It’s easy to take every breath for granted. It’s easy to remember the highest highs and the lowest lows. But Victoria musician Oliver Swain is interested in what lies in between those two extremes, such as time spent analyzing and working for political change.
Swain hopes that his benefit concert for Syrian refugees on March 20 (all proceeds will go to a Syrian family who arrived in Victoria this year) will cultivate the idea, in the eyes of Victorians, that our current political and economic situation needs some critiquing.
“The grassroots response to the refugee situation in Canada has been really inspiring,” says Swain. “We’ve seen that, politically, sometimes people have what I would describe as xenophobic ideas about what opening the doors to a large number of refugees means.”
Swain, who first joined a rock band at the age of 13, says that it is good to see how Canadians have handled the situation in Syria.
“Witnessing not just that people are willing to open the doors and give refuge to these people, but that they are literally willing to work hours and hours to host them in their homes… I’ve done several benefits for various Syrian-refugee-related causes in the last several months,” he says. “Seeing it move from discussion to action, and how willingly and effectively Canadians have been mobilizing, I think, is something we can all be proud of.”
And Swain says that the movement from discussion to action is important when dealing with political issues.
“There’s the sort of political discussion, which really pales in comparison to massive mobilization, because there are going to be some people who have obstructionist ideas toward it, and that’s fine,” he says. “But, you know, talk is cheap.”
Swain says that Victoria has a vibrant music scene and that the idea of benefit concerts is one with much value. And that’s a value beyond a dollar sign.
“I don’t buy this sort of free-market capitalist idea that everything’s value and worth in society should be governed by what money you can get for it,” he says. “When we as a culture eliminate the barriers to music and allow people access and get people participating, this is good for music and it’s good for musicians. On the other side of this, of course, as an economy, we want it to be viable for people to do what they want to do.”
Finding places for musicians to do what they do can be tough sometimes; Swain says it is increasingly difficult to find venues in the city that don’t just “focus on over-serving people alcohol.”
“I mean, really, that’s what we’re talking about,” says Swain. “Is your average person going to come in and spend 100 dollars at the club?”
But Swain acknowledges that it’s tough to run a venue in town these days, citing costs that have a negative effect on the arts community.
“We’ve seen a lot of venues close,” he says, “or have to switch to the kinds of arts and music that is only the very most profitable.”
Oliver Swain
3 pm Sunday, March 20
By donation, Congregation Emanu-El, 1461 Blanshard Street
oliverswainmusic.com
These Syrian refugees should be sent to oil rich, Arab nations. The Sovereign Wealth Fund of Saudi Arabia is worth over US$761 billion. We do not want any honour killings in Canada.