On the back of a slew of cancelled events throughout 2024, it’s no secret that live events across Australia and New Zealand have faced difficulties this year. For artists like producer Chris Emerson, aka What So Not, the difficulties have forced him into action to be a part of the solution.
With some rare downtime on his hands before heading to New Zealand for a show in July, Chris Emerson had an idea. The revered music producer known as What So Not was keen to throw an epic tour – unlike anything he’d done before.
Emerson wanted to create a gateway to the stage for younger artists because “we could have the next Fred again.. in Australia and there’s just this ceiling over the top of them, blocking them from getting there. All we’ve got to do is give them the key.”
To activate an untapped community, he organised an impromptu tour, allocating his free time to try to be a part of the solution. He started by asking his online followers to share the names of fresh performers who could benefit from some support.
“We’re trying to revive the Aus dance scene, get emerging talent in front of crowds and shift club culture from the local level up,” he wrote on Instagram. “This tour is for the underdogs, the bedroom producers, the acts that haven’t had their shot.”
More than 800 people responded to the initial post, tagging lesser-known stars and attracting eager artists who were more than happy to put their hands up to be involved.
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Following its success, Emerson is now calling for allies to join him in making a difference.
“I’m just one person, but I’ve had some really amazing artists and managers hit me up who said they are going to start doing this too. If everybody just does it, just overnight, it’s going to fix half of the problems and it’s going to build an ecosystem that is going to build itself back up,” he says.
“There’s all these problems that perpetuate themselves, from top to bottom. Everyone is running around like ‘what’s going on?’ So that’s what brought me to be like ‘why don’t I have a look at what is going on?’
For him, a simple solution is to ensure up-and-coming artists have clear pathways to success.
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“All you have to do to be in touch is to help younger people. It just wins for everyone, you hear music and are inspired by things you didn’t even know about. You go and work with these people and have the most fun. You help level them up and get them on track to have an actual career. You might do a collaboration together, get a remix, just go do it,” Emerson says.
In the age of social media, artists rely less on big labels for exposure – but that’s causing its own problems.
“The younger artists that I am friends with who have had huge TikTok songs, that do have really big profiles from blowing up with viral videos, they are struggling to have careers,” he notes.
“They are struggling to last more than six months or a year and that is about the scariest thing I can think of… It’s not something that’s going to sink into somebody’s soul and be meaningful and carry on for many decades.
“The second it becomes that, it’s so easily replaced with AI, it’s so easily replaced with some generic churn and burn major label project that they don’t care about its longevity.”
On the other end of the scale, shows with smaller capacities are facing their own challenges.
“That just means you can’t take risks on things,” Emerson explains. “It’s expensive to bring someone to Australia. It means you can’t put on that exciting new act that’s getting offered to come round to the other side of the world and then people never get exposed to that style of music and it never takes hold of the other producers in the town.
“When there’s less venues, there’s less opportunities to tour anything; when there’s less venues, there’s less opportunity for local acts to actually make this a full-time thing. It has to become a hobby and it all just starts degrading.”
Emerson knows the work that’s needed to get back on track, and he believes everyone can do their part. “It’s about just trying to work out all the different aspects that are going to really start to dial it back in. It’s not ‘how much money can I get out of these people?’ It’s ‘how do we make the best show, the best experience, how do we make everyone win?’
“Everyone is doing it a little tough, you have to treat everyone like they’re your partner. The second everybody just takes a breath and thinks of a few small changes they can make, the collective difference will be so massive.”
That’s why he’s calling for the industry to band together in order to get through this tough spot.
“Be innovative and be creative which is what artists are meant to be so let’s rethink the wheel a little bit and build this back up,” he says.
What So Not’s upcoming tour dates can be found here.
