todays audio is “stand with us”, a song i wrote by commission for SEIU, the service employees international union. SEIU was founded in 1921 and now represents workers in healthcare, government and law enforcement, in addition to folks like food service workers and custodians.
as part of their membership of law enforcement workers, in many places SEIU represents public defenders. but not massachusetts. in contrast to neighboring states, massachusetts public defenders can’t unionize and as a result are compensated at significantly lower salaries then their geographically close peers, among other deficits. several times over the last decade, the massachusetts state legislature has had the opportunity to change this, and it hasn’t happened.
why in the world, do i know anything about this? is my partner a public defender? do i have friends who are public defenders? no, and i’m not even your average concerned citizen around this issue. i know this because in 2012 SEIU and massachusetts public defenders hired me to write a song to help change the situation. a campaign theme song as they were organizing across the state and bringing their message to the then nascent world of social media.
i’ve written songs on commission before - as premiums for fundraisers, as booby-prizes at galas, for one partner to gift to another. and i love doing this! any time you can put some parameters around the endless expanse of the blank page, you’re on your way to starting a song. knowing what the song needs to be for or for whom before you start is a gift.
but i’d never done anything quite like this before. and it felt like a ton of pressure. an important issue that had myriad real-world consequences - touching on criminal justice reform, equity, and the dignity of both public workers and the accused.
i started by doing research - i had a long lunch with a large group of public defenders. they told me why it was important to unionize. they told me about their clients. they told me about the history of public defenders in this country. they were understandably proud of their profession. i took copious notes, making sure to capture words that came up alot - constitution, defense, justice, public, accused, innocence, massachusetts.
next, i went the song library of great anthems, union, and protest songs. springsteen, billy bragg, joe hill, indigo girls, ani difranco. i tried to see what they all had in common. writing music for activism is a tricky business. activist songs often seem to either sacrifice the song for the message or vice versa. very few songs tell the story they need to tell while remaining musical.
some of that is because the language of most “causes” is unpoetic - a lot of three syllable words with specific meanings. a thesaurus is no help. try rhyming “gideon” - which is the name of a very important court decision in 1963 establishing the right of the accused to representation. or use “representation” in a lyric. worse, try singing the word “trial”. on the other hand, if you go too poetic, then the song ends up a watered down nothing-burger. it could be about anything!
you also have to make sure the song isn’t too hard to sing - especially for a large crowd of folks who may not be musical in the least. so: no fast melodic runs, no unique chord-melody combinations, not too many quick consonants or rhythmically tricky moments where the lyrics have to lock in just so in order to get the line to end on time.
and the tempo can’t be too fast. if the words go by too quickly, people won’t catch them the first (or only) time they hear the song. but the tempo needs to be brisk enough to bring some pep and energy and resolve. we are fighting for something, but we are fighting for it with long vowels, a few consonants, and three chords at a medium to up tempo.
in some ways it reminds me of america ferrera’s now-famous barbie speech about what society expects from women. a nearly impossible task.
obviously i was able to hammer out something that i thought did a pretty good job with the remit. when i recorded it, i invited the public defenders i had initially met with to come and be the chorus. they brought their friends, and they brought beer. you got the feeling that they needed to let loose a little. their job is not easy, and it never lets up.
was the song successful? i suppose by one measure, no. massachusetts public defenders still haven’t been able to unionize over a decade after SEIU started this campaign. is this song sung at rallies? or by public defenders to their children as they put them to sleep at night? no, it is not. but i do think it was successful in some other ways. a union kept up the important historical tradition of using songs to rally their members and make their messages memorable. and for the public defenders i got to meet and collaborate and sing with, they got some insight into what an artist’s life is like. the more we know about each other’s daily struggles and victories, the more empathy and community we can build.
hey yall! it feels so good to be back learning the Fax of Life. there’s lots of news so let’s get to it
i’m so happy to announce that i’ll be joining my pals at Welcome To Night Vale for one last set of dates. we’re going to play in toronto, st louis, louisville, columbus OH, pittsburgh, jersey city and northampton MA. as usual, i’ll be giving away a pair of tickets to each show in exchange for merch help. if you want to take me up on that offer, send an email erin@erinmckeown.com with your city in the subject line.
next! i’m so thrilled that i will be traveling to atlanta GA on march 9 to be a guest of woodstock arts as they open their production of our musical Miss You Like Hell. i’ll be performing at 6p, before the evening show. if you are in the general area of atlanta, i encourage you to visit woodstock arts and see the show. its amazing that our show is playing in georgia, so please support this awesome theater. the show runs march 8-24.
at the end of 2023, i vowed to do more playing live, so let’s let the gigs keep rolling. on may 25 i will be performing at the 25th annual Virginia Women’s Music Festival. i might have played the first or second one, i cant remember, but i am thrilled to be back.
tickets for all shows can always be found at erinmckeown.com/shows
for whatever reason, the universe has gifted me with several private students at one time, so i am opening my teaching practice back up. i have slots for a couple more folks, so don’t be shy they will go fast. you can find out more about what i offer at erinmckeown.com/teaching.
and lastly, as if this weren’t enough news, i’ve just released the “Best of Fax Of Life 2023” on bandcamp. it’s all the songs from the last year of episodes in their full form. without all that annoying talking. enjoy!
that’s it yall! now for a nice and tasty Fax of Life treat…
preparing for this episode, i was a little unsure about a topic with which to bring back the fax of life in 2024. but as i was casting about for a subject, my friend ron lieber sent me inches of texts on a topic he was fired up about: the national anthem.
ron has been the spark for many a fax of life episode. sometimes it’s something he writes in response to the pod, sometimes it’s a conversation we have appropos of nothing, sometimes it’s simply his consistent, positive cheerleading and encouragement of this project.
i’m not going to formally introduce ron, just google him. he’s big time and accomplished and i’m proud to be his friend.
EM: Ron, I was finishing up my usual Saturday tennis, when all of a sudden, a shit ton of texts started coming into my phone, like a lot of texts.
What was going on?
RL: I was having a moment. You know, the moment had started the night before. I was at a sports event. It was the kind of sports event where the national anthem gets sung. And, uh, you know, there were a bunch of young people at the game. I took a look around and a whole bunch of the young people were not standing for the national anthem. And it was a strange sort of moment because, uh, you know, as ever, right, nobody was standing, uh, when the, you know, a cappella group came out to sing the a cappella group standing. And so immediately both teams get up.And then pretty much all the grownups get up. uh and then like maybe half the kids get up like all the little kids but like not so many of the uh older kids right um and i'm looking at this and i'm thinking okay you know i remember the kneeling i remember the nfl i remember the controversy i understood that it all made sense to me um but i guess i had just sort of forgotten about it right um and or i i had remembered it as a form of protest that was not ongoing i i was just not used to the fact maybe because i haven't been to enough live sports events that there are a whole bunch of people who just don't stand and maybe they're younger people who just never stood and are never going to stand and something about that didn't sit right to me and yet
And yet, the star-spangled banner is a terrible song.
EM: Right. You seem surprised by the fact that people didn't stand up for the anthem, even though, as you said, we have all this context over the last several years of years of it. But like, what do we want from it? Hence, hence a lot of texts. At some point I was like, listen, let's just, let's just talk about it.
RL: So it's like, I'm thinking about this overnight. Um, I go to synagogue the next morning, there's a beautiful song, uh, totally moving. I'm pretty sure we sang it while standing as one does with, with some of the prayers. Um, and I'm on the way home and I'm thinking, Whatever one may think about America or about that song in particular, or about standing in general, we need to give those kids a song that's worth standing up for.
EM: Yes, but I can relate to those kids sitting down. And yet, I also want this experience that you're talking about that you had at Temple of standing up, of singing with people. How else would you describe what that experience is?
RL: Well, I mean, it's quite obviously religious, right? And, you know, while I happen to be a believer, you know, in some definitions of the term, I don't want to impose that on other people. And the invocation of God in all of these anthems turns people off.
And I guess, you know, as a grown up at that sports event, you know, the other night, I felt like as this, you know, someone of the older generation, that we had sort of flunked out, right in giving these kids something worth standing up for, so that they too could, could feel those feels, right?
Patriotism or not, godliness or not, it was just one of those moments, and there are too many of them, where I just felt like we were doing a disservice to the next generation, that they deserved something better, you know?
EM: Right, they're missing, they're missing something binding. They're missing some sense of community. And right, we want to advocate for all these different identities. That's, that's important, right? We've figured that out at this point, but we also need to advocate for some kind of cohesion.
RL: Yep. And a kind of elevation, right? Not so much in a like, you know, heavenly ascendance, right?
EM: What about what about mountaintops? What about high basketball hoops? What about like, you know, we're, we're aiming towards writing. Yeah, we're aiming towards writing an anthem, right? So like, like, I think elevation actually is really like, what about elevators? What about skyscraper? But then it's like, is that just too mundane language?
RL: No, no, but it's I think the big idea here, right? It's like, we're going to go with all those metaphors is that you should feel like at the end of the song, that the climb to the mountaintop was effortless, and that everyone can dunk.
Even you.
EM: I think what you're talking about this broadness, this elevation, makes me think that one of my solutions is not right. So one thing I thought of was, well, just sing the school song. right or just sing the town song does the town have a song do you know what i mean like go hyper hyper local but not individual right so there's that world but i don't think that actually touches on what you're talking about so then it makes me wonder like let's okay let's study the good ones right so you pointed out to me which one you think is the best right which is the south african national anthem do you know anything about how it was created?
RL: Yeah, so, you know, I know that it's more than 100 years old. I feel like elements of it were, you know, adopted by by other countries. And then it became a kind of, you know, rallying cry, a kind of freedom song, you know, during the struggles to dismantle apartheid.
EM: The current national anthem which was adopted in 1997 right as the singular national anthem of South Africa is an amalgamation of two anthems right so one that came from native population first population with a tradition and one that came from Afrikaans and in 1997 they were sort of amalgamated into what I think is a very successful anthem. Do you want to listen to a children's choir sing it?
RL: You know, it's possible that that my love of the South African national anthem comes from you know it's just one of those songs or at least for me you know how there are these songs in your life where you can where you remember exactly where you were when you heard it for the first time and everything just sort of stops in those 90 seconds or a minute 38 like everything is okay you know that it's better than okay. It's like an optimism machine.
EM: I mean, you, I think when your text flood started, and I started thinking about this, I was like, I don't know, do we need a new anthem? I don't know. And now I think I want an optimism machine. There's no reason why we couldn't, right? There's no reason why we couldn't.
RL: Somebody's got to write a better one.
EM: I don't want to write this. I know. Sorry, Ron.
RL: Who's going to write it?
EM: That's our last question.
RL: You know, the reason I picked on you is not just because you're in my...
EM: I'm in your phone.
RL: Um, it's because and I'm just gonna, you know, brown my nose in in your skin, Massachusetts there.
EM: Oh, come on, man. It's my pod. You don't have to do this on my pod.
RL: but you know, I feel like from from the McKeown canon, Aspera is like pretty close to what we're searching for here, right?
EM: It's like, in a little bit of Latin. It's got a hopeful message.
RL: You may not, you know, I mean, this is an interesting test, right? Because you, you know, you put these songs out into the world. And who knows if people, you know, consider them the same way that you did, and maybe it's better if they don't even, or at least it's interesting, right? But to me, you know, that song is, is an optimism machine. That springs from a time and feeling of trouble, right? And isn't that what we're looking for here? And isn't that like kind of what America is?
EM: Listen, if somebody wants to use this song I already wrote, call me.
EM: So I gave you an assignment. I asked you, Ron Lieber, if you would please send a fax to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Have you identified who you would like to send that fax to?
RL: Yeah, I'm sending this fax to everyone in America.
EM: Great. Let's fill out the cover sheet together. Okay, the To: field.
RL: To all people in America, including those who some people think don't belong here.
EM: Do we have their phone number?
RL: I mean, I'm, I'm picturing this as a sort of, like, viral reply all. I want everyone to see it, you know, so, and maybe have it show up 20 times, you know, to the point.You get a bunch of them in your fax machine. But everyone will read it at least once.
EM: Okay, great. So we're going to put everybody's fax number ever in America, including those who what, how did you phrase it? Who some people don't think belong here?
RL: Yeah.
EM: So everybody's number goes in there.
RL: Passport or not, green card or not. You're here, you're here for a reason.And I want, I want you to read my message.
EM: Ron wants to send you a fax. So turn your fax machine on.What date are we sending this?
RL: We're gonna send this on.I was about I was about to say July 4, but that feels almost too obvious.
EM: July 5?
RL: I mean, what what if we what if we send it tonight? Because the Grammys are tonight on the day that we're recording this. What if we send it tonight? At the very beginning of the first commercial break?
EM: Okay, great. So 8:09, probably Eastern, right? I'm gonna guess that's the first commercial.
How many pages is this fax?
RL: It's just one page.
EM: Subject line?
RL: To the strangers on the other team.
EM: Excellent.
Now these are the little boxes that you're going to check on the cover sheet. Is this urgent?
RL: I think it's important. I don't want to scare anyone into thinking that it's urgent.
EM: Okay, fair enough.
Please reply?
RL: Yes.
EM: Great. And is this fax confidential?
RL: No. And if you know anyone who doesn't have a fax machine, you know, by all means, print it out and bring it over. Or, you know, take a picture with your phone if you've got one of those and, you know, spread it around.
EM: Okay, great.
Now, what is the message of the fax?
RL: Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe or disbelieve, I want to be in communion with you on neutral ground for at least one moment in song. And I want it to be so loud, so proud, so epic that you will not be able to keep yourself from standing up.
Amen.
EM: That's awesome, Ron. That is a worthy fax. That is an absolutely worthy fax. Let's see what happens. We're going to send it right now.Here it goes.
It strikes me that that your fax message, it's unsurprisingly Ron Lieber-like to me. It is open, optimistic, personal, please come meet me, right?And maybe vulnerable. How does that strike you? Do you feel like I've summed up your fax?
RL: Yes, thank you. Vulnerable.
EM: You know when you said neutral ground it made me think of New Orleans right? which is what they call the median strip in New Orleans right so it makes me think of Ron's down in New Orleans. He's at the corner of Esplanade and something and he's hanging out on that grassy part in the middle and he's waiting for you. So you need to turn your fax machine on. Here comes your fax. And you need to go meet
RL: Yeah, we’re just gonna roll up St. Charles and there's gonna be brass instruments involved
¡ME GUSTA! : SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS!
i recently watched two awesome (and very different) music docs. remember “we are the world”? it was the first song i ever sang in front of an audience. and lil nas X is in a totally different industry than me, but i am fascinated.
a crab museum!! sign me up!!
rats taking selfies. stars! they’re just like us!
mascots are still creepy, but boy did they used to be REALLy creepy!
one of my students turned me on to molotov, an awesome mexican band.
one of my favorite writers has a new pod. here’s an episode that explains F1.
the voice of the NYC subway has come out as trans. congratulations, queen!!
UPCOMING SHOWS
March 8 -24, 2024 - Woodstock GA
Miss You Like Hell at Woodstock Arts
TICKETS
March 9, 2024 - Woodstock GA
An Evening with Erin McKeown
performance before evening show
March 30, 2024 - Buckland MA
Music In The Middle of Nowhere
TICKETS
April 1, 2024 - Toronto
performing as The Weather with Welcome To Night Vale
TICKETS
April 3, 2024 - St. Louis MO
performing as The Weather with Welcome To Night Vale
TICKETS
April 4, 2024 - Louisville KY
performing as The Weather with Welcome To Night Vale
TICKETS
April 5, 2024 - Columbus OH
performing as The Weather with Welcome To Night Vale
TICKETS
April 6, 2024 - Pittsburgh PA
performing as The Weather with Welcome To Night Vale
TICKETS
April 7, 2024 - Jersey City NJ
performing as The Weather with Welcome To Night Vale
TICKETS
April 8, 2024 - Northampton MA
performing as The Weather with Welcome To Night Vale
TICKETS
May 25, 2024 - Kents Store VA
Virginia Women’s Music Festival
TICKETS
If you have further questions or concerns about COVID protocols, please contact the venues directly.
Reminder, Erin does not appear in productions of Miss You Like Hell
will a new national anthem please stand up? (with ron lieber)