We were lucky to catch up with David Ventura Garcia recently and have shared our conversation below.

David Ventura, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Our current project involves the transformation of an old school bus into a recording studio. It is the physical manifestation of a mission put into place back in 2017. The core of our mission involves discovery and the preservation of music and sound. We are a nonprofit arts organization that embraces the role that music and sound plays in our culture and in the soundscape of our lives. When we established Transient Mic, we realized that as a community, we have a responsibility to provide resources to artists limited by budget, equipment or location. We believe that we all have a voice and the need to preserve this voice is key to our growth.

At the moment, we are dealing with the effects of COVID and shifting economic forces which happened to wipe out many nonprofit organizations and commercial establishments. All these elements force us to ask the question, “What is important to us?” Our answer is to move forward with a newfound determination to build a better future, and for us and that future begins with the creation of our first mobile studio.

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

When I graduated with an MFA in Film Production from the University of Texas, I had such high hopes to make my mark in cinema. And yet, like so many other talented hopefuls, I failed to realize the enormous amount of timing, good fortune and connections it takes to really gain traction in that industry. I decided to put down the camera, shelve the screenplays, and look for another way to put my narrative and production skills to good use. When I met our co-founder, Jeremy Fowler, he had just recorded an album with his band and then they broke up just as they were carving out a following here in the Austin scene. So there we were, two artists wanting so much to be able to continue our work as independent artists and exercise our creative freedom. We were artistically frustrated and yet we held onto to the belief that, ultimately, we have something to contribute to the greater good. And so we had to pivot. Transient Mic was born out of this need to stay creative at a time when it seemed like our worlds were falling apart.

We know that the idea of a mobile studio is not the big innovation here- it’s the idea of a “nonprofit” mobile studio that grabbed us. We suddenly realized that by adding the word “nonprofit” to the front of our tagline meant that we would create the studio as a direct response to artists who are faced with the same challenges we felt. If we could create a organization that seeks to capture the creative output of the voices and talent around us, then the artist we meet would no longer be bound by budget, resources or location. In other words, if we build a nonprofit mobile studio, drive it to the artists, record their work and then offer them the master recordings, we make an immediate impact to the arts that hopefully spurs on a body of work that can contribute culturally. We realized that the organization had to be a nonprofit if we were going to do something for the benefit of our own cultural preservation.

It’s hard to find like-minded philanthropists and donors who wholeheartedly understand our mission. In as few words as we can, we simply state that “Transient Mic is a nonprofit mobile studio dedicated to the preservation of music and sound.” It is intentionally broad and yet specific enough to target the artistic medium that falls under the art of recording and the creation of both music- no matter the genre, and sound- no matter how experimental. And yet nowhere in that statement do we include video, film, dance, or theater. These are visual mediums. Of course, we understand the need for social media posts and all the visual aspects that go into a brand, but our mission is more akin to the independent nature of podcasts or the produced works of some musical prodigy that could be anywhere in this world.

And so, within this broad mission, we subdivide it into the many aspects of recordings like the genres themselves. In other words we begin to curate an archive of recordings that we can share with a public audience who values the power of music and sound and understands its ability to stir both emotion and thought. Transient Mic hopes to establish its mark on the world by creating a body of archived works that draws attention to itself and finds an audience willing to sustain the art of recording and support of artists.

It is much like the itinerant musicologists that would travel our country preserving the sounds of blues, jazz, conjunto, zydeco, or the even more obscure cultural recordings like Native American ceremonial chants, and so many other field recordings that have managed to have a gradual impact on our culture. When you actually sit down and trace the origins of rock, country, and Americana and so many other genres streaming across hundreds of thousands of digital channels, you can trace much of it back to these seminal recordings.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When you find a cause that you believe in, you pursue it as long as you have the passion and energy for that mission. Jeremy and I still volunteer for the organization without any salary because we believe in Transient Mic and the chance to collaborate with so many different kinds of people from all walks of life. With every recording we do, we add to the archive and we expand our body of work. It’s a gradual process that has taken root and needs our talent and time to nurture it.

One day, we hope to able to raise enough money to be able to grow our nonprofit into a fully-funded organization complete with salary and benefits, but until that time, we have to remain patient and focused on the mission. Transient Mic has taken us on so many journeys and the bus hasn’t even left the terminal yet. That’s what is so exciting about this next phase. The creation of our mobile studio sets the stage for a longer journey that plans to bridge a cultural community of creators waiting to be discovered.

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

It’s hard to see so much wealth accumulate in one particular sector, and so much lack of funding in another. I remember going to business school and hearing about the idea of benefit corporations which sounded like a fantastic idea. And yes, there are some companies built on the idea of selling product and redistributing profit for the greater good, but their impact is difficult to gauge. In other words, if I buy this pair of socks or shoes, am I certain that another person across the world gets an equal pair to wear and actually improve their lives? We want to be socially conscious and we buy them believing that we are doing our part. But in the end, it’s really hard to determine what really became of those socks or shoes or the bigger question: what was their actual impact?

I believe we have to act locally. If we want change to occur, we have to seek out opportunities to contribute. Volunteerism is an act that goes beyond the purchase of a good or service in order to contribute. It means that you are physically motivated to get involved. When you donate your time and energy towards a cause that you wholeheartedly believe in, this simple act can bring an immense amount of inner peace and will have a hundred-fold effect. The positive energy created by the act of volunteering is what helps keep nonprofits alive.

As Transient Mic’s Executive Director, I’ve also learned that money is also an energy. It’s not the root of all evil. It’s a tool that we created to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. And yet, it seems to be hoarded in such a way that the distribution of this wealth is severely lopsided. It wields great power and can do so much good when it’s in the right hands. Philanthropy must be seen as a necessary role of accumulated wealth because without it, the smaller nonprofit organizations out there struggling to survive are vulnerable to the economic strain of a society that doesn’t always look towards the long-term vision of a world that we hope that one day will be united in peace. It’s so hard to see past the headlines. I completely understand how the short-term problems of a volatile political climate, compounded by our colliding beliefs and combined with the deathly impact of a yet another virus strain must take a certain priority, but what do we lose track of in the process? It’s no wonder that a cultural peace seems unattainable. And that’s where Transient Mic comes in, because amidst all the turmoil, all these different voices are being drowned out. It’s our mission to seek them out and preserve them.

We are grateful for the generous grant given to us by the Surack Family Foundation. They helped save us from the jaws of COVID when we needed it most. We’re also so thankful to have met the folks at Mosaic Sound Collective here in Austin. They gave us a place to set up our studio until our bus is built. These organizations understand the creative role that the arts play in the culture of a community. And one by one, we’ve been able to meet people inside the community that also recognize our value and contribution as an arts organization. We recently had a fund drive as part of the Amplify Austin’s “I Live Here, I Give Here” campaign and it was exciting to see the community step up to the plate knowing how the dollar is stretched so thin in these trying times.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.transientmic.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transient.mic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/transientmic
• Other: https://soundcloud.com/transientmic