Jan 'Yarn' Muths: [00:00:00] Before we begin this episode as always, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land that the following episode was recorded on the Iraq people of the Bunge long nation and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. So this time, it's a bit of a different episode. Um, if you listened in, into the previous episodes, um, you probably noticed that there was an extra that I added, uh, about the recent flood, the two following episodes, the were interview with mark and, uh, the interview with Nicki were both pre it and preproduced, and they were running on a scheduled release. And this is the first episode that I'm recording. Um, the. Basically after the recent floods. So I just wanted to fill everybody in where we're at and what the situation is. Um, yeah, on the day, three weeks ago, Um, the east coast of Australia [00:01:00] got hit by the worst floods that people remember that I remember, um, some people say it was a one and a 500 year flood. And, uh, ever since we've been dealing with the consequences for the region, It's um, absolutely heartbreaking to, to see, um, towns such as Liz Moore, where the entire C B D um, and, uh, vast, uh, numbers of residential areas completely went under not just one level, but two or two and a half, sometimes more, even the huge shopping shopping center, which was. Build flat, safe on steels went under. So it wasn't that flat, safe after all. Um, the CBD still doesn't have power three weeks in. Um, most people have thrown out all the belongings, um, and there are piles of rubbish in the street, which are, um, yeah. Being removed at the moment. [00:02:00] One by one. But the stink is, is, uh, unbelievable there. Is, uh, running water, which is the good thing, but, uh, in most sections don't have electricity. That means none of the businesses are open. There are no restaurants. There are no cafes. There is no McDonald's. There is nothing, there are no gas stations. Um, and yeah, a lot of people had to. Well, thousands of people had to leave their homes and I'll get back in and see and, and deal with the damage. And for the last three weeks, um, I've been juggling my, my own life with my family and, uh, my jobs in my business. Uh, basically every spare afternoon, every spare day, I in down to Lismore with my work boots and gloves and helped. And, uh, I'm pretty exhausted in all honesty. My back hurts, but. Look, I don't want to complain. I have no reason to complain because I was one of the lucky ones. I, I still have a house to, to come back to him. [00:03:00] Um, we will probably see, um, some government support coming in over the next few. Well, Weeks month, we will see the government response has been very slow in many ways, but, okay. That's another story for another day. Um, however, it is my experience that, uh, certain industry gets, um, probably get, um, the big bulk of, um, all the support available. And it's often the artists and musician who get very little if nothing. So this is yet another core, uh, on. Everybody to put pressure on your local PMs and make sure that the artist community gets the help they so desperately need. Right now. Um, a few days ago I helped a friend, uh, clean out his studio in Liz Moore, which, uh, went under some amazing instruments, some, uh, vintage OnX all went into the skip and it's absolutely heartbreaking to see. And, um, yeah, this is the time where, [00:04:00] um, Help is desperately needed to get the, the local music scene back on their feet. And I definitely wanna do my part and I thought it over, over the last couple of weeks. And I have an idea that I want to share with you today. And, um, Yeah, it's what I call the flat songs project. So in short, I want to encourage all the musicians who were affected by the floods in Lismore, in Mullen, Bibi in main arm, in Mobar, in Kui and up and down the coast, uh, further. To, uh, to take all the amazing stories, um, that you probably have heard and put them into songs. So every time I, I run into people, everybody shares their own stories and, uh, among those are some absolutely, uh, Mind boggling, uh, stories of what happened when, when the flood hit. Uh, just yesterday [00:05:00] I spoke to a friend who rescued his, his partner and three year daughter. Um, uh, they got, um, yeah, picked up in a boat from the house and then he went back in after dropping family offered, um, At his mother-in-law and he went back in and rescued people of the roofs. And the stories that I heard were just absolutely phenomenal. Those are the stories that we will probably pass on to our grandkids. So, um, just to give you a bit of an idea of, of, uh, what's going on there, and there are so many stories that are floating around right now, and I would like to ask all musicians to please. Put these stories into songs and pick up your guitar. If you have one, um, or reach out to me, I'll I'll, you can borrow mine, uh, and, and, uh, put your stories into a song. And I would like to, to be then offered to tour around. Um, pack my, my car full of a bit of gear and tour around, [00:06:00] come to your place and record the songs with you. And of course, I'm going to mix and master all of this and all of this will be free. I don't wanna see you cent for any of this, but I would like to ask as many musicians as possible to please put your stories into song and record them with me. And I will then take care of all the production and everything. And, uh, then my idea is to put it all out as a various artist compilation, uh, which we can call the flat, um, the flat song project, uh, that's a working title. So if somebody's got a better idea, I'm definitely open for that. But, um, I want to publish the music. Um, and give all the royalties, uh, to the musicians, of course, who write these songs and, uh, I'll even sign you up for, uh, distribution services for, for my own pocket. I'm happy to do that. No problem at all. And, uh, so that these songs eventually turn into, uh, um, a bit of a return for, for local musicians and to build the music industry up [00:07:00] again, step by step. And I wanna do my little thing to just contribute a little bit, which I believe would be an amazing thing to do. So I definitely need your help to pull all of this off. And, um, the first, uh, and foremost thing is to please, um, go to the show notes. Now I've got a little dog right next to me wanting attention. Hey Rosie. So, um, please go to the show notes. Uh, I put the link, um, in the show notes for, uh, yeah, a webpage that I designed for that it's called mix artist.com that IU slash flat songs in one word, flat songs, no mix artists.com AU slash. Flat songs and, uh, this, uh, is basically live today. So please, uh, have a look there you can read through, um, please invite others to join and, uh, get other people on board and spread the message to every musician, to every artist, uh, in [00:08:00] the flat affected areas that, you know, And invite them to make, to turn their stories of pain or suffering or trauma or hope into something amazing, amazing tune. And I'll come around and record that with you. Okay. Um, that's the idea for my flat songs project. I will continue to have it out every weekend, whenever I can to help out people. And this will go on for many more weeks. Months who knows? Maybe, maybe years. Um, yeah, this is a short episode. Uh, the flat songs project. I hope this is something that you can get behind, uh, help me to share at please. This is the most important part. Reach out to everybody who know, you know, who might, uh, benefit from this and who could contribute. F the flat songs project. Thank you for your help with that. I'll speak to you again next week. Hopefully with the full length episode then. Okay, bye for now, everybody. Thanks for listening.[00:09:00]