This interview is a preview from our upcoming second print issue. Follow us on Instagram to stay up-to-date on when this print issue is released.
Starting with a group of passionate friends, Bay Area Rising has quickly grown into the immersive experience we know today. Their listening party and exhibit in January of this year blew the minds of everyone attending.
They hosted their January iteration at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, their first contemporary art museum show. The room itself had reflective walls and top-to-bottom floral arrangements. It was a calming atmosphere heightened by the beautiful live performances of the artists chosen for that night.
These events are gaining popularity, and for good reason. The passion from the people working behind the scenes to the artists on stage is palpable. Their biggest and last show of the year will be on November 23, 2024. Follow them on Instagram to be the first to know when these tickets are released.
I’d love to learn more about Bay Area Rising. What is your role, and when did this project start
David: If I were to give you a quick summary, Bay Area Rising is a community-based organization. 2 years ago we started hosting what we call listening parties that initially felt a lot like NPR’s Tiny Desk, but we’ve evolved with our artists to create unique, intimate concerts with rising independent artists. We started with a dream to create a community, but we had no industry connections, no budget, and no framework for how to bring this vision to life. We are just a group of very, very passionate individuals who help put these together in the Bay Area.
I don’t know what my official role is; the main thing I do is ring people up, put them all in a room together, and let the magic happen. I think the true leaders of this project are all the creatives on our team. We have very, very talented creatives on the team, from videographers to photographers to audio engineers, whatever it takes to put on a show. It’s my job to go find them and then help coordinate the show.
You’re like the ringleader of the whole thing.
David: I really don’t know how I ended up here. [laughs]
What inspired you and your friends to create Bay Area Rising? Did you feel like something was missing in the Bay Area? Or was this, like you said, just a passion project?
David: This started with two of my close friends—they’re musicians themselves. Justin used to play drums in high school, and Dwight is actually pursuing music professionally. They’ve always said that it’s really hard to find a stage to perform. You either have to know somebody or already be really big to be able to perform. There’s so much talent here in the Bay Area. It sucks that there aren’t enough opportunities to put yourself out there.
I love building up communities, and I love being able to put on really big events. What if we create a show ourselves, put on a unique stage, and bring on whoever we think is talented? That’s how it all started. We had no idea what we were doing. But, you know, we were really passionate. What you’re seeing is us doing our best effort as people who aren’t experts in the industry, learning and figuring things out along the way.
You can really feel the heart and passion of everyone on the team. I remember walking into the venue and being blown away by how beautiful everything was, and how nice some of the volunteers that I talked to were. It was a great thing to see.
David: That’s the community that we’re trying to carry. We don’t have a budget, we are very grassroots. Our priority is to help and support creatives and rising artists. When a project is built with passion, you tend to gravitate toward people who have the same vision. The people who help put on the shows all came in as volunteers. They saw the vision, and they wanted to support it. That’s the magic that happened in that room.
I’m honestly blown away by what happens at each event. The vision we started with was on a much smaller scale. But more and more people started jumping in. And not just random people, these are very, very creative and very talented individuals. I was blessed to meet Laura, our newest creative director. She went all out, this was her time to shine. She nailed it and delivered.
How have the Bay Area and the network you’ve created while growing Bay Area Rising influenced the experience and design of each listening party?
David: Another role that I play is that of a talent scout. I try to find underground artists, really talented people who might not have a big following yet. I really love meeting people like that because they’re so genuine about what they make and how they go about creating. My goal is really to spotlight those people.
When it comes to putting on these shows, we try to find as many Bay Area creatives as we can. Laura, for example, is from San Mateo. She just started a business herself. She’s a florist trying to launch a career. We understand how expensive it is to live in the Bay Area and how hard it is to continue being a creative, it’s hard to pay off those bills. It would suck to see someone who’s extremely talented give up on their creative passion just because money is the issue. We come in and do our best to spotlight these creatives as much as we can.
Do you still keep up with the artists from your first show? Have they blown up in popularity since then?
David: In the very first show we threw, we worked with a lot of artists who weren’t as well known at the time. And since then, they’ve blown up – I mean, they’re all so incredibly talented that it was really just a matter of time. I think that we’re doing the right thing. And we’re trying to find more people out there who are just as amazing. We really do our best to promote them and play a part in helping them gain traction and grow their audiences. It’s really cool to see their journey and their growth.
There was someone on your team interviewing a couple next to me. They asked if they’d heard of any of the artists that were performing that night. They’re like, “Yeah, this artist, I love them. When I found out that they were coming to the Bay, I bought a ticket immediately.” The person next to me said, “I don’t know any of these artists, I just came in blind.” It’s cool to see the mix of people coming for their favorite person or just wanting to experience music.
David: Our goal is not just promoting artists, we’re also building community. We bring in people from around the US because we’re trying to build a music scene. What accelerates that is by having them connect with other artists, so that they can share their fans and their community. The lineup in January—they would have never been in a room together had it not been for us sending an invitation for them to fly all the way to the Bay Area.
We still stay in touch with all these artists. Our goal for every show is to invite them back so that they can all stay in touch and continue fostering that relationship with us and each other. What’s really cool is that we host these jam sessions where you’ll find artists from past shows. In the latest lineup, they’ll come together and hang out, which is really, really cool. It’s probably one of my favorite parts of organizing the shows.
