To be perfectly honest, I was not going to write a piece on this. I just went to Hugh’s Room to understand what is going on with our artists in the city. Because I am always trying to figure out a way to make things a little easier or have a deeper understanding of what is going on. I was not ready for this evening.

It wasn’t anything overwhelming, it was simply a conversation of today’s artists’ struggle and how they adapt to the changing landscape.

Well, this conversation was to last 2 hours with a couple of musical interludes to break up the conversation and gives us a little mental break.

I didn’t set out to put together a story, and I only took a few key notes, so I will try to recall this conversation.

Time Flies!

The conversation started at 7 and was to end at 9pm. Well, those two-hour felt like mere minutes.

It was over as we were just warming up. I think everyone who attended would agree this conversation needs to continue.

Here are a couple of stats I heard at the beginning. Around the time of the pandemic, 54% of artists were making less than $50.000 per year. You know that annual number is far less than that.

83% are feeling the financial stress in today’s market.

53% of artist felt life was not worth living.

There are more stats but I didn’t write them down.

The Speakers

The name of this evening’s talk was called- Let’s talk Burnout- Leadership Responsibility

On stage we had, Andrea Ramolo, Taylor Simpson, Michaela Bekenn, and Mimi O’Bonsawin who started off with a couple of poignant folk songs. She helped clear the air with a song of cleansing.

The stories that were shared were deeply personal knowing this was a safe space to reveal your deep secrets.

I won’t go deep into those personal stories, but they were filled with deep loss, struggles with disease, drug addiction and even mental breakdowns.  There was even a story of a relative who overdosed, but before, she was an inspiration who gave a guitar to a budding artist who took that instrument and learned how to play. This was part of the healing journey that we could take under similar circumstances.

This council was prepared to open us up and created a video about a healing journey. This is just one of the rituals we all have to go through just to become more humane and stronger as a person.

Another story came out that at the age of 10 and 13, the loss of both parents was the beginning of another journey to hell and back.  One of the ingredients to making a comeback is listening to music and making music. I can attest to this notion. Whenever I am troubled, I could go and play my hand drums. When I get into that vibrational flow, that is the moment a new thought will come to me and when I take that advice, I find myself getting stronger just for being that open.

Quick notes

While I was listening to all these points of views that were flying around the room, I picked up on some of the cool quotes like; Taking it slow so we can heal

• There are many paths to healing, music brings it together and helps stabilize.
• Music Therapy- What Happens- We offer medicine and it becomes reciprocal.
• When listening to music, a brain scan can see that we are on fire inside.
• When the artists are giving everything on stage we the audience reciprocates like two symbiotic animals.
• The gift is like making dinner for a room of people and being able to really taste it.
• Many people come out to see live music to have a cathartic moment.

  The Stress

There are a lot of challenges, and they seem to be growing bigger. Try balancing life with the inflation we are all facing.

Learning to be a manager, a social influencer, and businessperson while just trying to be a musician, is adding time and stress to our lives.

The lack of venues and the lack of sleep add to this stress.

In today’s fast changing world and the threat of AI to our music is a growing concern.

We must learn to never success get to your head and any failures get to your heart.

This is the real purpose to these talks. If you are interested in connecting with this conversation, I found out there is another session on Monday November 16^th at Hugh’s room. This was sent to me by Amanda Walther who is the person who is making these talks possible.

Session #4: Leadership & Culture Change 

Monday, November 16, 2026 | Hugh’s Room Live
Doors: 6:30 PM | Event: 7:00 PM
REGISTER HERE

What does a healthier music industry actually look like?
And who gets to shape it? 

As part of Let’s Talk Burnout, Hugh’s Room Live brings artists and industry leaders together for an evening exploring the role of leadership in creating healthier, more supportive music-industry workplaces.

Moderated by Catherine Harrison, President of Revelios and lead researcher of Soundcheck, the conversation will explore how venue owners, managers, artists and other industry leaders can help build cultures where people feel supported, respected and psychologically safe. Joined by singer-songwriter Tony Dekker (Great Lake Swimmers), the panel will consider what meaningful culture change can look like in practice, and how we can move beyond conversations about individual resilience to address the systems and expectations that shape our working lives.

The evening will begin with a live musical performance, followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A, and will close with an informal opportunity to connect and continue the conversation with artists, panelists and fellow members of the community.