Passing Notes Magazine | Issue One | May 2020
Passing Notes is a quarterly magazine about life in the independent music industry. It celebrates the passion and process of people on the frontlines of independent music; from label owners to venue managers, booking agents to designers, publicists to the artists themselves. Thought it was intended the magazine would launch in print in March 2020, COVID-19 made it impossible to secure the advertising necessary to go to print, and rendered the public spaces in which I'd hoped to freely distribute the magazine empty. Instead, I've released Passing Notes - Issue One for free online as a PDF download. Please also consider making a donation to our Just Giving campaign for Help Musicians UK. Download Issue One of Passing Notes Magazine FREE passingnotesmag.com Credits for Issue One: Huntly Gordon - Editor, Writer, Designer, Publisher Scott Orr - Contributing Writer Contributing Photographers: Carmel King - https://www.carmelking.com Kino Acquino - http://www.kinography.co.uk Alan Dear - https://www.alandear.com Illustration (The World According to Seil Records): Aoki & Matsumoto - http://www.aokimatsumoto.com Letter from the Editor (May 2020): When I began work on Passing Notes in late 2019, I wanted to celebrate the independent music industry as I knew it. Now, only a short time later, I’m not sure what I know - of course, I’m not alone in that. The music industry, and the world, is at an inflection point - a point of immense change and upheaval. As I release this first issue of Passing Notes (though not in print, as originally intended), I hope that it may have inadvertently captured a microcosm of the transformation we are undergoing together. The feature articles, written from conversations which took place prior to March 2020, remain untouched; a time capsule from a more certain world. Other articles outline the challenges facing the music community in this moment, but also capture a spirit of innovation and regeneration which has lifted us all to new, unexpected heights. The world as we know it has changed, but the connection, creativity and passion we enjoyed with relative naivity all too recently will carry us through the coming months. If anything, to paraphrase Matt Fiedler (pg. 32), the world needs more music right now. And the community that inspired this magazine in late 2019 is deserving of celebration now more than ever. It is no longer the music industry as we know it, but it will be the music industry that we make it. And that is a fact worth celebrating in and of itself. My undying gratitude to everyone who donated their time, their efforts or their patience towards bringing this issue to life!