Side Door launch and New Music
Hello love,
Side Door launched last week. Officially. It's a fully functioning online platform & community with over a thousand users who have helped us craft it through our beta phase.
Beta Phase?
Platform Launch? User Interface?
These terms hadn’t occupied my mind until recent years. I don’t think Laura or I really knew what we were getting ourselves into when we hammered out the concept for Side Door way back in 2017. We are not serial entrepreneurs or (shudder) “tech bros”, but as we began to build a platform in the landscape of online communities, we realized that we’d inadvertently become perfect imposters because we had something undeniably special on our hands.
The inception of Side Door’s premise came way back in 2008. I remember playing a show to maybe ten people in the main room of an old run-down house in Waterloo. The handful of college-aged roommates called this space “The Trepid House”. I played first, then Two-Minute Miracles, then Hey Rosetta. Nobody had heard of these bands at the time. The audience was largely made up of members of the other bands, but it was pure magic. Years later, I toured across Canada with Hey Rosetta, and they have remained some of the best pals I have in the Canadian music scene.
These early experiences weren’t just about building an audience… they were about building a community, and furthermore, building a body of experiences that have taught me what to value in my life: I want goosebumps as many times as possible before I die.
Me and Hey Rosetta at The Trepid House in 2008
I had reached out to The Trepid House over Myspace in hopes of landing a show there because I’d seen them listed on other bands’ gig listings. Back then, people would route a DIY tour and just post cities where they planned to play, and in the “venue” field, it would say things like “LOOKING FOR A GIG - MESSAGE US!”. It was so simple - we hadn’t convinced the music industry that we were worth investing in, so we were forging ahead on our own. I remember thinking, “Why isn’t there some kind of tool that just connects artists with people who want to host something awesome in their space?”.
Playing to thirty people in a club is financial ruin for everyone involved and, with some exception, generally sucks. Playing to thirty people in a living room can literally change your life. The context of a gig is nearly as important as the performance itself. This is something I learned early on. I’d show up for soundcheck at bars and start re-arranging tables and chairs. I’d make sure the TVs were off. If they didn’t have good lighting, I’d pilfer the green room (if there was one) for lamps and put them on stage. There’s the story of the world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell playing Bach concertos on a $3.5M violin in a DC subway station, going largely unnoticed by passers-by just hours before playing at a sold out theatre. We don’t even realize the full extent of how the context or presumptions of an experience affect the actual experience.
NEW MUSIC ALERT
I recently released covers of REM's Losing My Religion and Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. Click the artwork to have a listen.
I realized early on that a deep connection with a small audience was far more valuable than a shallow connection with a large one. Side Door shows are a win for everybody. The host gains the pride of having curated something special for their community, the audience gets a unique and intimate experience, and the artist actually makes some money and has a hope in hell of winning the hearts of a dedicated audience.
It’s hard to believe that the thing we dreamed up back in 2017 is actually alive. Hosts and artists can find each other. We’ve removed the barriers of entry. We’ve removed the gatekeeping. I get emails all the time now from agents and managers of emerging artists, asking how to apply to play Side Door shows. It’s such a relief to just tell them to sign up and get to work. We’ve sorted out a user interface (there’s that phrase!) that simplifies and streamlines all the details of booking a show so that it’s transparent and easy to understand. Hosts and artists can check up on their shows in real time, watching the guestlist grow, and seeing exactly where every penny is going to go as soon as the show is over.
In the tech world, most often what happens is that you imagine a perceived tool, then you build the tool and see if anybody likes it. We took the longer slower approach, growing our team with people who really, really cared about solving this problem, checking in with artists, hosts and audience members at every step of the process to make sure that we were actually providing a solution that made sense.
- WATCH: Broken Social Scene play a Side Door show at a goat farm -
Although we are using the word “launch” today, it’s already a thing. Nearly 1000 artists have joined us - ranging from treasured cult favourites to emerging new stars. Nearly 300 people with spaces from backyards to national parks, condos to mansions and yurts to community halls have signed up to host live performances. The 167 shows that have happened from New Orleans to Liberty, Saskatchewan and from a farm in the mountains of Vancouver Island to the backyard of a home in Newfoundland. And we’ve expanded beyond music to bring in plays, comedy, live podcast recordings...any kind of live performance.
We promise to keep gut-checking as we go. We want to build something that makes the world just a little bit better. Something that helps artists make a living, but also helps foster connective tissue through the shared experience of art. As we mentioned before - it’s not a tool. It’s a community. We have relied on feedback from everyone involved and strive to make Side Door something that is exciting, fun, and simple to use. Keep on us.
This has been a long one! Thanks for making it this far. I've just added a handful of new shows in the USA and Canada - if you know folks in these places, it'd mean a lot to me that you might let 'em know about the shows!
SHOWS
USA
Mar 11. Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's | TICKETS
Mar 12. Washington, DC @ DC9 | TICKETS
Mar 13. Boston, MA @ Cafe 939 | TICKETS
Mar 14. New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge | TICKETS
Mar 26. Los Angeles, CA @ Hotel Cafe | TICKETS | Sold Out
Mar 27. San Francisco, CA @ Hotel Utah | TICKETS
May 2. Seattle, WA @ Columbia City Theatre | TICKETS | Just added!
May 3. Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios | TICKETS | Just added!
EUROPE
Apr 4. Leeds, UK @ The Brudenell Social Club | TICKETS
Apr 5. Dublin, IE @ The Grand Social | TICKETS
Apr 6. Manchester, UK @ YES (The Basement) | TICKETS
Apr 7. Brighton, UK @ The Hope And Ruin | TICKETS
Apr 9. Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso (Upstairs) | TICKETS
Apr 10. Wiesbaden, DE @ Schlachthof | TICKETS
Apr 11. Munich, DE @ Hansa 39 | TICKETS
Apr 12. Lorrach DE @ Between The Beats Festival | TICKETS
Apr 13. Dresden, DE @ Beatpol ~ Polimagie Festival | TICKETS
Apr 14. Lucerne, CH @ Konzerthaus Schüür | TICKETS
Apr 16. Graz, AT @ Postgarage | TICKETS
Oct 1. London, UK @ Union Chapel | TICKETS
CANADA
July 6. Hamilton, ON @ Royal Botanical Gardens w/ Strumbellas, Donovan Woods & Dizzy | TICKETS | Just added!
Aug 10. Burnaby, BC @ Burnaby Blues & Roots w/ Feist, Lord Huron | TICKETS | Just added!
As always, thanks for your ears and your eyes.
Much love,
x
Dan