When we sat down together to write our first song in the summer of 2006, “Why does the rain fall?” fell out in its entirety very quickly: an attempt to explain the root causes of destructive human behavior, and where hope lies in the infinite resource of love and creativity. It surprised us both, [...]]]>

When we sat down together to write our first song in the summer of 2006, “Why does the rain fall?” fell out in its entirety very quickly: an attempt to explain the root causes of destructive human behavior, and where hope lies in the infinite resource of love and creativity. It surprised us both, because the form of the lyrics and music were different than anything either of us had done before.  It was followed a month later by “March Of The Spirit Bear”, to commemorate our rare white black bears. And then “Big Dipper”, speaking to the urge to find each other and build community.  Then we knew something was up, because the songs were taking shape somewhat effortlessly–a melding of my environmental leanings and Kevin’s rock pop sensibilities.

In 2007 our theme song, “I Am The Future” fell out of a show we did a the Building Sustainable Communities conference.  We were performing with a small choir of kids for an audience of “suits” who had no idea what to expect; they all jumped to their feet twice in standing ovations.  The conference organizer, Joanne Devries said, “When you see 10-year old children singing with such conviction, you can’t help but be moved.”  Turning to the choir, she continued, “I want you to go out into the audience, go up to people, shake their hand, look them in the eye, and say, ‘We’re counting on you’”.

“Sun and Sea” was inspired by learning about the giant plastic floating landfill in the North Pacific gyre.  We both grew up on the West Coast, and summers were spent at the beach–there is no greater happiness in life than to be a child playing in the sun around the water.  And now, to know that idyllic experience exists in concert with an unfolding ecological disaster… the only thing we could think to do was write a song.

“Up Your Watershed!” was our response to the disappearance of the Fraser sockeye in spring 2009, when 10 million were projected to return, and only 1 million showed up.  “Snows of Kilimanjaro” spans the continents and the melting glaciers of the Rockies and Himalayas, and the consequences to nature and humankind.  “Creatures of Habitat” celebrates the remarkable diversity of ecosystems in BC, and areas being protected by The Nature Trust… and links the ideas of getting outside, getting healthy and getting to know our home places.

 We knew we had to raise money, so we got busy creating the most kick-ass proposals you ever saw, with the help of our trusty Imagewriter dot-matrix printer, and colour photocopiers at Kinko’s.  We did it [...]]]> Chapter 2:  Environment Week on the Airwaves, EcoFest.  In which ART takes on the Federal Government, and wins…sort of.

 We knew we had to raise money, so we got busy creating the most kick-ass proposals you ever saw, with the help of our trusty Imagewriter dot-matrix printer, and colour photocopiers at Kinko’s.  We did it all by paste-up; we didn’t have the software to do it digitally on computer.  Featuring Carl Chaplin’s immortal artwork and Gary Larsen Far Side cartoons.  We sent them out to every important, famous or powerful person we could think of, asking them to write a letter of support for Ecofest, as we’d come to call it.  We got letters back from David Suzuki, Maurice Strong, Bill VanderZalm (then-premier of BC), Senator Ray Perrault, MLA Darlene ….., and a couple dozen others, all of which were sent to the Minister of Environment, Robert de Cotret.

At this time, in 1990, the Mulroney government had introduced the billion-dollar Green Plan.  The environment was number one in the polls.  We were invited to participate in the Round Table on the Environment in Ottawa.  The idea behind the Round Table was to bring stakeholders from all sectors of society together to discuss controversial issues and find solutions for sustainability.  First Nations, environmentalists, government, corporations, and artists…us.  We got our way paid out to Ottawa to join in, and we knew this was our big opportunity.  We got meetings set up with the Director General of Environment, Gilles Anres Gosseline, and with Minister de Cotret.

The government had provided for environmentalists from groups all over Canada, to come a day earlier to have their own meetings and develop their strategies, going in to the formal Round Table sessions.  This was intended to “create a level playing field” for the environmentalists, give them some extra time together, so they could encounter the much more well-funded corporate folks.  So we joined them.  After a day of discussions, writing on blackboards and whiteboards, everyone was getting a little fatigued.  Not too much had emerged that was bringing everyone together, and we all knew it.  Finally someone (I can’t remember who exactly) stands up and says, “Here’s what we should do.  Let’s boycott the meetings.  That will send a message that will be heard loud and clear!”

Stephen and I sat there, stunned.  As far as I know we were the only artists there.  Stephen stood up and said, “We’re a small arts organization.  We’ve had our way paid out here, and now you wanted us to boycott the sessions?  It doesn’t make any sense.”  As the meeting broke up, and we were walking out, a group passed us and called out, “Come on, we’re going for dinner!”  We responded, “But aren’t you going to the  big reception being hosted for us all by Environment Canada?  Minister de Cotret is going to be there.”  They answered, “Aw…we’re sick of talking to bureaucrats.”  We went back to our hotel room to reconnoiter and fortify ourselves with a drink.  On the one hand, we were flattered and overjoyed to finally be included in “the group” with nationally-based environmental organizations.  On the other hand, we had a mission: Raise support for Ecofest.  So we decided to go to the reception, and armed ourselves with our brochures, letters and music.  Well, it was like letting the wolves in with the sheep.  There was Minister de Cotret, Deputy Minister Len Goode, and Tim …… from the ….Section at Environment Canada, who proved to become a key ally.  There were no other environmentalists in sight.  We had them all to ourselves, to explain Ecofest, give them our fabulous documents and CDs, sing to them.  Stephen had to run back to the hotel room to grab more copies, because there were so many high-powered people that we got to talk to directly, with no competition.  I guess we kind of filled a gap for them too; we were obviously from the environmentally-oriented side of things, but we were so friendly and puppy-like; we basked in their attention.  And they seemed to like us too, I think we seemed harmless.

This was March 1990; we proposed to produce a national broadcast campaign to take place in June 1991.  We were asking Environment Canada to provide $275,000 in funding.  The concept was to engage musicians throughout Canada in a broadcast campaign, where they recorded PSAs with eco-messages, for radio and TV.  We would produce a Catalogue of Green Songs to be sent to every radio station, asking Program Directors to choose enviro-songs already in their playlists, such as After The Goldrush by Neil Young, If A Tree Falls by Bruce Cockburn, etc, and play them during Environment Week along with the PSAs.  It was the right “ask” at the right time: we weren’t asking broadcasters to add new songs, only to play ones already in their roster.  Environment Week on the Airwaves gave people the opportunity to do something to help, that was within their power to do.  The purpose was to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Canadian Environment Week, a very well kept secret, raise awareness of the Green Plan and generate public support for positive action.

The next day we got to meet with the DG, Gilles Andres Gosseline.  We were asking for $5,000 of seed funding to get Ecofest off the ground. He ushered us into his office, sat us down, and proceeded to harangue us for 20 minutes, scolding us for creating so much work for his officials.  “Do you realize, that every time a letter comes into our offices from high-profile people like Maurice Strong* and David Suzuki, we have to write seven letters to deal with it?  You have caused a bottle neck, created huge work for us, at this very time when we’re implementing the Green Plan, coordinating these Round Tables, etc.”  He was really unhappy with us.

Here is how Stephen recounted the tale of this historic moment, many times in subsequent years: “I said to Gilles Andres, ‘You have to understand.  We are a small arts organization, we create music about the environment.  It is really hard to raise support for what we do.  As artists, we have to be prepared to…’ (at this point I raised my arm and pointed towards his huge office picture window looking out on the verdant lushness of the Ottawa, 27 floors up, it had a panoramic view; Gilles Andre’s eyes followed my hand to look out, and I knew I had him) ‘…jump out of a window this high, douse ourselves in gasoline, and light a match as we’re falling, just to get peoples’ attention for what we’re doing.”

Gilles Andres sat open-mouthed for a few pregnant seconds, and then he laughed heartily.  I guess it was his good old Quebecois appreciation for culture that came through.  He gave us t-shirts and posters…and committed to provide the $5,000.  We were ecstatic!  We were on the way!

We had a meeting with Minister de Cotret.  He was known to enjoy a drink or two, and we were warned that the early afternoon timing of our meeting might mean that he was not at his fullest attention.  It proved to be the case.  We had 30 minutes.  We started talking to the Minister, and noticed after a few minutes, his head was nodding.  Stephen asked me to sing a song, which woke him up.  We continued with the presentation; each time he’d nod off, I’d sing a bit and wake him up.  He loved the music, and the project too.

We went to Toronto to meet with Gary Slaight, the CEO of Standard Broadcasting.  We’d got his attention by sending him some smoked salmon that went astray in the mail, and he finally received when it was rotten and stinky, but I guess it made an impression.  He liked the concept, and said he’d help get the Canadian Association of Broadcasters on side, and recommended that we work with Joanne Smale, a publicist.  Together we got luminaries from the Canadian music industry on board: Stan Kulin, CEO of Warner Music Canada; Rob xzxxx of XHFJ in Montreal, and many more.  The train was starting to fire up the boilers.

Back in Vancouver we went feverishly to work, putting together the big proposal, and contacting musicians everywhere.  The response was huge.  All in all over 80 artists participated, including Bruce Cockburn, Barney Bentall, Sue Medley, Gowan, Mitsou, Jim Bynes, 54/40, Patricia Conroy, Molly Johnson…and on and on.

We got the first go-ahead from Environment Canada, with an initial commitment of $50,000.  But we had to get back to Ottawa to sign the contract, and we didn’t have the cash to buy plane tickets.  We went into our bank, the Royal at Broadway and Bayswater, to meet with the manager, Fred Wickett.  We sat down with him in his office, showed him the government contract, and explained that we wanted to have a $5,000 line of credit so we could fly to Ottawa and sign the contract for $50,000.  He listened, and then excused himself for a few minutes.  We waited.  The door to his office was open, and we could see long lines of patrons lined up for the tellers; this was back in the day when you actually dealt with people at banks.  When Fred came back, he said, “I’m sorry, but we can’t give you the line of credit.”  I guess he’d been checking his lending guidelines, where artists probably rank lower even than drug dealers—at least they have cash flow!  Stephen put his elbow on Fred’s desk, leaned forward and said, “This really pisses me off.  You’ll lend money to pesticide manufacturers, which poison the land.  You’ll lend money to real estate speculators, and look at how many of them go tits-up.  You’ll lend money to car dealers, and look at the damage cars are doing.  And here we are, musicians who create music about the environment, with a government contract committed for $50,000, and you won’t lend us $5,000 to fly out to Ottawa to get it signed.”  He turns to me and says, “Holly, sing 3 Minute Culture.”

I sank down in my chair.  But I knew I had to do it, or my life would be hell for three days, because Stephen would feel so let down and be very, very unhappy.  Not only that, I had to do it with conviction.  So I started snapping my fingers and sang acapella,

A three minute culture, who is dealing poisons?

Who is trading futures, who makes the loans?

The sound of my voice carried out into the main part of the bank, where dozens of customers stood waiting to see the tellers.  I gave it all I had at the end,

Compassionate culture, wise folk make decisions

For seven generations look ahead and behind

Compassionate culture, wish folk step lightly

They watch and listen for the signs

Of a planet in crisis, a Mother who suffers

From centuries of plunder, neglect and greed.

It’s time to care for each other, it’s time to use only what we need

This is right, everybody knows this is right

This is right…this is right…SO right…everybody knows this is right!

When I stopped singing the entire bank had fallen completely silent.  Fred clapped his hands together and said, “That’s right!”  And he gave us the $5,000 line of credit.

Now the real work began.  With Joanne in Toronto, and ART in Vancouver, we activated the entire country.  Corporate sponsors came on board, Shell Oil, Imperial Oil, Trans Mountain Pipe Line.  (flesh out other entities, people, etc)

And the biggest job of all: finalizing the contract for the remaining $225,000.   What we didn’t know is that even though we had support at high levels (the Minister and Deputy Minister) it’s the bureaucrats who actually implement the job, and they can really slow things down if they decide to.  We started to run into serious head winds from Judy Holland and Hugues Lacombe.  Everything was proceeding full steam ahead, and Stephen was knocking himself out trying to get the remaining funding in place, and we were being stonewalled.  Stephen went back to Ottawa, met with everyone again and again, but we were being shuffled to people at a lower level who didn’t have the discretion to draw up the contract.  We were being told that the department had not approved the funding.  He was meeting with Gail Turner, in her office.  She had to go out for a few minutes, and Stephen put his head down on his arm, on her desk, in exhaustion and despair.  He happened to be looking straight into her waste paper basket, where he noticed a crumpled document with the words “Ecofest” and “Environment Week on the Airwaves” on it.  He pulled it out, flattened it, and read it.  It was an inter-office memo documenting that the $225,000 had been approved by Environment Canada.  So we were being mis-led and lied to.

Stephen put the document into his briefcase, and came back home.  In the next communication with officials, when they told us the funding was not approved, he made oblique reference to the memo.  After that the contract was finalized.

In the end we raised $375,000 in cash, a further $1.25 million in in-kind contributions.  Over 600 media outlets and 80 artists participated throughout Canada.  We produced a 1-hour radio special called, “Artists Out To Save The World…and pay the rent”, which aired on 35 stations nationally, including CFOX in Vancouver and CJFM in Montreal.  We produced a 30-minute TV special called “Let’s Start Communicating” about forestry issues, featuring Bob George (son of Chief Dan George), Dr. William Rees (author and creator of Ecological Footprint), Larry Bell (then-CEO of BC Hydro), which was broadcast nationally on YTV.

Collecting our final payment was a trial; Environment Canada officials did not make it easy.  Thanks to the rigourous paper trail and record keeping of Stephen and Joanne…we were able to compile a 3-volume final report of the project.  When we finally sat down with Ed ….. in Supply and Services, who had to review our report and approve our payment, he was effusive in his praise of what we’d accomplished and how we’d accounted for it all.  It was a victory, very hard-won, but a victory.

If you recall, the whole reason we conceived of Environment Week on the Airwaves was because we couldn’t get our songs played on local stations.  Stan Kulin, the CEO of Warner Music Canada, was an early supporter of Ecofest.  We met with him, and he agreed to strike a licensing deal for my next album, just self-titled Holly Arntzen.  This was huge!

Thus began the next chapter of our initiation into the music industry.

* Maurice is the father of Fred…our partner who financed Last Spike and many other projects in the coming years.  Maurice was the Secretary General of the upcoming UNCED 92—the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development—the first gathering on the environment to involved virtually every country on Earth.  So Maurice was a big fish indeed, from our point of view.

Chapter 1. The Artist Response Team was born in 1989 on the decks of a 20-foot sailboat.  We had been invited to join a Greenpeace flotilla that was circling a massive US nuclear-armed warship lurking in Vancouver harbour.  Bill Henderson was there.  Stephen and I had [...]]]> The History of the Artist Response Team (ART)

Chapter 1. The Artist Response Team was born in 1989 on the decks of a 20-foot sailboat.  We had been invited to join a Greenpeace flotilla that was circling a massive US nuclear-armed warship lurking in Vancouver harbour.  Bill Henderson was there.  Stephen and I had lugged my keyboard on board, along with our Bose speaker system.  We were playing a new song we’d just written, called Three Minute Culture.

A 3-minute culture, the rich keep gettin’ richer

Taking advantage and living in luxury

A 3-minute culture, the poor keep getting poorer

Losing power and living in misery

Should we be trying to make fortunes in the blink of an eye?

I don’t want corporations controlling my life

Why should rich folk get richer while the poor people die

Just to keep military industries alive?

This ain’t right, everybody knows this ain’t right!

We were going around and around this giant warship which towered above us, five or six stories.  3 Minute Culture is a rockin’ swing blues tune, and we could see the sailors way up there, lining the railing, laughing and snapping their fingers as we sang and sailed along.  There was a delightful sense of irony seeing that they were getting so much enjoyment out of our song and our protest.  I don’t think they could actually hear the words; it didn’t matter.

Artist Response Team.  Cultural swat team.  That was us.

The groundwork for ART was laid in the late 80’s, when I was performing at benefits.  Name a group, we probably did something for them: the Stein Festival, Greenpeace, Wilderness Committee, Sierra Club, Burns Bog, and on and on.  This meant that we were hearing the leading speakers of the burgeoning environmental movement: David Suzuki, Paiakon of the Kaiapo Indians of Brazil, Wade Davis, Hopi speakers.  This fed into our songwriting and we created song after song about the environmental issues of the day, like Stand Up.

You can see it in the sunlight, you can see it in the clear blue sky

You can hear it in the whale’s call, and in the eagle’s cry

Taste it in clear water, you can smell it in clean air

Millions of people can become simultaneously aware

Stand up and be counted for what you know is right

Stand up for survival of every form of life

Stand up and be counted, do what you do best

Stand up for the planet and future generations

Help set an example for the rest 

We share the victory when the Haida claim their land

Feel it in Carmanah’s thousand year old Sitka stands

Hear from endangered peoples like the Penan and the Kaiapo

Fighting for their forest culture so their children have a place to grow

However, performing at benefits was a zero-sum game.  We couldn’t survive.  And we got frustrated because somehow we were always giving our talents and production services, and yet would get passed over when the big opportunities came along.  A case in point was when the Wilderness Committee had managed to get Bryan Adams to do a benefit for them at the 86 Street Music Hall, and they were choosing the opening act; we didn’t get the shot.  We made a huge investment, and yet never got to reach that larger audience to help build our careers and cash flow.

So we started producing our own events in earnest, and it is a point of pride for ART that we always pay the artists involved.  These projects brought their own set of odd and capricious circumstances.  In 1990 we were approached by the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union to produce the Wild Salmon Clean Water Tour to 14 coastal communities, to draw attention to the disastrous policies being put in place by DFO.  The UAFWU had limited cash, so we went out and fundraised $5,000 from the fledgling BC Liberal Party, which was starting to gain momentum under the leadership of Gordon Wilson.  This had conflicted results: We had the money we needed to produce the tour, but it pissed off the labour types in the UAFWU who saw the Liberals as capitalist interlopers; so that diminished the enthusiasm in that quarter.  We discovered that within the fishing community, there were ongoing internecine battles.  The sports fishers didn’t talk to the commercial fishers, who didn’t like the Native fishers, who warred with the gillnetters, etc, etc.  So a lot of people in the fishing community actually boycotted the concerts.  But we got to go all over the coast to fabulous places like Bella Coola, and get fed washtub loads of prawns in Pender Harbour.  The tour culminated in Ucluelet, where a bunch of drunk loggers showed up and were talking loudly while I was singing.  I was singing louder and louder to try to be heard, and was going hoarse.  Stephen, who always avoided the spotlight like the plague, uncharacteristically came up and took the microphone, and addressed the loggers directly, asked them what their problem was.  Sylvia weaved up to say that they didn’t like us city folk coming in and telling them how to live, and leaving town with all their money.  Stephen said, “Sylvia, anyone who wants their money back can get a refund from me.  And you can see from the small attendance here that there is no great amount of money leaving town with us.  In fact, we’ve brought our own funding.”  They kind of grumbled their way out the door.  I was hoarse for two weeks afterwards, and was despairing of recovering.  Stephen told me to practise singing softly, and we wrote a song that could be sung in my lower register, called I Believe:

I believe in defending the rights of every living thing

I believe that when we smash these drug lords, we will still have robber kings

I believe caring is salvation, and that ignorance creates pain

I believe we are capable of helping, I believe that it’s not too late to change.

Our next junket was Last Spike: The Great Canadian Whistlestop Tour, to draw attention to the gutting of VIA rail by the federal government.  ART, and in particular Stephen, was developing the ability to raise money from various sources to fund our productions.  We had the first Mac512 computer with a tiny screen, and an Imagewriter printer.  We were our own printing press, and created documents and proposals that featured Stephen’s compelling ideas, accompanied by Gary Larsen Far Side cartoons and Carl Chaplin artwork.  Fred Strong became an investor in Last Spike and ART.   We incorporated ART as a for-profit company because we wanted to be able to generate sustainable cash flow from selling stuff, rather than relying on non-profit fundraising.  Fred shared this vision, and became a partner over the next decade.

Last Spike was a tour to Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo and Courtenay, traveling on the E&N railway up Vancouver Island.  Songwriter Paul Hyde, performer Rick Scott, guitarist David Sinclair, writer/comedian Des Kennedy and the Raging Grannies were part of the entourage; Valley Hennell King did the stage managing.  We produced an the Last Spike album featuring the music of the artists, to support the tour.  Stephen and I traipsed into radio stations with the request to put one song from the album onto some kind of rotation, to let people know about the concert and raise support for local rail service.  We couldn’t get one station to play one song.  Finally, in a meeting with a Program Director in a Nanaimo station, our frustration mounting, the PD told us, “But you’ve got to understand.  We don’t decide which songs get added to our playlist; those decisions are made in Toronto.”

The light bulb went on, and we turned our faces eastward, like pilgrims to Mecca.

I have to interject something about the basic dynamics of ART.  Stephen and I were a wedded pair, literally and figuratively.  I was a haplessly addicted singer.  Life only made sense to me when I had a gig on the horizon that I could plan and practise for.  When shows were slow, I tended to get despondant and dejected.  But when I hit the stage, I made a good impression.  Stephen was really in love with me; he was a successful building contractor on Cortes Island when we first met.  He had a genius for design, and creating unique original homes that were in harmony with the landscape.  He created our homestead, a multi-level home with $10,000 worth of stained glass windows, a stream on the property, forced-air wood furnace, back-up propane stove in the kitchen, southern exposure, huge garden, orchard, 2000 square foot shop—this property was the dream of his lifetime.  He pre-empted one of the last pieces ever of Crown Land in BC.  When we got together, he immediately created a music studio for me, and threw his support behind my career.  Partly because he knew that I was useless unless I was performing.

He had a science background in zoology and biology; he saw the environmental crisis looming, and knew that our little piece of paradise wasn’t long for this world, because of bigger forces like climate change.  He saw the potential for my voice to take out messages about ecology; he was the driving force behind ART.  He built ART the way he built houses: With a plan to get from the foundation to the roof, and everything in between.  He created a structure to support not only my career, but the idea was to create work for lots of other artists doing the same job of going out there and singing and helping to educate and inspire people to take care of the Earth.  Enlightened capitalism.  Make money by doing good things.

Stephen was the most determined and committed person I’ve ever known.  He’d set his course with ART, and ultimately we ended up selling the Cortes property to move to Vancouver, and invested everything we had in the music.

So when the Nanaimo radio PD told us that we had to go to Toronto to make something happen on the airwaves, Stephen immediately began hatching a plan to make it happen.  We developed the concept for Environment Week on the Airwaves, a national broadcast campaign to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Canadian Environment Week (who knew?!).