Eleven years in, John Butler and Danielle Caruana’s Seed Fund is giving incredible opportunities to musicians all over Australia. And now they’re asking for the support of Australians to help them keep giving back, launching their first ever fundraising campaign through Pozible and announcing an incredible fundraising concert happening in Melbourne next month. To talk about it all, we caught up with Mr. Butler himself:
It’s been 11 years since The Seed fund was founded by yourself and Danielle Caruana, what inspired you two create an organisation for such a great cause?
It’s started as a lot of the things we do: A crazy dream. We were touring a lot throughout Australia. Playing different gigs and festivals and were seeing so many artists and bands that we wanted other people to hear. We wanted to hear them on the radio. We felt the wider public deserved to hear them and they were just as worthy as anything from overseas being played on the airwaves.
We also knew that for a lot of these artists just making a full time career out of music was hard. Getting to the phase of sustainability is quiet a distance away when first starting.
We believed and believe more with every day that culture plays an enormous role in the wellbeing of a nation. Our logic was: if an artist could sustain themselves from their art, the more art they would make. The more art they make, the more art we as a nation are exposed to. The more art being appreciated and created, the richer our culture would be.
So we dreamt about how cool it would be to one day have enough success to enact this dream.
I’ve been fortunate to have had popular albums in a time when music lovers bought actual albums and being independent on top of that allowed Dan and I the self reliant economy to make some bold and adventurous moves.
Amazing talents aside, if you were starting out today, do you think you would have been able to break through into the industry in the same way you did originally? e.g. Is it harder to break through now than it used to be – or is it just different?
In some ways it’s easier, some ways harder and most assuredly it’s different. Easier in the sense that the artist and public control the media “medium”. Social media in all its forms and access to YouTube and the like lets an artist and fan get in direct contact with each other and the beautiful act of sharing your latest musical discovery is easier and more powerful than ever. You no longer need to afford a full page ad in a big music mag or newspaper to get thousands of people’s attention.
Harder because that economy I talked about earlier; selling albums and getting paid properly is trickier than ever. Selling your music literally gives an artist or band the finances to fund and front costly tours that many times won’t make money. Once you have a decent size audience you can tour sustainably and maybe even profitably, but getting from not being able to afford plane tickets, car rental and accom to actually make a tour possible, to touring sustainability is a costly exercise in the books not balancing for quite a while.
What would an opportunity like this have meant to you in those early years?
I have received several grants over the years and they have all made a massive difference in my overall career. Most of those grants just allowed me to lose less money. Losing that little bit less made it worth while to build something that I believed in and knew would work if just given enough time. Building my career in the states was a MASSIVE undertaking. The overseas touring grants were instrumental in helping me justify the huge loss I was incurring. I toured for ten years in the U.S. before making a profit!! With the support of small grants in the early days I made an Australian fan base . That passionate, amazingly awesome fan base plus the grants fueled my career overseas and have allowed me to have a successful and abundant international career.
There’s a limitless amount of emerging Australian artists, what do you look for when uncovering these hidden talented artists?
We look for someone with a good work ethic and obviously talent. But work ethic is massive for me. There’s great art everywhere. There’s no shortage. But successful and sustained artist are rare. More often than not the key factor is elbow grease, dogged determination, and willingness to push themselves into challenging and inspiring places.
The Seed offers unique professional development opportunities for musicians, what does these include?
God where to do I start… We’ve sent artist all over the world to train with leaders in their field. Opera singers to Italy, slide guitarists to India , Kora players to Africa. Through the Inbound project that we partner with APRA we’ve sent industry and musical mentors to remote Indigenous community music festivals to help disseminate industry and performance based knowledge.
The management workshop that has become the backbone of what we do is in it’s tenth year and has made it possible for over 250 emerging managers and self managed artists the opportunity to sit down for four days with the industry’s most respected movers and shakers & soak up all there is to know about music managment .
The Seed launch their first official fundraising campaign next month for a one night only show, what are your hopes for the gig? What do you hope the audience experiences and what do you hope to experience yourself?
I hope it’s fun! For all of us! I hope the broader public get to know more about this amazing thing that we’re a part of. I say “a part of ” because this fund has gone way beyond Dan, myself and our small team. It’s made possible by so many passionate artist, bands, managers and industry operators.
How come you haven’t gone down this road with The Seed before?
I don’t think we were ready or had the right parts in place to make it possible.
You’re performing alongside a huge line up of iconic Australian artists, how does it feel to know that these extremely talented musicians have the same passion for the cause like you do?
It’s an absolute honour! It’s surreal. That’s why I took the “JB” out of “The Seed”. Missy and Paul have been long time contributors to this fund. It’s their fund too. Everyone who has donated their time and money to this project can claim it as something that they are a part and make happen. We just facilitate it. We’re alway so struck by the trust and generosity that this fund is given. It is really truly an honour.
Is there anyone on the lineup who you haven’t worked with before, and if so, what does it mean to have them involved in particular?
I’ve been fortunate enough to have played with all of these talented people. To make this event happen with them is exactly what The Seed is about. Legendary, established and newer artists all getting together to support future artists and music managers.
After this year’s fundraiser, what’s 2016 looking like for The Seed?
We’re just thinking about this year. There’s enough on our plate already!
You’ve had a huge year already – we caught you briefly in Ottawa Bluesfest and it was an incredible response. What have been your highlights of this year and what is coming up next for you other than The Seed?
Highlights? Ive been lucky to have had so many that it’s almost hard to remember. I think Dan touring her project, Mama Kin, in Canada whilst I toured the U.S. with the kids was huge for us. Pulling it off while having a load of fun and making our music happen was a dream come true. We take off some pretty big bites to chew sometimes but we’re a great team and there’s a lot of love in our family to make it all work. We’ve been touring with our children on and off for over ten years so they’re absolute pros and really enjoy their time out.
We got to open up for our friends Dispatch at Madison Square Garden which was great. That’s the second time we played there and I felt like we smashed that show. Rock Ensiene in Paris and Calgary Folk Fest were also epic. Then there’s the gig In Jena Germany… The list goes on. I feel very blessed.
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The first ever Seed Fund Pozible campaign is happening now, and you can donate for some incredible rewards here. It finishes October 14th.
As for the fundraising concert, that’s happening at The Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne on Monday October 12 with the likes of San Cisco, John Butler, Missy Higgins and Emma Louise.
For more information, check out The Seed Fund’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/theseedfund