We wanted to catch up with a few of our previous guests to see how they are doing in this quarantine from which, thankfully, we are slowly emerging. I’ll have a few different guests on to talk about the current state of affairs in our city, including the protests and state of our country. So here is a conversation with Boston Emissions’ Anngelle Wood, where we catch up on the radio industry, what the new normal will look like for live music and how she hit the ground running once everything went down in February.
Chuck Clough 0:00
Hi, it's Chuck from Above The Basement - Boston Music and Conversation. We wanted to catch up with a few of our previous guests to see how they're doing in this quarantine, from which thankfully, we are slowly emerging. I'll have a few different guests on to talk about the current state of affairs in our city, including the protests and the state of our country. So here is our conversation with Boston admissions Anngelle Wood, where we catch up on the radio industry with the new normal look like for live music in Boston. And how she hit the ground running once everything went down with COVID. You busy tonight Anngelle. What do you got going on tonight for you?
Anngelle Wood 0:40
I thought I'd go out to a buffet and then go bowling.
Chuck Clough 0:44
Oh yeah?
Anngelle Wood 0:45
Well, when you think about what's probably the most dangerous thing that you could do right now it's probably outside from going to an emergency room would probably be a super buffet.
Chuck Clough 0:53
Yeah. Well, there's talk about those not even being allowed anymore those super buffets.
Anngelle Wood 0:57
No, not at all. I mean, imagine all of those places. That have made all their money on those all you can eat things.
Chuck Clough 1:03
I know it's a sad sad state of affairs
Anngelle Wood 1:05
you're looking a little like Letterman right now retired Letterman.
Chuck Clough 1:09
This is more like I woke up from under a tree. Yeah, and I was gonna go get my beard trimmed but they're not doing facial hair trims yet. So let's get started. You know first of all it's obviously a very sad day with the murder of George Floyd. Talking about music made seem a little beside the point in that kind of with that kind of news story going on the horribleness of that they did come out with a third degree murder charge
Anngelle Wood 1:38
For one of the officers right?
Chuck Clough 1:38
For one of them. Yeah. We'll see if there's other charges coming. So it's it's certainly a sad day and so obviously, this has been tough for everybody with COVID and the shutting down of music venues and you know, Above The Basement and also Boston Admissions are doing their part to let musicians play for us, we've had, oh gosh, I don't know, probably around 70 or 80 musicians Come on Above the basement and I know Anngelle you've been having people on as well. So it's, you know, trying to give a place for people to go and listen to music. So
Anngelle Wood
I really miss talking to people. Its hard.
Chuck Clough
But so let's talk about what's been going on. So there's there's a lot that's been going on. Actually, I actually was want to back up a little bit to a lot that was going on for you before this whole Coronavirus started, which was the layoffs and the furloughs that were going on for all the people in radio. And so that was just having just before this all happened, if you want to talk about that for a minute,
Anngelle Wood 2:42
well, the structure of you know, much like big business, you know, and other backgrounds or, you know, industries, everything's changing. And what's happening in radio, is, you know, they're structuring everything so differently that less nd less people occupy studios and less and less people are you know on the air different companies have different ways of doing things and what these companies are doing is they're getting by with less people cost cutting I guess.
Chuck Clough 3:16
Was it February I guess when that was happening
Anngelle Wood 3:19
Yeah.
Chuck Clough 3:19
So that was that was tough and I'm wondering now with the return now to people online people now have to return to it but certainly more people are engaged online with the live video and listening to their radios now. They can't get out of their houses. Do you think this is gonna change anything for radio?
Anngelle Wood 3:38
I'd like to say yes, but I'm I doubt it. Because what's what's missing is that local elements, which is what made right what makes radio so great that we can sit here and talk to each other in real time. That's what makes radio great though the localism of radio isn't hasn't been really important for a lot of companies or programmers on larger scales. I mean, I know a lot of people who work in radio locally and they're, they're great people. They've just adapted in a different way. They recognize the importance of, you know, being in Boston being from Boston and talking about all of the Boston landmarks and street names and all of those things. But it's become sort of secondary to programming and a lot of ways not not for everything, but for a lot of things.
Chuck Clough 4:25
Tell me what happened to you once the COVID hit us. What did you do? Did you have a plan? Did you kind of take things as they came? Or I mean, it seems you hit the ground running? Because I watch what you do. And, and you you were, you weren't off the air at all. From what I can tell. No, I wasn't moving forward.
Anngelle Wood 4:47
I wasn't, you know, it was it was all very fluid. I mean, I remember back in March, when everything was starting to become very serious. It became very evident to all of us because you know, we're watching things move through Europe. And once it really touched down here for us in the northeast, it became very serious very quickly. So we, we all acted, I remember people were were starting to cancel shows, and I know that people were taking some hits for that. But people were being proactive from the get go. I had a show in mid March in New Hampshire and out of, you know, all concerns and otherwise, we're like, yeah, we shouldn't bring a bunch of people from Massachusetts, across the state line because we just don't know what's happening. But then so much change from mid March from where we are now where we like day 75 or day 80 or something of of being from home. I just wanted to try to connect with people people are still making music. They're still doing it.
Chuck Clough 5:48
They certainly are.
Anngelle Wood 5:49
and they're still trying to be active and be creative, however they can and some people did miss a beat. They just took what they were doing. On the stage and took it to their living rooms or their basements or their attics or their showers.
Chuck Clough 6:06
That's right, the showers will do this for ages and ages and ages,
Anngelle Wood 6:11
and raised tons of money and not not for themselves, tons of money for people in our live music community who had nothing.
Chuck Clough 6:21
I mean, Will Daly is just one of many who did that. Certainly he was a superhero doing that in a club. A lot of people were, were doing this kind of thing. And it was amazing to see that. You know, you can see a question here. I don't know if you see it on the screen, from James dollar, buddy. What are the silver linings in this for Boston accent music and the opportunity from this? Well, certainly there's the ability for musicians to hunker down and start writing.
Anngelle Wood 6:44
Yes
Chuck Clough 6:44
Right? And that they're, they're being very prolific in that manner. What else do you think there's an opportunity here that we may be missing?
Anngelle Wood 6:52
I think it is. It is provided opportunity for people to reach out to each other in a different way. I know that there are a lot of art Who really feel uncomfortable promoting themselves, which I totally get it. But I try to encourage bands and artists to look at themselves as more of a business. We're more of a brands. it you know, songwriting is very personal, I understand that. But to step it up and let more people know about what you're doing can be difficult. And I try to encourage them. So I feel like there are a lot of artists or bands who have been able to, because of the situations because of the condition we're in happening. Okay, I'm going to stream tonight, they're performing, they're sharing their music, but they're also keeping a presence for themselves. So maybe the the silver lining to some of this stuff is that people are feeling more comfortable exposing themselves in this kind of setting.
Chuck Clough 7:46
And I definitely noticed that when we first started doing the together Home Sessions, I know that some of the musicians had never done a streaming session. Yeah. And it's very foreign to them because they're sitting in front of a camera playing and You know, they see that people are watching, but they have no reaction to when they're done. And yeah, it takes some getting use to.
Anngelle Wood 8:05
And it's hard.
Chuck Clough 8:06
It is hard. Pople like me and you, I think might be a little more used to it because we're used to talking to a microphone and just recording it, but nobody in the room, you're doing that. But for a musician, they need that feedback. But they've, I've noticed the people who have who did it very early in the game, and they're still doing it now. And they're pros now they know exactly what they're doing. They you know, they they just quickly, but it certainly is a foreign way to to communicate with your audience, but certainly gave them that opportunity to to have a presence on the socials. And I'm sure that gotten a whole bunch of new fans and people maybe wouldn't have heard them without this.
Anngelle Wood 8:46
I agree. I think it's been really a learning experience for all of us. But artists for sure. I've watched I you know, I don't know if you've watched any of Walter Sickert stuff from the Bunker Walter secret of Walter Sickert and The Hammer B roken Toys. But there's never a moment where Walter isn't giving you some kind of he's really interesting. I find him to be an amazing talent. He's an artist. He's a songwriter, but he's just really entertaining.
Chuck Clough 9:12
Yeah, yeah. You never know what you're gonna see. And I assume eventually as I mean, this might be the new normal. So, you know, another another issue that's been coming up. And it's a major, major issue for every city, but certainly Boston is at the top of that list is the problem with venues, certainly the recent demise or hopefully, maybe not, you never know of Great Scott. I know they're trying to figure that out. But so many venues and minor restaurants they have a whole problem too. They're they're really hurting as well. The venues have a kind of a unique problem and that this is where people go together to listen to music, not just for the people listening, but for the music musicians themselves. What do you what are your thoughts on just a general calamity that we're facing.
Anngelle Wood 10:01
oh, it's it's hard, where live music was really the first to go. And it's going to be the last to return. I don't want to seem so dumi about that. But I don't see any other way around it. Our whole livelihoods are about gathering of people in and close proximity that we cannot do right now. I know a lot of people really want to go and see live music all of us do and we miss it. But I know a lot of people at the same time are nervous because of all of these things because of the unknown because we have really no certainty when things will open up. What that will look like. So much of the burden will be on the staff and the organizations. And that's all really concerning and to mention Great Scott, which has been a very successful to small room. It's been a very successful room for the people who own the space to just decide that a live music space isn't viable anymore is horrifying. But if we can rally behind Carl Levin and the people who are trying to basically back it, they're basically asking people to invest in great spot with the hopes that we could get the space back. It could be a viable room once again, I don't know. I'd love to talk to Carl more about it in detail and know what mountains he has to face. But one way we can help us we all have the opportunity to give money to the Great Scott funds. There are a lot of challenges and there's there's going to be a lot of heartbreak ahead. I'm sorry to say. There is an organization, a national organization that has been working hard. It's the national National Independent Venue Association, which has been working hard to get through to politicians. To help them recognize that subsidies for live music and arts are very important and are valid,
Chuck Clough 12:09
the venue's were having problems. I mean, it was it's always just a fight to keep going to keep it going and, and in the cities don't make it easy necessarily for the venues to, you know, to be able to survive in these spaces. They've Yeah, they're trying to get people to what do you call those people lobbyists are trying to get some lobbyists going
Anngelle Wood 12:28
Yes.
Chuck Clough 12:29
to work on their behalf. You know, another thing that I know you're very disappointed about was the 2020 Rock and Roll Rumble. I'm very disappointed. It's not gonna happen this year. I only actually had to cancel it and then pushed it off and then you had to re cancel is that how is that what happened?
Anngelle Wood 12:48
Yeah, we tried twice. It's not in the cards for us. That's what I get for having two rumbles last year. We've had a you know, there's 25 bands actually, there's there's 27 bands this time around because we have the original 24 plus the guest band set fire, it just wasn't going to be able to happen. Once I saw all of the national tours, just take everything off the table and knowing that every single venue running a venue is thankless. And most businesses like that are, you know, hand to mouth and nobody has a big, you know, savings account. So, when you're forced to shut down for three months, it's a question mark for it's a question mark for for everybody. I mean, I I'd hate to see any of our small venues go away. I mean, I don't mean I don't want big venues to go away. But they have far more backing if you're backed by a corporate entity,
Chuck Clough 13:44
The magic about the rock and roll rumble is that it's not just about the sound of music. It's not just about like, the quality of the song, how well they play. It's their presence on stage and it's the audience. The whole it's the whole package.
Anngelle Wood 13:57
It's about the it's about feeding The you know the audience feeding off the audience it's about the band having their people there. Once the vibe in the room is I mean it becomes electric, there's no other real way to explain it becomes electric. And the bands are feeding off of that and the fans are throwing it at them. I just want the bands and the fans to just be as close as possible and we can't do it. So until we can do that we can't have a rumble.
Chuck Clough 14:25
It's a fantastic event. Next year we'll be able to do this.
Anngelle Wood 14:30
I am planning on 2021
Chuck Clough 14:32
Excellent. So last question. And this is something that I see you post about this a lot. So you still have your Boston emissions show that you do. Right. Are you still you're still doing the Wednesday night show as well.
Anngelle Wood 14:45
I help on the town with my PT
Chuck Clough 14:47
on the town the PT right. Yeah,
Anngelle Wood 14:49
I help support them because there's a Tufts University is closed down as most universities are. No one can get into the WMFO studio. So the crew That's been doing on the town for a number of years, Joel Simkiss. And the great people there have been basically compiling things throughout the course of the week. And Joel puts it together and they're able to broadcast it on Wednesday night. Despite the fact that people can't be there live in person. I mean, who knows how long that's going to go, but there's going to be a show every week. That's great.
Chuck Clough 15:24
Well, this is all this is all good. I'm glad we got to talk about this. And hopefully soon we get to see each other in person. I really appreciate you. I appreciate what you do. Where can people listen to you?
Anngelle Wood 15:37
Bostonemissions.com everything's there. The show is also on most streaming platforms, Apple podcasts radio.com, Stitcher, Deezer tune in radio public
Chuck Clough 15:51
Boston emissions is the main thing.
Anngelle Wood 15:53
Bostonemissions.com that has everything on there, how to contact the show, if you want to email me if you want to send music If I can help you somehow. I'll try.
Chuck Clough 16:04
Thank you very much for doing this. I really appreciate your time
Anngelle Wood 16:06
Thanks Chuck good to see you. Nice Letterman beard.
Chuck Clough 16:08
Thank you. Thank you. It's gonna keep growing until somebody can trim this for me. I'm not gonna do it myself. Otherwise I'll ruin it. Okay, well take care yourself. And we'll talk soon, I'm sure.
Anngelle Wood 16:17
Thanks so much, everybody.
Chuck Clough 16:18
Thank you Angel for all you do for Music and Musicians in the city of Boston. You can see what she does at Bostonemissions.com you can also go to abovethebasement.com where you can sign up for a newsletter, listen and subscribe to our podcast, like our Facebook page, ollow us on Twitter, and look at all the nice pictures we post on Instagram. We are everywhere. From all of us at above the basement. Thanks for listening, tell your friends be safe. Remember, Boston music like its history is unique.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai