Twenty-eight days and over 70 independent artists performing live three times a day till April 30 — this is Motojojo’s way of hosting music/art sessions on Instagram.
Motojojo is a start-up that aims to bridge the gap between independent artists and the audience by shaping a network of artists, travellers, filmmakers and culture aficionados across India. It’s current programme on Instagram is an attempt to raise money for the PM Cares fund.
“An important aspect of our community is that we turn regular homes (using living rooms/rooftops) into secret performance locations where our members can experience an intimate, old-school baithak -style gathering along with potlucks,” says Sapan Gupta, who heads the marketing team at Motojojo. “In the last two years, Motojojo has organised over 250 events across 22 cities in India and hosted over 15,000 guests and 1,000 independent/original artists; all with the help of basic online advertising and our small team,” he adds.
Since the lockdown restricts all such activities, the community decided to go virtual.
“We have sorted out time frames during the day and the music that best suits that period of the day,” says Sapan, adding, “For example, to help ease into the morning (10 am to 11 am), as one sips coffee or does meditation/exercise, we have calming yet vibrant instrumental tunes being played by musicians: from classical sitars to Australian didgeridoos, there is a wide range. In the evening (5pm-6 pm), we have talk sessions with story-tellers and comedians. Ending the day (10pm-11 pm) will be musicians and singer-songwriters playing long sets of their original music. These include Suraj Mani, Saby Singh, Bhuwin Khursija, Gaurav Kadu (Fiddlecraft), Derick Nathaniel, Roopam Sharma, and 65 others — people can enjoy different genres of music/art on different days.”
We will link a page where people can donate and we will transfer all of that to the COVID-19 fund,” says Sunny Awasthi, co-founder and CEO of Motojojo events. The company has always been about supporting independent artists (musicians, poets, instrumentalists, photographers and story-tellers). The lockdown, and the resultant absence of gigs have cut into their limited income. “We want to use our platform to help artists gain online visibility and keep sharing their art with people,” he says. That apart, it also gives people something to look forward to, while discovering new talent.
