In unserer Reihe „Künstler*innen, die die Welt verändern wollen“, stellen wir euch ab sofort Nachwuchskünstler*innen vor, die mit ihrer Kunst mehr wollen als nur unterhalten. In ihren eigenen Worten erklären sie uns, was ihre persönlichen Anliegen sind und warum sie glauben, dass Kunst die Kraft hat, die Welt zu verändern.
Den Anfang macht Just.Pip aus Aberdeenshire, Schottland. Pip ist Sänger, Songschreiber und Produzent, seine neue EP „Paper“ hat er im Alleingang auf der Farm auf der erlebt geschrieben, produziert und aufgenommen. Er studiert an der Edinburgh Napier University und hofft, sobald die Corona-Pandemie es zulässt, wieder Shows in voller Bandbesetzung spielen zu können.
Neben seiner Liebe zur Musik ist Pip engagierter Klima- und Umweltaktivist. Für uns hat er aufgeschrieben wie er versucht, diese wichtigen Themen in seine Musik einzubringen und warum er glaubt, dass Musik die Kraft hat, die Menschen zum Positiven zu beeinflussen.
Hi, I’m Pip, I’m a musician based in Scotland. Since the age of 16 I’ve played the guitar in my fair share of local bands, mostly in Aberdeen, but now I’m focused on my solo project Just. Pip, for which I produced my first E.P. „Paper“ recently. Working for the last few years on my songs has made me think a lot more about my creativity and songwriting; how I can use my music for more than just music, and what topics could be enhanced by music besides the usual songs about relationships.
I know that creativity is such a beautiful and vital thing for enhancing our lives in many ways, and I find myself thinking about the power music and arts have to affect real change. Think about Marvin Gaye, Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon and many like them; they were great musicians, but also just people seeing problems in the world and trying to use their art to shift the tides. Like them, I see so many problems in our world such as war, political corruption, toxic levels of capitalism and climate change as a result of these things. Each issue has a group in opposition to it, rallying to remedy the cultural malady. I try to find and think of ways that I, as a musician, can help by doing what I’m best at: music. Buckminster Fuller spoke in his book – „Operating manual for spaceship earth“ – about the importance of a synergetic effort to affect change; that is, many parts working together to generate a better outcome. I believe in synergy, so I try to apply this mentality to my music and creative work.
In my recent EP „Paper“ I addressed climate change in the intro track „What a Waste“ as something which blurs or „chokes“ the image of our future, or our children’s future. This links into the second track „Paper Chase“, which talks about the money-conservative, toxic-capitalists who reign in many Western governments; many of whom tried to green-wash or ignore pollutant industries, such as coal or industrial meat farming at the recent 2021 G7 climate summit. I find it troubling when so many people in power view the economy as something which only concerns money. I think conservatism is good only when we are conserving the environment and this planet, without which we would have no economy at all.
But why, as a musician, did I start thinking about this? Well, to start, I was privileged enough to be raised by vegetarian parents, and for most of my life I grew up in the country with many animals and forests at my doorstep, so I have an ingrained, implicit love for nature already. Besides this, the galvanising moment for me was seeing The 1975 headline Laneway Festival in Melbourne back in 2020. It felt especially pertinent given the time and place, only a week prior, Melbourne was deemed the most polluted city in the world due to smoke from the 2020 bush fires, and so then stood a crowd who, after experiencing all of that, stood in awe as the band played their track featuring Greta Thunberg; her rhetoric could not have been more relevant than at that moment and to that crowd.
That said, climate change is an issue that will affect everyone globally. When more people address the issue, more people will be influenced to start doing something about it. I think groups like Green Peace and Extinction Rebellion for example do some tough, vital activism, but I think change requires more forms of influence. To prevent climate change the topic needs to be prevalent, engaging and kept at the forefront of social consciousness. It needs to be acted upon in all parts of society and culture if we are to stop it; in music, in art, in farms, in retail and so on, because again, it affects all of us. It’s certainly not always easy, and I am still trying to think up ways that I can do my part within my line of work. Because I believe it’s vital, and that’s how climate activism influences me as a musician.
Du glaubst, dass deinen Kunst die Welt verändern kann und möchtest dich auch bei uns in deinen eigenen Worten vorstellen? Dann schreib uns eine E-Mail an redaktion@fastforward-magazine.de.