FAC Insights: Ageing and raging - shattering stereotypes by Helen Meissner
FAC Insights is a forum for us to showcase and share long form pieces looking at various parts of the music industry and the society that shapes it. Pieces take the form of videos, interviews, discussions, articles and more. This week we are delighted to share an article by independent artist Helen Meisnner.
Ageing and raging
I am delighted to have been asked to contribute a piece on my experience of stepping into the spotlight as a solo artist having spent a decade promoting others in the independent music scene. The main reason this piece has been requested is because of the slightly unusual ‘back story’. My name is Helen Meissner and I am now 55 and only started playing around with Garageband during lockdown 18 months ago. Not exactly the expected/ usual age to start a musical journey. So, you can imagine my thrill at receiving various plays for my releases on BBC Radio 3 (Elizabeth Alker), a couple on 6 Music (Cerys Matthews and Tom Robinson), interviews with Mike Naylor on BBC Three Counties and some BBC Introducing plays for a remix I did for Michael Donoghue, as well as some generous support from a number of independent radio shows.
My tracks were created under my own steam, and were produced, mixed and mastered by myself, having self-taught, with a little help from my eldest Charlie Deakin Davies along the way. I still have massive gaps in my knowledge but I seem to have accepted that as inevitable and it doesn’t bother me now. Probably because, surprisingly, no one else seems to mind!
It’s fair to say that releasing my own music was not anything I’d ever aspired to. Never saw myself as a creative person in fact. And was more than happy to help others get more traction with their independent releases. To be working and promoting my own material still feels odd. But I have to admit, it’s totally exhilarating.
Other than my initial doubts about whether what I was creating was technically good enough for, say, radio play, I initially felt that my age would go against me in some way. So, I used an avatar rather than my photo on the socials. That’ll do nicely I thought. Hide behind that and then no one can judge me for being too old. I was a few weeks in, when someone on twitter who looked about my age, said that he also started off ‘anonymous’ but someone suggested to him that people prefer to communicate with someone they can see and relate to. So, I bit the bullet and haven’t looked back. Thanks Fonz Tramontano, who is now a fellow Clouzine independent music award winner.
In order to put this feature together I thought I would see if my experience was echoed at all by others. And I was interested to hear from a (male) artist called Alien Alarms (44) who said “I started making music again during lockdown and loved it. I worried about whether people would think I was too old to be making dance music again, so I took on an alias and avoided having photos of me anywhere: even using a photo of my headphones when I was on BBC introducing. I finally replaced the logo on my Bandcamp page with a photo from that show today and it was a huge relief. It feels good to be back”.
He also touched on something which I had not considered when I started. I was expecting my music to be online only and did not even consider that someone would want me to ‘share it’ from a stage with an audience. Except someone did. Three people actually, and one of them has had me back three times. Thanks to Neil March who runs the Vanishing Point series for alternative electronic and experimental music in South London. Next live gig 7th April.
I did actually win an award or two as well, which was astonishing. Clouzine kindly crowned my first two EPs in 2020 and 2021 and Tim Willett’s New Music Generator on Cambridge 105 was as astonished as I was when one of my tracks remained in their new music chart for 20 weeks and received the highest number of votes in their 9-year history. It was Tim who also asked me to ‘perform’ live. And from there, one of the award sponsors Sara Kathleen who runs the Hunter Club in Bury St Edmunds (gig booked for early June). Now this posed additional stress. I was not a ‘performer’ per se. I created in the computer but both said, I don’t care what you do, just come and do what you can. So, in the manner of ‘what the hell’ that I had started this ride with, I showed up and ‘entertained’ for the required set length and felt the same buzz as the artists I had been helping first hand. Suddenly I ‘got it’!!
Interestingly, Alien Alarms also reported a similar journey “When lockdown ended, I really wanted to play live, which made me worry again as it would mean ‘decloaking’. A couple of weeks ago I finally played at The Spirit of Gravity in Brighton and it was amazing. It felt so good to be playing live, a couple of people asked me if I wanted to do more shows and no one mentioned my age”.
When I had created my first tracks, I sent them to Tim Willett (who I mentioned above) and Stacy Hart from Running on Empty. I can safely say that their reaction was pivotal in my desire to continue to create. Both were generous and enthusiastic. Having supported the artists, I had been working with, Stacy kindly shared thoughts on ageism.
“Record companies have had to adapt to the digital age, and the great thing about it now is there is no age limit anymore, anyone coming out with a cracking record has the potential to be signed.”
“I don't think getting signed has the same status it used to. Unsigned artists are getting mainstream radio play, playing at prestigious festivals, touring etc, all without the weight of a record company behind them. You will always find ageism in everything but as for the music industry we've come a hellava long way in the right direction.”
Regarding my own releases, each album and EP (so far) has been different to the last, and in fact, ‘The Awakening’, my second album, is out today!! And it had a wonderful reaction from Nitin Sawhney, who received an Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017:
“Oh wow. Really beautiful. Feels like a ski trip from the mind to the heart and back, with lots of wondrous forests and dreamscapes along the way. Thank you. Gorgeous!”…for which I am truly grateful and understandably thrilled. Encouragement from someone like Nitin, who I admire so much, has been icing on the cake. There are the endless possibilities, there's the hope and the complete ‘unknown’ regarding the reach for our music. That’s the exciting part really. Who will hear it? Who will like it? Our tribe (however small) is out there. We just need to find it!
Creating and releasing music in my mid-fifties has made me reconsider all my assumptions. If the music feels right/current, or simply something original and from the heart, I believe that people won’t care how old the creator is. It made me wonder who else had ‘emerged’ at an older age. My husband Joe Rose only started singing professionally aged 60 after we met, with my encouragement for example, and he’s even had a play on Radio 2 from Elaine Paige! I heard from super hard worker Sarah McQuaid “I don't think I really found my voice until I was well past the age of forty. I'm 55 now and it's only in the last few years that I've started to gain an understanding of what I want to be doing musically and to feel confident in my ability to do it.” She continues “It's really tiresome to see grants and awards for "emerging artists" that specify an age range of 18 to 25 or whatever. Who's to say an artist can't emerge at age 60?”.
Funding is also something which Stacy Hart remarked on, “The only downside is the lack of funding of course, but suddenly, a world that had been closed to many was suddenly opened, whatever your age you could get your music online and heard by 1000's”.
It’s an interesting comment about the funding. So, I had a look into it. While there are still many opportunities to help younger artists (i.e. 18-30 or younger) with funding, some of the Help Musicians and PRS Foundation grants are open in terms of age and I urge everyone to explore these if you’ve not already.
I then wondered about ageism for established artists. Did they feel it? I found a successful career was still possible well into your seventies and eighties. International rock and pop household names aside, Debs Earl got in touch to say “Fairport Convention just completed a fantastic tour in their 55th year! Average age of 70. They're sounding better than ever!”.
John Atkin observed that “Merry Hell have achieved far more as older musicians than they ever did as The Tansads in their youth”.
And then there’s the singers who have been gracing our stages for decades and don’t show any signs of stopping! Miriam Erasmus told me “My last UK tour was 2019 at the age of 71. No tours since then, obviously, but I still practice and get asked to sing locally in Durban, South Africa”. I note that Mike Silver (74), Peggy Seeger (86) and Tom Robinson (71) (to name three of many) are all out on tour and sounding as good as ever. In fact, Kerry Harvey Piper got in touch to elaborate “I’m currently touring with Peggy Seeger who, at 86, is still going strong with her son Calum MacColl in his late 50s. As Tour Manager, I’m 62 and only our sound engineer is south of 30”.
I was inspired to hear from Mark and Carolyn from Red Shoes, “Despite being ‘tipped for success’ in the 1980s we just couldn’t make that extra step. But we were picked up (in our 50's)after our daughter Megan secretly posted some acoustic videos of us online. We came to the attention of Fairport Convention’s Dave Pegg and ended up being able to establish a full-time career”.
This would appear to support the notion that while social media and digital distribution can make everyone a smaller fish in a bigger sea, it’s possible for some fish to be discovered where upon in the past they might not have been.
Electronic artist and Fresh on the net moderator Tobisonics said: "The changing realities of the music scene present you with a choice as an older artist. The mainstream will always be obsessed with what is young and new, but that doesn't mean you can't carve out a place for your music as a niché market Artist".
You will inevitably find that some people feel rueful about their increasing age appearing to limit success, and I thought Steve S from ‘Negative Response’ (via twitter) made a pertinent point “I think it's extraordinarily difficult. Like all "isms" we can claim that's why we can't make inroads. But music is so subjective, there are trends towards certain types of music which can appear to be ‘age limited’ and exclusive, but they aren't”.
It’s been really great to come across so many stories while researching this feature. “I have enjoyed a lot more success in my 50's than any other period. The fact that this includes being put on the BBC Introducing Stage at Latitude on my 54th birthday demonstrates a sea change from the rampant ageism that used to characterise the industry and media”, Neil March.
I was pleased to hear that open mic's are attracting an older demographic too, thanks Sara Kathleen for this observation “I am running the song writing competition for Bury Fringe this year and there are at least 3 over 70's who are new to the scene. Open Mic nights are seeing a steadily older age of newcomers as well, and it’s always really positive, supportive and lovely”.
Emily Zuzik “A proud moment was for my electronic project Woves with Josh Ricchio and Kolby Wade that signed last year with RetroReverbRecords. We’ve been so wonderfully received that it’s been overwhelming in a lot of ways. It’s almost like a combination of everything I’ve been working towards my entire life. Now that I am nearly 50, I think I’m exactly where I am supposed to be and people seem to be right there with me”.
“We were thrilled when Tom Robinson picked up on our stuff, through the Fresh on the Net process, and hearing our tracks on his 6Music show was way more than we ever anticipated when we started Dead Anyway. We’re just having blast, to be honest. The music business does feel way more inclusive than I was expecting”- Kate Arnold from Dead Anyway.
“I didn’t write my first song until I was 43. The biggest surprise has been the positive reaction. I thought people would be a bit eye-rolly about this weirdo in her 40s making music in a pigsty but plenty have responded positively. I do wish I’d realised a couple of decades earlier how limiting it is to worry about people judging you “ - Nell Davies.
I was grateful to such an overwhelming response to my posts about this but I couldn’t include everyone’s comments here. But I will post them on my website which is linked here.
I would like to conclude this piece, which I hope has been reassuring for anyone wondering about taking the step to return to music (or indeed start creating and sharing those creations in public later in life) with the words of Marina Florance who’s been played on 6 Music and beloved by her local Norwich BBC Introducing, and Manchester based Catherine Burgis (38) Test Card Girl who is causing a stir on 6 Music in particular with enthusiastic support from a number of their presenters:
“I find that I’m always the first to mention my age almost as a defence mechanism when I talk about my music but it’s rarely mentioned by anyone else - everyone’s thoughts and art are valid and interesting and will find an audience at whatever stage of life they find themselves able to make something “.
And to close, here's Marina, who was approaching 60, having never sung in public, when she won a national song writing competition: “I'm really pleased to say that music lovers just love good music no matter your age. Music and the arts are for all, if you find others creating boundaries for you cross them anyway”.
The Awakening is out today and Helefonix’s next live appearance is for Vanishing Point at AMP Studios, Old Kent Road next Thurs 7th April 2022.
You can follow me here.