We recently connected with Chris Dupont and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

When I told them I wanted to try to play guitar for my work, they both took it seriously. My dad in particular really showed up in lots of practical ways. When I was 17 years old I got really into heavier music. I was super into Blindside, Deftones, and the like. I auditioned for a pretty active band, and started playing really dodgy clubs, underground punk venues, and DIY spaces. You’d have a hundred kids packed into a place that was certainly a fire hazard, as 4 or 5 bands slammed through their sets back to back. And since I was young and relatively sheltered, my dad went to all those clubs. It probably killed his hearing, and he looked a little out of place in his button down shirt, surrounded by goth kids. But he knew it made me happy, so he spent a lot of late nights just witnessing and believing in me and watching me grow. I’m a third generation singer, but a first generation full time creative, and that silent support definitely set the stage for me to do what I do.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My primary passion is my work as a singer/songwriter. I make primarily indie/folk music. Very guitar and lyric forward. I’m most at home behind an acoustic guitar and a microphone in a listening room. I’ve had the good fortune of playing really great rooms like The Ark (Ann Arbor, MI), and many more around the continental U.S. My albums tend to be melodic, reflective, and atmospheric. It’s always my hope that they create a safe and welcoming environment to sit with the tougher stories and memories that many of us relate to but can’t always vebalize.

When I’m not working on my own music, I’m working on music for others. I’m a session guitarist, back vocalist, arranger, editor, producer, mix engineer, you name it.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

This may sound like a played-out complaint, but the way we consume and discover music has fundamentally changed shape, and it’s really hard for any of us to survive in a sustainable way. With the ease of streaming, the brutal devaluing of recordings, the constant inundation of new content, and the comparative social isolation still left over from the 2020 pandemic, people aren’t going to as many shows and they sure as hell aren’t buying albums. Ticket sales are universally down. Artists have more pressure on us than ever to constantly produce and spend thousands of dollars we don’t have, just to fight for attention.

I think the solution is twofold. I believe that most indie musicians will not survive unless consumers and listeners decide to intentionally opt in. Consider “adopting” your local indie artists. If you love what we do, go to shows. Spend that ten bucks. Buy a t-shirt. Help re-share and re-circulate social content from artists you are championing. In a world where algorithms decide what gets pushed into our faces, listeners need you now more than ever. Without ten or twenty fans who intentionally choose us and champion us, we can’t get anywhere at all. If you need to spend half of your savings to see a stadium artist, and it will deeply fulfill you, please do it. But also remember that if you need to feel the collective endorphin rush of live music, there are far more accessible ways to get that rush for the cost of a couple coffees, and my friends and I will happily give you all we’ve got.

I believe the second part of the solution completely rests on artists. Here is where I call out my own kind, especially myself. I think artists need to be more generously human. We are so obsessed with attention that we don’t share nearly enough of ours. If you want people to go to your shows, then be the type of artist who goes to shows. Re-share your fellow artists’ stuff. Learn how to be a fan again. If your favorite touring act comes to town, put it on your calendar. Even if you can’t get the opening slot, still buy a ticket and go. It’s harder than ever to share our time, especially with the constant work it takes to make original art. But when we support other artists’ careers, we remember why we started doing this in the first place. Being stingy in our support for fellow artists won’t add a single day or dollar to any of our careers.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I’d been faster to take advantage of the wealth of music production knowledge that just lives on the internet for free. I absolutely loved studying music and recording and college, and have no regrets there. But just about anything you learn in a class will date itself very quickly these days. If you have patience, optimism, and openness to ideas, you can learn most of what you want to do by cruising youtube or following educational creative accounts on socials.

I used to be really resistant to seeing what “the kids” were up to, because I fancied myself knowledgable, trained, armed with fundamentals. The thing is, “the kids” with their laptops and headphones are making bad ass music that wins awards and gains listeners. With or without music theory knowledge. With or without an understanding of psychoacoustics. So I wish I’d been quicker to learn from those people and eagerly take advantage of new tricks and techniques.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chrisdupontmusic.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/chrisdupontmusic
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/chrisdupont
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisdupont
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKf5yCS7sOR_vfBuI6kQkWQ

Image Credits

Cover photo: Misty Lyn Bergeron

All other photos: Misty Lyn Bergeron, Matt Eastman, Leisa Thompson, Kyle Rasche