WHAT WE'RE ALL ABOUT
Note: This is from Blue's speech at our first STLMU meeting on February 5, 2008 which explains how and why STLMU came into being and where we are hoping to go from here.

My original vision for St. Louis Musicians Unite! Myspace group was to create an online networking resource for musicians, venue owners, and media and to write articles encouraging musicians to support each other. I never anticipated that this would result in an actual physical meeting of all of us but this is good. The response of St. Louis musicians to this group has been quite impressive. There are obviously a lot of us who are concerned about the St. Louis music scene and want to do something to improve it. This is very good.

We could spend hours complaining about all of the problems with the St. Louis scene. But I don’t want to do that. I think we pretty much already know what those problems are. That’s why we’re here. So where do we go from here?

Let me start off by saying that it is NOT my goal to create some sort of musicians union or some kind of rigid official organization. And I have no intention of appointing myself or anyone else as a leader of this group. The idea of a leadership hierarchy completely goes against my hope for this group anyway. No one person can turn our music scene around as we are hoping to do. This will take a collective grassroots effort of each and every one of us. So now what is it exactly that we should be doing?

I don’t believe there is ONE way to improve the music scene. There is no ONE right answer. There are many right answers and many things we can do, that many of us are already doing. There ARE some very good things happening in St. Louis… there is a thriving rockabilly scene, the blues scene is still strong, and an active cover band scene. We’ve got a popular alternative radio station and several local music magazines. My hope is to learn from the success of these groups and work to connect them in some way so that the overall scene won’t be so weak and fragmented. How do we do this?

Some of you have submitted ideas to the myspace group about setting up various music events. These are ALL good ideas and by all means, get these events in the works. They will certainly be helpful.

But events alone are not enough. There are already a lot of events… what we have is the same group of musicians and friends who travel around to various venues and events. Adding more events does not IMPROVE the scene. It just shifts it around from location to location.

We are a subculture in St. Louis… a counter-culture in many ways. If you walk down the street and ask ten people to name five live bands in St. Louis, most of them will have no clue. Most people in St. Louis have never heard of 360 Smile, Jetpack, 8 Years, and all the other bands that we are so familiar with.

This is a culture that used to be very powerful and much more mainstream in St. Louis than it is now. We are in a period of decline and that’s what I’m hoping to change. This subculture is getting smaller and that’s what we need to turn around.

We need to figure out ways to GROW the live music culture and make it bigger. That happens when you add new members. We need to raise awareness, educate new people that we exist and have something desirable to offer. Can we do it? I believe so. But will we? I don’t know. That is what I’m hoping to accomplish with this group… that this will be an incubator for ideas and encouragement.

~ Blue Tapp Scheffer