[Music]
[Music]
when was the last time you heard music
was it in a shop where it was on the
in-store radio and you were focused on
something else which was buying what you
needed or was it in a car where you were
listening with one ear but having a
conversation with another or maybe on
your phone where you were kind of
focused on what was coming through the
phone but also focused on talking to a
bunch of people in the room or maybe
just maybe it was at a gig and at that
gig there was a band on and a quarter or
half the room was talking or filming the
gig with footage that they probably
never look at again I was at a gig with
two friends named rocky and Dave this
was back a few years and the band was
the Friendly Fires so I'm if any of you
have heard of them but they're a really
loud band it was here in London in Soho
not far from here even though they're
loud we couldn't hear them all that well
because everybody was talking and not
really about them about other stuff
about work and the bar was open
strangely and you could hear the
clanging of the beer bottles as people
were taking and putting down their
bottles there was also the abit Canada's
phones up everything was just not right
so the three of us kind of looked at
each other and said hey this is not OK
we love music but the music seems to
have become background noise and Dave
said yeah I'm a musician and it's
soul-destroying
to be up on a stage where I'm only
playing for 20 minutes I'm unknown and
yet people are not focused they're not
in the moment the music doesn't really
matter so we left we went to Dave's
house
we invited about ten people to come and
just listen
we brought drinks we put the drinks down
we focused on his music and it was so
quiet we literally could hear a clock
ticking now putting on a house concert
which I guess is what this was is
nothing new it's been going on for
hundreds and hundreds of years since
Mozart's time and probably before that
but for us on the night it was new and
it was magical so we did another one and
a third one and this one in Regent's
Park
there was a line down the block and we
looked at each other and were like what
is going on why are all these people
here we really had only told a few
people on that night we realized there
are a few other people who believed the
same thing we did which was it's not
okay to not focus on art you can see my
head in the picture I'm above the head
of the guitarist the blond hair I was
there we crammed everybody in and again
it was magical so we kept doing about
one a month this was a hobby for a long
time by the time we decided to do one in
another city to see hey what do people
in New York think of this we did one and
it was the same thing it was quiet so we
decided just to do one a month in a
couple of cities only simple rules
please focus on the music three acts and
maybe most importantly we didn't
announce who was playing kind of crazy
why didn't we announce who's playing
well because we believed on the night
and then that all music and all
musicians are equal I don't believe in
headliners I believe we're all there for
the same thing but what happens during
music is you come for your favorite act
and you talk through the other acts or
you go in and you leave and you smoke
and you wait for the big act for us
they're all equal so to make a long
story short we kept doing this and then
we started hearing from people who had
been to London or read about it
somewhere
and they said well we'd like to do this
too it's women named Casey in LA called
me and said I want to do this I want to
do so far in LA and I said hey whatever
you want it's just a house concert
should no you don't understand I want to
do it with you I want to come together
as a movement those points on that map
are literally all the places fast
forwarding to where we got to all the
places around the world where this is
happening so this movement was about
focus and really living your life in the
moment especially through music along
the way lots of fun things happened and
continue to happen but they happen
because we're focused I'm so focused on
music I don't really think of anything
else when I met the event so there was
one night I was sitting next to a woman
and waiting for the band's to go on and
I just said hey how's it going
she said fine I said what do you do she
said I'm an actress I said oh that's got
to be tough now why did I say that I
just had dinner with another friend who
was an actress who told me for an hour
and a half how difficult it is to making
and acting so I turned to this woman who
I did not know and while we were waiting
for the band spoke for about ten minutes
about my acting tips for her to break
through without understanding where she
was in her career she was very patient
she listened to me kind of smirked and
then went to the toilet and my friend
Jody comes over to me and says do you
know who that was I don't know some
music fan who's trying to make it as an
actress that was Scarlett Johansson what
an idiot but the thing was when you're
focused and you're in the moment you
don't care and I heard later from her
friend who invited her that she was
thrilled that I and others didn't make a
big deal about her being there fast
forward to Washington DC musicians
started coming to us and saying this is
great you mean a night where we can
focus and people focus on us even ed
Sheeran and his man
said we want to support up-and-coming
acts we'd like ed to play to room of 70
people and on that night we raised
hundreds of thousands of dollars for the
refugee crisis so there was a social
cause connected to what we were doing
part of the problem with the traditional
gig is it perpetuates those issues of
people talking and texting and all those
crazy things that maybe some of you
agree with me aren't okay so when the
government of Norway came to us and said
we've got a ski jump outside Oslo and on
the very top you could put on a gig
we've been hearing about these
livingroom gigs you're putting on but
how about here like okay so we had a gig
at the top of a ski jump and it opened
up our minds that it can be anywhere
that people can be in the moment silent
where music really matters so we did
them at mattress stores in Manhattan and
churches and carpet stores in Paris and
anywhere where we could have an event
for those of you who want to just get a
tiny flavor of what the night's about
I'm gonna play a video that goes about a
minute and a half that just gives a
flavor of what happens on the night
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
ladies and gentlemen welcome to sofa
sound so it's really all about the music
and whether you're in Brazil or Berlin
or here this is about all music is equal
let's enjoy it hopefully to hear
something you like
[Applause]
[Music]
you got a lot of questions
[Music]
have a good rest today I've always
believed that if you do something you
love good things might come and maybe
one day you'll be able to make some
money from it I done this for five years
as a hobby with no interest in money and
my wife who's here was looking at me
spending 20 hours a week on my hobby and
said that's that's about enough we've
got a you know put food on the table so
that was the point where we turned a
movement a few years ago into a business
with a purpose but when we did it we
made sure to hire people who had already
been helping us build so far the vast
majority of people working with us came
from the community of folks who've been
helping and we sat down together and
said what do we want to be about what
are our values and those values were the
same things that we started with
so we're community led on everything we
do we're inclusive everyone is welcome
to play to be there and we're somewhere
we try to be humble meeting we just try
to be open to feedback there's more to
it but just to give you a flavor most
importantly is the community of people
who also agree that music matters and
that we should focus it doesn't make
sense the way I was talking about before
the weird thing that happened that we
never really expected is that people
come together and they're there for one
thing but then they're more aware of
their surroundings so often after the
music stops and there's a break
people don't grab their phones but they
look around and it's no surprise if you
think about that that people look around
and a lot of people come are single and
they flirt and I'm told that we've had
up to 12 couples meet and get married at
these nights and propose so hit me up if
you ever want to see a video of somebody
proposing it's crazy but the thing is a
coming together becomes something where
you're more open to making new friends
into the world the community also helps
you police when things
not okay I don't know if anyone's here
has been to her from Austin great place
for music but we had some gigs a couple
years ago that were not okay they were
not within the guidelines of what we
simply asked which is that focus person
leading it there was putting on music
that wasn't so hot and was all her
friends and was getting drunk and people
were talking and it was everything was
not okay so unbeknownst to me somebody
from Dallas got in a car drove three
hours and had a hidden camera and filmed
the whole thing sent it to us and said
look we had heard this is happening this
is what's happening so we shut it down
we built back up in Austin but that's
the beauty of a movement and people who
look out for each other and for the
simple guidelines that you said gonna
end up by two more slides but first by
just talking about the musicians
perspective
I was recently in Chicago and the first
band to play had driven five and a half
hours from st. Louis and they said that
to be in a room where we have heard we
will be with a hundred people who are
just listening that to us is worth five
hour or more Drive and for me this is
what we're surrounded with all the time
this sort of constant clatter an
obsession with technology but when
you're in the moment and human and when
music for those of you who love music
when music is center stage it's very
special for the artists as well I don't
know how many of you are artists or no
artists but it like I said before it's
just not okay to be performing also what
happens is people open their minds and
their hearts to what they're hearing so
really early on in their careers we had
people like Jose and Leon bridges and
Bastille the National play and then what
happens is people remember you may or
may not remember when you discovered
somebody online but you certainly
remember when you discovered somebody at
a live event and that's been a truly
special coming together
of this community final thought when
people come together or movement they
like to be together physically and
travel around the world if they can and
what happens is people when they're
different cities they hang out with
people they've met through their
association with music it's a picture of
me hosting in New York and oftentimes on
these events we will just ask hey where
have you been have you ever visited one
of our nights somewhere else and on this
particular night I said raise your hands
if you've been before and half the room
arms went up and I said somebody in the
back where have you been and he said
Chicago pointed another one where have
you been
she said Istanbul finally I said one
more and I pointed to somebody right in
the front row said where have you been
and this was in lower Manhattan and she
said well ray if I'd been at your house
back in London Wow
and afterwards she pulled me aside and
said it's beautiful to be in any space
where art and what music matters thank
you
[Applause]
