyone who reads Loud + Quiet, NME or who heard this episode of the Drowned in Sound podcast).

I was so moved by what Greg had to say that I wanted to share it with you, and he gladly obliged:

This Moment Matters.

A letter from me to my music community… by Greg Cochrane

My name is Greg. I’m a music and climate change journalist. Like you, this past fortnight, I’ve been watching the wildfires devastate large parts of Los Angeles and felt shock, sadness, anger, hopelessness and heartbreak. 

I couldn’t get my head around the scale of it, until I realised that just one of the fires - in Pacific Palisades - was, at one point, around x24 the size of the Glastonbury festival site. Lots of you reading this grasp what that means.

And so I wanted to write briefly about this moment we’re in right now – one of heightened overwhelm. 

I’m grateful that my job often feels like a postal worker - I hear stories from one place or one person, and deliver them to somewhere else. And so, since Tuesday 8th January, I’ve been speaking to and messaging affected people in the Los Angeles music community. I’ve also been reading their stories. Their stories keep coming.

One of the things we hear regularly about climate change is that it can feel unrelatable. To some people - particularly those of us in places to have the privilege of wealthy economies and temperate weather - we’re aware of it, we care about it, not we’re not truly ruled by it. I often hear climate change is… too massive, too global, something for the future, something happening somewhere else to someone else first. 

And the loudest voices we hear talking about it are politicians arguing and scientists forecasting dire warnings. Some people don’t see themselves in it. 

With that in mind, I want to invite you to feel some of these stories to emerge from Los Angeles: 

There’s Reb. Reb’s humble family home doubled as the headquarters for the niche but iconic independent rockabilly music label Wild Records! The place – a rockabilly fan’s dream. Personal items, a recording studio Reb had been working on for two decades and a one-of-a-kind collection of rockabilly master tapes. The crown jewels of the label, if you like. It’s now dust. 

There’s Alexandra. Alexandra runs a music PR company. She has a six-year-old and a young baby. Day-to-day she reps artists whose music plays out across the radio station airwaves all across America - and beyond. Her home, and its contents, in Altadena is now a pile of scorched rubble.

And Jake. Jake’s a mastering engineer. His home garage is his workspace. He, his wife and their two-year-old evacuated the home they’ve painstakingly saved up to buy. That night they drove around their neighbourhood blasting their car horn, alerting their neighbours to urgently leave and get to safety. When they were allowed back - it was all gone. 

Then there’s… Brian - a music lawyer. Bobby - a guitar tech. Brooke - a conductor. Ana - a sound healer. Chantal - a music photographer. Cynthia - a label executive. Emeka who runs a music community space. Eros - a manager. Gabe - a composer. Isabel - a booking agent. John - a music teacher. Kimberly - a lighting engineer. Anna - a DJ and promoter. Madeline - a video director. Wendy - a music supervisor. 

Tony. Greg. Chris. Lorely. They’re artists. You’ll perhaps know them by different names. 

You get the point. This could go on and on.

What do they have in common? These folks - their lives have been destroyed. There’s a spreadsheet circulating the music community with almost 400 names and stories like these. The list is still growing. 

And so. Even if we don’t know these people. The jobs they do, the passion they have - is known to us. We need to be there for our friends and colleagues in the short term. But maybe the most striking thing… every day, as we warm the planet, it makes each of us a little more vulnerable. These aren’t my certainties but those of science. There will be another LA, whether in that city or another. Without quicker, bolder action on climate, these events continue to keep on coming, each bigger and harder than the last. 

And so, things will temporarily calm. The fire delayed concerts and albums will come. The Grammys will happen. But let’s remember LA in the weeks and months to come.

Because there’s another thing we know for sure. As we look upon what’s happening around the world today, this year is going to challenge your resolve. Maybe like never before. Find the people who also care, support the organisations doing everything they can – it’ll make you feel a hellova lot less helpless.  

I guess I’d say to you, when you meet those challenges: Remember Reb, Bobby, Ana, Isabel, Cynthia, Emeka and all the others who’re currently rebuilding from nothing. These are people who got into music for exactly the same reasons that everyone one of us did. 

These are their stories I’ve shared. Our story - us, you, me, here in the music “industry” - is how we help them, and what we collectively do about the bigger problem. If each one of us can show a fraction of bravery, commitment and spirit of our friends who’ve just lost everything in LA - then we’ll go a long way together.

And so… I’m gonna sign this letter off by borrowing a line from one of my favourite musicians, ANOHNI (I think she borrowed it, too) She likes to say: 

“It’s time to really feel what’s really happening…” 

Let’s all try and do the same.

Yours, 

Greg

Greg Cochrane is Music x climate change journalist, broadcaster and content maker The Guardian, BBC, NME, Penguin and more. He's also the engagement Lead at Reuters Oxford Climate Journalism Network and hosts the podcasts Sounds Like A Plan and Midnight Chats.

Read two of Greg's recent reports here:

LA wildfires: More than 1000 music professionals supported by charity

Over 1,000 people in the music community in Los Angeles are being supported by charity MusiCares following the fatal wildfires

NMEGreg Cochrane

Hollywood director Adam McKay on LA wildfires “catastrophe”

And the enduring resonance of climate satire ‘Don’t Look Up’

NMEGreg Cochrane

Further Exploration

Sounds Right Fund — EarthPercent

EarthPercent0

GEI Conference — A Greener Future

A Greener Future

Resources for Musicians and Industry Workers Impacted by the L.A. Fires

A number of organizations and coalitions are offering financial and mental health aid to industry workers across the music and entertainment industry.

VarietyThania Garcia

The chronicle of a fire foretold | Rebecca Solnit

The current fires in Los Angeles are reminders of the costs of forgetting

The GuardianRebecca Solnit

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative

Join the call for a Fossil Fuel Treaty to Manager a Global Transition to safe, renewable & affordable energy for all

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative

Octavia Butler imagined LA ravaged by fires. Her Altadena cemetery survived

Since the Los Angeles fires began last week, “Parable of the Sower” and other Octavia Butler works written decades ago have been cited for anticipating a world wracked by climate change, racism and economic disparity.

AP NewsHillel Italie and CHRIS PIZZELLO

Climate activist Tori Tsui: “Only by working together do we really stand a chance against climate change.”

She’s an activist, author, and Greta Thunberg’s friend - but most of all, she’s someone demanding change.

Marie Claire UKAlly Head