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United Nations Of Music

Recently, 'United Nations of Music' (UNM) was founded in the United States. As of now, UNM is a small corporation with a big name. UNM has no connections whatsoever with THE United Nations. Or it must be the goal of the organization: 'The pursuit of international harmony through the musical arts'. Instead of talking about harmony like its big sister, UNM wants to thrive for harmony through music. In Amsterdam, KindaMuzik sat down with three of the young people behind UNM.

Tekst: Manuel Aalbers

Publicatiedatum: 22 januari 2002

EMERGING ARTISTS
UNM wishes to encourage emerging artists across the globe and to assist them in revealing their work to a wider audience. Their participation in UNM will be mutually beneficial: emerging artists stand to gain exposure and opportunities as they actualize our educational and humanitarian programs.
Shanon Cooper (SC, founder, director and CEO of UNM): UNM is a network service aimed at promoting global unity and emerging artists. It was created for the promotion of a demographic that was not being represented appropriately, that is emerging artists playing music other than traditional, ethnic, jazz or classical music. There's a shortage of organizations for rock musicians, for hip-hop musicians. Those artists which are not already supported by major institutions. Internationally, there's a very large underground movement. That's something we hope to tap in to and initially responding to needs that we see coming out of that sector.
KindaMuzik (KM): How do you define an emerging artist?
SC: Someone that has obvious talents.
Jeff Harlan (JH, UNM North America): Struggling musicians that have reached a level where within the industry they're becoming to be recognized. And people are thinking they are gonna be the next big thing. And that's why they've emerged from the heap of other struggling musicians who haven't been recognized.
KM: So, you're not gonna look for new bands?
JH: Right, it's the next big thing. That's what the concept of an emerging artist is.
SC: We went to ACCESS TO AMSTERDAM not only to promote UNM, but also to look for new talent, because the artists that were at ACCESS TO AMSTERDAM are the kind of artists that will possibly be represented on our tour.
KM: Did you find any talent?
SC: Ooohh, there is great talent. Celia (who performed at ACCESS TO AMSTERDAM, ed.) is already in our book.
JH: I can't remember the names right now, because they didn't sound familiar. We met a lot of people where we can work with in the near future. We just started a couple of months ago. We wanna keep it small for now.
KM: Do you wanna keep it small or do you have to keep it small?
JH: Of course - for the moment - we have to. Hence, we will focus on bands and musicians that have funds and some backup. Not that were biased to that, but we do want hard working musicians that have in their head that they would like to go for it. Go to a great city. And through us, through our sponsorships - the people that we meet along the way - we are gonna be able to help these bands that have the energy and passion to be in the business and not necessarily just wanna be overnight rock stars.
SC: The basic UNM registration is the first step. We are working out the details for the access system to the Centralized Database for Artists Media and Industry (C-DAMI). C-DAMI is a registration/networking system. People interested in networking through the C-DAMI would pay a small upkeep fee and would then have access to other registrants' information. People interested in registering for free will of course still be able to do that, but in order to view the other registrants' information, they would need to pay the small user/upkeep fee. We have not decided on the amount as of yet, probably about $25 per 6 months or per year, something like that. Especially after attending the ACCESS TO AMSTERDAM conference, we think that the UNM C-DAMI will become an invaluable reference and networking tool for people involved in music as artists, in media or in industry.

	UNM programs 1. Associated Alliances Program: Through UN Tour and other programs, UNM intends to benefit regional non-profit humanitarian/educational organization. 2. Outreach Program: Regional public schools that are invited to participate in this program will benefit from performances, discussions and instructive workshops by UNM participating musicians. 3. Educational Grants: Emerging musicians focused on evolving music will be eligible to apply for educational grants from UNM. Grants are to be utilized by recipients in the pursuit of formal musical education at universities or institutions affiliated with this program. 4. International Musician Exchanges and Mentor-ships: UNM musicians will be provided with opportunities to collaborate with participating musicians of differing nationalities or musical genres, including established artists interested in assisting the UNM mission. 5. Evolving Classical Performance: Evolving Classical Performance Standard (ECPS) is a new method of stage presentation for evolving classical music. The traditional experience of classical performances involves the conductor facing away from the audience. UNM wishes to revise this tradition and rejuvenate young peoples' perspectives towards the modern classical genre. Through ECPS, the stage will be arranged with the conductor facing the audience, offering engaging and exciting performances.

UN TOUR
UN Tour will be the driving force providing UNM with the financial means to actualize other programs. It will also serve as a significant way to expose the world to evolving music and the emerging artists UNM represents. UN Tour will expose audiences across the globe to an eclectic ensemble of powerful, passionate artists. The lineup will change each tour, with special attention directed towards regional and gender balance. The tour is expected to grow, eventually reaching every continent.
SC: Music exchange is the major thing that started the whole organization. For our own experiences and from experiences of friends and of musicians, we found out that exchanging music is probably one of the easiest and one of the most enjoyable ways of getting to know people from other cultures. That way, we also try to improve international relations. UN Tour is the main vehicle for that.
Greg Glasson (GG, UNM General Office): Right now, UN Tour is in its nesting period. The reason pretty much why we came to ACCESS TO AMSTERDAM is speculation to see where we're at. See what kind of artists are over here. I think we got a pretty good idea of what and who we can bring into UN Tour. UN Tour doesn't even exist yet. We are looking for venues, for sponsors. We're probably gonna keep it simple for the first run. I would like to do it in Japan. Shanon got a lot of connections there and our regional office of course has a lot of connections too. The website has only been up for a month. In that time, we had 80 bands sign up. That's pretty good. From all over the world. So far, it has been a lot of hip-hop. And through the grassroots movements, people are gonna tell their friends and spread through. At the end of the year we will get together and try to really launch UN Tour. The first time it's not really gonna be a real tour.
SC: We will probably work with bands that are already on tour and a local or regional talent that will not tour will back up those bands.
JH: We are gonna pick a host country and we're gonna host. Essentially, there's gonna be a host city. But we will bring in bands form all around to have an event. And as we go the next two or three years, we'll have built up enough talent, promoters, agencies, venues and so and. Only then we can do a real tour. The first year, we will be doing more of a music exchange - not a tour.
KM: Basically, UNM is a good excuse for you to travel around.
SC: That's a fun way to put it. Travelling is great, but it's also a lot of work.

AMERICANIZATION OR GLOBALIZATION? GLOCALIZATION!
Around the big discussion table at the KM-office are three young Americans. These Americans founded UNM. As of now, it seems UNM is an American organization. Or isn't it? According to UNM the organization is more about internationalization than about Americanization. But why do they keep talking about regional processes and local scenes?
JH: UNM Africa has a hip-hop band that they wanna bring to the table. Since I am a promotor focused on Women In Rock, I don't know a lot about African Hip Hop... Obviously, I'm not gonna be the one who says 'ooohh, these guys, I'm not into that'. That would be a reflection of what I like. That's not what UNM is about.
KM: Maybe it would be better to have African music judged by Americans and American music by Africans. That way you can really see which band would be able to make a go internationally.
SC: That's interesting. Well, how the system will work… There's UNM general office.
KM: That's you?!
SC: Right… And then there's gonna be regional offices. The people in charge of those offices will have their team of people who are involved in the local scene. They are collecting everything and they will make a selection of what they think is good. All of that will be send to the general office. There will be a voting process and each regional office will vote.
KM: For now, it sounds the Americans are Americanizing the rest of the world.
SC: Well, let's talk about that for a minute then. OK, we are Americans and our man in Japan is American. But there are also Japanese, Brazilians and Africans on our team. There are a lot of Americans on the team, but that is because it is an American company. That's where it got started.
JH: We are not gonna bring only American bands on the tour. It's not a matter of what nationality we are. We are brining in different genres from different countries.
KM: But it's the Americans taking the final decisions.
SC: Not necessarily… It's not an issue right now. The issue right now is working as a team and really giving people something to put their effort into.
KM: So, on the one hand you wanna have a global movement, but on the other hand you wanna involve local things. Is it gonna be 'glocalization'?
SC: Glocalization? (laughs)...That's pretty cool! Glocalization?...Yeah, I guess you can call it glocalization. Yes, we will have the regional focus and try to bring local bands to other countries.
KM: What is more important: the global thing or the local thing?
SC: I think it's pretty hard to make a distinction between those two nowadays. Also, with the internet. And now, in Amsterdam: it's a Dutch city, but in the inner city you hear more English than Dutch.
KM: But, I hardly hear any Spanish or Japanese.
SC: That's true.

THE FUTURE
KM: How many people do you think are gonna be on the staff?
SC: At the moment, only a few. The staff will grow as the organization grows. This gives opportunities for employment for people. When we get bigger, we will be able to offer more and more people job opportunities.
KM: Where do you see UNM in - let's say - a year, to begin with.
SC: That's a very tempting question to answer… What do you think, Jeff: what is realistic? JH: I think a company that has shown progress and the ability to obtain more and more artists, sponsorship, funding, and the ability to produce a good show where everybody leaves happy - including the artists. I think that would be a really big step for us, because right now we're mostly researching and developing. Once we have a product out there that's in motion with sponsorship coming aboard...
KM: And now a measurable goal!
SC: A measurable goal? Probably to get to the United States tomorrow safe and sound.
KM: In a year from now, I said.
SC: ...I think...probably a 150.000 dollar in sponsorships and the creation of at least fifteen staff divisions full-time.
KM: And in five years from now?
SC: I would say...
KM: Nobel price?
SC: Nobel price (laughs)...A worldwide humanitarian educational service organization.
KM: Covering more countries?
SC: Covering everywhere!
JH: We really don't have all the answers. We really don't know everything. But what we do know: we are going to figure this out. We are going to drive towards an answer and by the time you see us next year, we'll have a lot more of those answers.
KM: So, we'll do another interview next year.
SC: Definitely!
JH: Progress, progress!

At present United Nations of Music are selecting bands and artists for the UNM compilation cd. Interested bands and artists can submit their music via the UNM website.

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