24 August 2009 — Grants
A couple of years ago, when I was doing a phone interview to promote Plastic Palace's Album The Great Depression, I ended up in a conversation about grants. We'd been lucky enough to get a grant to help us record the album, and then another one to tour to promote it (and we received another one to tour in late October this year), which basically meant that we were able to release a full-length album, rather than an EP. So we were pleased about that. Recently, in my interview with Aleks Bryant, we talked briefly about the grants that Aleks and the Ramps had received, which allowed them to tour Canada and New Zealand, in addition to releasing their second album.
One of the things that my interviewer asked me was whether I thought it was good use of taxpayers' money to spend it on arts grants. I do think that supporting the arts is important, but it's fairly difficult to say that the music I make is adding something essential to the cultural life of Australia. I decided not to ask Aleks a similar question, but I was reminded of it while talking to him. The fact is that grants are often the difference between being able to release an album or not. Some bands never even apply for any, and I wonder how they make ends meet.
One of the funny things about the process of applying for a grant is that you have to talk yourself up quite a lot. You have to say why you think that you do contribute to the rich cultural tapestry. And it's a bit distasteful. Maybe that's why so few bands apply for them: musicians are surprisingly fragile off-stage, most of the time.