McLean has been a pivotal part of the Melbourne music scene for years from his work as a musician to, more recently, Bakehouse Studios and as co-founder of the awe-inspiring SLAM movement. The term Godfather does seem like a strange title though. “I guess we didn’t want to use a traditional term like ‘curator’ or something, it is a way of making it a little bit different like the program,” McLean says. “Really, we were there to advise and to help people shape their ideas to fit the very loose mould that is Self-Made. We had such a diverse range of applicants and we really wanted to make things unique. It’s hard to be unique and hard to be different in a place like Melbourne where so many people are pushing the boundaries. We had one application where some classical musicians wanted to perform in unusual spaces, which I thought was a great idea so I asked them where they were thinking. It turned out they were planning to play in cafes and restaurants but there’s no real point of difference there. I understand that classical musicians are frustrated that they are locked out, to a degree, of contemporary music venues but they needed something more creative. I suggested playing out the front of various venues on King Street at 3am which was a bit scary for them so we settled on laneways and they’ve come up with a few more crazy ideas.”
Melbourne Music Week essentially gave the Godparents free-reign as far as creative decision-making was concerned. “Melbourne Music Week gave us the basic brief but certainly the only real constraints for Self-Made were budgetary,” McLean admits.
With McLean’s unwavering support of live music and artist sustainability, he hopes that Self-Made is able to break down at least some barriers for up-and-coming artists. “I’m not a fan of music being given away for nothing but the reality is that art will always be given away,” McLean says. “A friend was telling me about massive festivals in New York where everything is given away for free. It’s an age-old dilemma with the arts – money and music…Some people will make money out of the event, they’ll get their foot into venues that they otherwise wouldn’t have otherwise and they will have some of the red tape cut. I’ll be very interested to see exactly how much red tape MMW can get cut for the participants.”
Ali Bird, the creator of one of the Self-Made events, Morning Ritual, is grateful for the opportunity to put on something so unique. “I genuinely think that for new people in the industry it’s amazing that they’re fostering us,” Bird says. She was inspired to put on Morning Ritual because, as an avid gig goer, her weekly grind is a damp music-less existence, that she trudges through until the weekend, or the evening, can provide her with her much needed injection of live music. So hey, why not have it with your coffee on your way to work as well? While her Monday to Friday is working within the arts, she can barely utter the words “I work in film law” when I ask her what soaks up the time between one gig and another, although she lets out a hearty laugh implying it’s not all bad. Music, however, is clearly a passion of hers that is now extending into the event management world. “Morning Ritual was inspired by the fact I do the Monday to Friday daily grind in the city and I wondered how I could make my day a little more bearable,” Bird laughs. “Quincy joked that I’d never get bands to play in the morning unless they’d still been up from the night before but I tried and it was actually really easy to book everyone. I saw that the City of Melbourne were putting out this program and that you could send in an application, have a one-on-one pitching session with the Godparents and then submit a proposal. I didn’t elaborate too much on my application, they were really keen on the idea, they said, ‘Yes, you can do it’ and then I was like, ‘OK now I have to do it’. I knew a few of the bands, a few I didn’t but had heard really good things about them. I chose these bands because they’re really good and perfect for a morning setting…The Sinking Tins’ Dave Reidy is one to watch, he’s a real talent.”
BY KRISSI WEISS
