Offbeat 2001
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Tools For Success by Alex Rawls Offbeat Magazine Dec. 2001
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George “Loki” Williams doesn’t join you; he blows in, and when he starts talking it’s time to tape the windows. The New Orleans arts scene is his passion- though he’s so intense he probably breaks a sweat brushing his teeth as well-and The Silver Machine is his way of addressing it. It is a promotion entity, and it is a website (thesilvermachine.com) that not only draws attention to New Orleans, but it also “gives creative people the tools to succeed,” he says. The website provides links that have information on contracts, publicity, industry contacts, and things musicians, as they focus first and foremost on their art, too often don’t know.
These days Williams is thinking about the economic downturn that has followed September 11, partially because it’s hurting him and his daytime gig as a waiter, where he isn’t bringing in the money it once did. He’s also concerned because it’s affecting musicians. “The city treats musicians like fast food workers,” he explains, “and it’s more important now than ever because probably 80 percent of the musicians work service industry jobs. These are the people who are hurt badly by the economic crunch.”
When you get him started, he’ll go off on the city-both city hall and the people who live here-because he sees great music being mssed. “If you aren’t traditional New Orleans music, you’re ignored,” he says. The city makes nop effort to promote non-roots music, so “the dot.com and post dot.com days that created a lot of money, that’s a lot of money we aren’t attracting.” In that boom, more and more youg people made substantial amounts of money, and their tastes are more contemporary. “The music industry and the tourism industry,” he continues, “aren’t doing well because they’re too old guard and too narrow.”
“As the traditional music industry becomes progressively separate from the majority of people making music, he sees pitfalls people need to watch out for-”I want to organise a series of legal workshops on things like copyright law,” he says- but as difficult as things are these days, there’s still a cause for optimism. The age of D.I.Y. is coming back, and we’ll see a purer product.”