We had an incredible amount of fun creating the music and video to enter NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest. One of our goals this year is to make more space for creating new music – so it was the perfect challenge to start the year off right.
As you may have noticed, Nate and I did this one totally on our own. This is something you’ll see more often as we experiment with it – putting all our skills into the pot and seeing what comes out!! (That is not said to scare off potential collaborators – we hope to be doing a lot more of that this year as well).
We’ve been playing “Falling Off the Wagon” live at our concerts for quite awhile, but this is the first video version, and a preview similar to what our final studio version will sound like – due later this year!
As we were preparing to create our entry, we began noticing something really cool – so many of our musical friends were beginning to post suspicious messages about “needing a desk on Saturday” and such. Soon enough, many began posting still shots, and then videos tagged with #tinydeskcontest. What was amazing about it though, is that it has really felt void of competition, but rather filled us with a sense of camaraderie. Words of encouragement and empowerment began to ping across the web.
This is only the second year for the Tiny Desk Contest, yet it feels like it’s already stolen our hearts for many of us. There’s such a community conviviality around this event – everyone is welcome to submit, it’s about showing up and sharing something. The contest team has done an excellent job encouraging anyone with interest to get involved, with the promise that every video entry is reviewed – and even though there is only one winner – they are generous with their praise. It makes you feel as if you have somehow become part of a family by taking part. Family via friendship and encouragement – ie. volunteer “family” is a little bit closer to the perfect world we dream of.
To put the cherry on top and invite you to share in the fun, we’ve decided to turn our social media into a broadcast platform for all of our friends’ videos for the next several days – people that we have been fortunate enough to cross paths with, people we admire and love – and people we would like to introduce you to as well.