PASADENA, N.L. — Dustin Parsons knew early on that Steady Entertainment would have to change in order to survive COVID-19.
As restrictions came into place, the events the Pasadena-based entertainment firm was involved began getting cancelled. As founder of the company, Parsons looked at other opportunities and ways to adapt to what was becoming a new event space in virtual entertainment.
Keeping things going was important to him.
“I still wanted to keep that connection with the arts community.”
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With a $5,000 grant from MusicNL’s Press On program, Steady Entertainment launched Saltwater Noise, a multi-media platform and live stream enhancement product that caters to the audience on one end and musicians on the other.
“So, at the end of the day, it’ll appear as sort of a source for good Newfoundland content and music. And for the musicians, on that end, we’ll be providing them a service that helps them grow their virtual audience and improve their live streams and make more money on their live product.”
Parsons said COVID-19 was a “big wake-up call.” He said the entertainment industry in the province is vulnerable regardless with weather often working against it and limited cellphone coverage.
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“In Newfoundland, it’s hard enough to be putting together these events. We can’t be so caught off guard next time,” he said. “And also, we realized people are really willing to consume a lot of this type of content. They’re appreciating it, they’re paying for it. It’s helping Newfoundland musicians professionalize it.”
As things reopen and venues are expected to operate at lower capacities, Parson said they can add to the audience in a virtual venue and there are opportunities to integrate the live and virtual venues in the future.
During the next couple of months Saltwater Noise will be working on a major multi-stream project that will be shot in Corner Brook.
“It would be our first attempt to sort of break the internet with a Newfoundland music live stream. A test run for what we hope to be doing on basically a weekly basis.”
The company is also handling the virtual album release for Rev. Dave and the Sin Eaters first album “Dark Water.”
A normal album release would include a live event of some kind, something to attract a lot of people, but that is now not possible.
“They’ve put so much into this album and invested a lot of money of money into it, so they can’t just let it fizzle out because we can’t promote it,” said Parsons.
David Peddle is the Rev. Dave of the five-member country and blues band that has been together since 2018. He started working on “Dark Water” last April with then bandmates David Barry, Tom Brennan, Dan Hiltz, and Louie McDonald. They finished recording last August and production was completed in May.
Since the project started there’s been a change in members with Scott Sheppard joining Peddle, Barry, Hiltz, and McDonald.
Peddle congratulates Steady Entertainment and Saltwater Noise for providing a platform for musicians in these difficult times.
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“It’s really meant that instead of the traditional method of playing as a band in a live venue we are taking this virtual route in order to stay healthy while we’re doing it.”
Peddle has already seen and participated in some of the work that Parsons and the company have been doing. He said the technology that’s being used is good and allows for good visuals and good sound.
He expects the album release, which will take place in July or August, would have had an online and webcast presence anyway, but it would have been supplemented by a live performance. That live performance will still happen, it’ll just be online.
“We find this a very powerful medium,” he said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to give people access to your music. There’s something warm and intimate about it. It democratizes it a bit in all you need is a song, a guitar.”
Twitter: @WS_DianeCrocker
