05. Open Your Mic with Matthew Gustafson (and Friends!)

I feel like, um, God himself brought us together to host these open mics and we're doing a good job.

So we just have to continue to be yeah.

In reverence and gratitude to the universe and to the performers, um, who just keep showing up and, you know,

feel the you never know what you're gonna get you like kind of do if you know certain people you know but it's like yeah people come out of the woodwork people bring different things each time yeah the vibe of everyone is different basically every time totally

yeah there's like such a you know i think i when i first thought about us doing it i mean i don't know if i had such an image in my head but i figured it would be more of like i don't know you're growing up doing like a talent show type of vibe where it's like this lighthearted fun, everyone gets to share their thing.

But I've just found it to be something where people are really connecting so deeply through connecting with somebody's song or poem or whatever it is that like people will bring something vulnerable or really deep and it'll just like bring everybody into this space together where we all feel closer we feel like super excited about celebrating the person who sometimes they're like on the fence about whether they're even going to perform and they get you know we kind of one person going and getting that warm response makes it feel a little bit more accessible for the next before you know it like you know sometimes we've had it where it's like been

15 people and like everyone performs pretty much um

And I just, yeah, I just think it's like this very cool, I don't know, it's going to sound like kind of woo, but I feel like there's like an energetic field that starts to like cohere throughout the course of the night where it starts to get really like juicy and everybody just keeps building and building.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I mean, I've just seen so many moments, uh, including in the one we've recorded where like, yeah, just like everybody emotionally gets brought to a place together and it's, uh, it's powerful.

I feel like, you know, it often takes that icebreaker.

It's a funny thing when we start the signup list and it's like, who's going first? Someone will definitely sign up second, but, and you know, and, and so on and so forth, the list will fill other than first.

And that's always a little funny.

I think it's, sometimes the mc's responsibility or you get a brave soul who doesn't mind or likes it or i think in the case last time someone signed jacob up like for i think that's why it would happen you know and he was down to just do that um Yeah, and I've thought about it, you know, akin to the talent show thing in my years of doing open mic, and that is an attitude that can come up for some people, but I think it's really like, especially what happens here in the attic, is like what I love so much, and it's like intimate listening, right? It's like, it's not therapy, but it's a place where people get it's, you know, poetry, songwriting, a cover song, but maybe they're new to guitar, so it's very vulnerable to perform, or like, in my case, like original music where it's like, I've been playing music so long, but it's still a little, you know, like, oh, you know, how is this gonna go? For serious performers, maybe it's a way to like gauge, interest or like you know is this a good song or how am I doing or that kind of thing but yeah there's definitely a field that gets created and I think that's just because everybody's hearts are really being shared and I think people respond really well to that you know and it's like a small space like out of cozy, inviting, you know, lower pressure.

It's not very like, oh my god, I'm on the stage at the Colony in Woodstock.

You know, it's like, it's like, I'm in this house.

That's where I usually play my music or something like that.

Totally.

I feel like because of that, I mean, it's something I'm not even always thinking about because it's so never enters the space that there isn't this like, oh, I'm just here to perform my stuff and get seen type of vibe that you might get at an open mic in the city or something like that.

There's really a sense of like we're performing for each other.

We're here to support each other.

There's no one who's like coming in for their five minutes and then leaving.

That's just not... how it's happening at all.

Totally.