Mission Music Foundation Takes A Hiatus

Photo by All Over Productions

It pains me to say this. Effective Immediately, Mission Music Foundation will be taking an indefinite hiatus.

Mission Music Foundation has been my child since 2018 when I overheard at a local show about how several bands were struggling to afford rent and working several jobs to afford being a musician in addition to daily expenses. I remember thinking to myself, “Music saves lives! Why is it that the people saving lives are the ones struggling so intensely? This is not right! Something needs to be done about this.” And so I did some research. It had turned out that they were not the only ones. I spent over two months asking every local band I could find, how many jobs they each work to afford being a musician, if any members were in college, how many members could comfortably afford rent, and if any of them had diagnosed mental health disorders (though I only asked for “yes” or “no” and how many of them were diagnosed). It turned out that the results horrified me. And since, I realized that I needed to start that change. And what better way to do that than start a nonprofit?

Mission Music Foundation was born through a Facebook page, where I shared it with my connections. It actually started as a Facebook page fundraiser. Though I quickly realized that with all my mutuals being band members, none of them could afford to donate. I started posting about what the local scene and my mutuals were up to with shows, new music, and more. I was hoping that someone out there would see all these artists’ hard work and help support them. I have always hoped that because of Mission Music Foundation that by posting and promoting, someone out there discovers a new band and is able to support them. My friends had told me Facebook was starting to die out.

I took to Twitter and Instagram to create more pages, and our first photos were from This Year’s Comeback, a band now on hiatus. I kept posting and sharing all these bands and what they were up to. I kept thinking to myself that maybe if I could get enough awareness about our pages (as my mutuals weren’t able to donate), someone would be able to donate, and I could use that money to help a band out when their gear got stolen on tour, or their van broke down, or a band member couldn’t afford rent because their income was late.

Late into 2019, we had some staff changes and hearing how Warped Tour was ending, I wanted to use Mission Music Foundation to create our own version of Warped but for local bands. I wanted to headline with one more well-known artist and keep the bill mostly smaller acts. Unfortunately, right as we had started to truly set it up and make it happen(we had my savings, we had the bands agreed to it, all we needed to do was finish and announce it) that’s right when the pandemic got bad in 2020.

I remember being teary eyed as I was on the zoom with Zach saying, “I don’t want to pause this, but I don’t want to risk anyone’s lives.We are so close!! Will there be a vaccine available by then??” We decided to wait. And so we did. We told the lineup that it might not happen, we needed to first wait to see if there would be vaccines available. Everyone was so bummed. I still get messages about those involved being bummed to this day. Unfortunately, vaccines weren’t distributed or even made fast enough for us to pull it off, and so we decided to cancel it. It broke my heart as I truly thought that it would be the most amazing event. We considered waiting till this year, however, it was most reasonable to simply cancel it.

Which leads me to today. Mission Music has certainly had it’s highs and lows, along with my mental health. Many don’t know this, but I was in treatment for the majority of the time that Mission Music Foundation has been around and I do think that some of my mental health contributed to certain behaviors. I want to thank everyone who has been with Mission Music Foundation and supported us. However, with my move to college, several staff leaving and an ever growing workload put all on me, it’s time that Mission Music takes a pause. I just don’t have the literal time anymore to keep Mission Music and the vision I have for it. I do believe in the future, when I have the availability and staff, Mission Music will continue and become the dream I have for it, but now is not that time. I am realizing that I need to take more time to take care of myself, get through college, and to continue the mental health work.

Mission Music’s website will stay up as there are several resources on here available and the labor put forth by some of our prior interns, however emails will be discontinued and we are no longer taking requests for OnlyBands, our blog, or being active. Any future activity is no longer in the works, until further notice. If you have any questions about this you can email me at blakem@missionmusicfoundation.com

Until another time,

Blake Matthews

he/him

Founder of Mission Music Foundation