Judy Wagley: Sean Miller is a sing-songwriter based in Petoskey. Like all musicians he is facing a lot of uncertainty.
Sean Miller: I’m Sean Miller. I’m a singer-songwriter writer from Petoskey, MI. I’m also in a band called The Real Ingredient. It’s a Duo, we’ve been doing it for about 4 years. I’ve been flying solo my whole life but in this capacity for about the last 2 years. It’s more or less my side gig. For my full time job I work for the Little Traverse Bands of Odawa Indians in their language department.
JW: A few weeks ago, Miller had a plan in place that included a tour to celebrate the release of his first solo album.
SM: So my original plans were to play at a couple different venues. I was supposed to have gigs at all new places I’ve never played at before, at least solo. I’m releasing an album on April 1st- that is still going to happen. And then shortly after that next weekend I was supposed to play again at 2 new venues down in the Detroit area. Those have been cancelled. And then I’m still waiting to hear, I don’t have any confirmation yet but starting April 15th I was supposed to be heading off on a tour around Lake Michigan. I was going to play in Marquette and I was going to play in Madison, Wisconsin. I was going to play in Aurora IL, Chicago, IL and then back home to Grand Rapids and then Albion downstate and then home back to Petoskey and then back to work.
JW: Now, Miller is playing the waiting game.
SM: I’m off work until at least April 13th. That’s kind of been changing day by day. Luckily, I work for an organization that I’m still getting paid leave so I think I fit in a little bit of a different boat than a lot of other musicians because a lot of them rely on this income because that’s all they do. I’m really feeling for them, but I myself, personally have lost out on all of those gigs that I just mentioned and potentially this tour so I’m just doing a lot of sitting at home and waiting for the emails to come in for cancellations or reschedules and waiting this thing out like the rest of us
JW: But will those gigs come back?
SM: Some of them, no. Actually, I know some of them won’t because they’ve told me. Some of them are trying to reschedule but we’ll see. A lot of this stuff takes months to plan out so we’ll see. I’m still waiting for cancellations. You know, the Michigan lockdown, at least what Governor Whitmer has proposed, April 13th is when we’ll be able to get back out of the house and the tour was supposed to start the 15th, so if everything works out and we flatten the curve, and we get the go-ahead, I’m still gonna go on my tour. But if not, I don’t know if it will be rescheduled.
JW: Miller said his fellow artists are struggling, but technology is offering an outlet and some hope.
SM: A lot of them are hurting right now because they do rely on that income and so far, there’s almost $1,000 that I personally lost out on, and like I said earlier, I fit in a different boat because I do have a full time job that I can rely on for extra income but if you put that in perspective of a full time working musician, $1,000, that’s a car payment, gas, food on the table, that’s their utility bill, their rent, or their mortgage payment. A lot of them are hurting right now but what I’m seeing is a lot of resilience out of online communal efforts to help everyone out since we’re not allowed to talk face to face because we have to social distance ourselves. There are all sorts of stuff popping up now online to help out these artists and musicians and performers, whatever word you want to use.
JW: Like many musicians, Miller has gotten creative with technology to get his music out there to help others, and he’s even found a silver lining.
SM: So what I did, is the gigs that I had cancel in March, I decided I would do a Facebook Live and Instagram stream, but instead of taking the money for myself, I decided I would donate to different relief funds. And then I’ve also decided that each night I’ll match up to $50. So, I’m just trying to help out where I can. I just feel like it’s important to help one another out. I had help getting into the music scene up here and finding my way into different venues. I just had a lot of help and I like to pay it back and pay it forward when I can. I’m just glad to do it. Plus, it was interesting because you get the insights of the analytics when you’re done in the live feed. I’ve seen people from across the world watching. that’s the other cool thing. Someone from Colorado is not gonna come to Beards Brewery in Petoskey. So that was another cool thing I found was that I had people watching from all over the place.
JW: Miller did not want to attempt to predict the future, but felt optimistic that eventually, people would come back together to enjoy music and good company.
SM: You know, the first couple of weeks might be a little weird because people are normalizing the idea of not distancing themselves anymore but I think after that phase, we’ll see a lot more people coming back and supporting, not just musicians, but the restaurants and the bars and the venues again. I think people even in the short amount of time, I’ve only been at home for a couple weeks, not even and I miss going out. I miss playing and I know that people miss going out to their favorite restaurant or brewery and hearing their favorite local musician or whoever. I know people are getting a little stir crazy so I’m sure there’ll be a resurgence of people wanting to go out to the music and have a good time.
JW: Judy Wagley, WCMU News.
