Nonmusicians as “Pillars” and “Icons” of US DIY Music Scenes

Abstract

I start this article, which is about the role of nonmusicians in creating and sustaining music doityourself (DIY) scenes in the United States, with a short ethnographic and biographical insight into the article’s main concerns. I introduce in this regard a DIY organizer named Rick Ele and some of his ruminations on the topic. Rick was a longtime live music organizer in the Davis and Sacramento, California, DIY scenes, and in that way, although he is not a musician himself, significantly contributed to the local music DIY culture. He booked a significant proportion of all the DIY shows in the area in the late 1990s and the 2000s, and he also arranged regional and national tours for local DIY musicians. Rick often organized shows in multiple local DIY houses (including DAM Haus in Davis, where he lived for several years), in other local DIY spaces (e.g., the Hub in Sacramento), and in some local bars and community centers. He was also an active organizer of DIY shows in Portland, Oregon, for a brief period of time when he was studying there in the early 1990s. In addition, Rick was a radio DJ at the local student and community radio KDVS in Davis, where he also ran his own radio show, Art for Spastics, between 1995 and 2005. He also held various administrative positions at KDVS and was responsible for managing educational radio seminars for new volunteers in each new school term.