The Future of Music? The Path Less Traveled

Catherine Feeny and Sebastian Rogers a.k.a. The Challenge of Feral Green, two Portland Oregon based singer-songwriters, are defying the laws of modern music. They convey innovation and inspiration, while inspiring a rising generation of musicians to unconventionally attack the blustering, polished, and ever downward spiraling music industry.

Last year the two artists set out on a 15,000 mile, 43 stop tour across the US, playing shows in the living rooms of friends, fans, and stranger alike. The idea was to bring music back to its origins, skip all the commercial bullshit, and do what artists do best. No sponsors, no ad campaign, no budget, no rules, just two talented musicians bringing music back to its roots. Selling CD’s with hand-drawn covers to pay for gas, and at times not knowing where they would end up the next day, the two ventured into the great unknown.

Both Feeny and Rogers have tasted the so-called success that modern record labels can offer, but they chose a different path, the path less traveled. Reading some of Rogers’ afterthoughts about the tour proves that there is no glamour or hype to be associated with such an endeavor. The thrill of performing art in its truest form is the only reward, and is it reward enough? Rogers own words offer both hope and despair “Now, after many glorious and fulfilling and a few painful and disturbing nights, my ego and heart are in tatters – both stretched and bloated to bursting – then burst and reinflated so many times that they despair of their keeper and punish me for taking them on this wild trip…”

Two independent filmmakers from Los Angeles, Wayne Watson and Jeff Holmes of Faction Films, met up with the duo in New York and followed them for three weeks documenting their travels. The two filmmakers investigate the realities of the tumultuous tour in their film, Remember Where You Are. Although at first they didn’t see how joining the two musicians on the road would be plausible, Feeny and Rogers’ unusual approach to touring must have sparked something inside the two Los Angelean filmmakers. It wasn’t a week after Feeny and Rogers appeared on The Garden Party, an online musician showcase hosted by Faction Films, that Watson and Holmes decided it would be elementary to refrain from such an opportunity.

Currently, the filmmakers are raising funds to finish their documentary, Remember Where You Are, on Kickstarter.com. If this story has inspired you as a artist, be sure to do your research, know what you are getting yourself into, then be prepared for the worst, hope for the best, and maybe you will end up somewhere in the middle.

See a trailer of the film here

http://catherinefeeny.com/

http://thegardenpartyseries.com/TheGardenParty.html

Ferguson Irvine, Indie Contributor

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