Birthday / ‘Casual’ on Netflix
First off, I just wanted to say ‘thank you’ to all of those who wished me a happy birthday! It was a strange one; I had the day booked off to focus on practicing my music & for us to go out for lunch for the first time with our little baby in tow. Unfortunately Maureen caught Covid so we had a change of plans. She’s doing pretty well, baby D is smiling, and I’ve tested negative…so far.
Among the birthday wishes, I had a few friends reach out and tell me that they started watching a show on Netflix (in Canada) called ‘Casual’, where they noticed the use of my song ‘Snow Bank’ (Season 3, Episode 9). Pretty cool! I know the show was previously on Hulu and Crave in Canada but it seems more folks have caught on with it being on Netflix now.
I’d like to share a bit about this, and what it means to me. I apologize if I begin to ramble on.
First off, ‘Snow Bank’ was written when I was 18 years old. I was really into the band Stars and wanted to write a duet song, which I did. It’s semi autobiographical, an amalgamation of a few different events from my suburban 17 year old life. My high school band played it, and I brought it out of retirement years later when recording my first full-length album, “Walks With The Tender & Growing Night” (2011). Thanks to Jessica Jalbert for singing on the recording, Cam Boyce for the violins, and wizard Calvin McElroy for the amazingly snowy production.
In 2017 Trish Halloran, a music supervisor, reached out requesting the use of ‘Snow Bank’ as one of Casual’s editors suggested. I do not know who this editor is, but thank you, whoever you are! It was a bit surprising to get the request because, as some of you know, around that time I started working semi-consistently as a background actor while we were living in Georgia; it felt as if there were strings being pulled to bring me towards visual media. Many of my friends and peers are musicians, several who are trying to land placements in movies, TV shows, ads, etc. It can not only be a decent paycheque in the economy of fractured pennies for streams, but it can also expose your song to a wider audience. When I was a teen, this would have been viewed as selling out. I wonder if teens these days would care about any of that.
The amount that the opportunity paid was not particularly huge, but I will say this: it paid for a semester of school. I was enrolled in MacEwan University’s Hearing Aid Practitioner Program, partially remotely, and this placement came around when payment was due for a class. It felt like a direct transfer, as if my music ‘career’ was paving the way for me to take steps towards a more stable future in a new profession. It felt meaningful at the time, and it still does today.
— — —
I feel as though I could end this there, but it leads me to another memory a bit later, when we lived in Chicago. An online stock music company wanted to buy the non-exclusive rights to as much of my discography for their subscribers to use for whatever they wanted it for. Again, the pay might not sound life changing, but again it ended up being enough for a semester of school and some text books. I was a bit concerned, as I would be allowing the use of my songs for projects that I would have no connection with, but I eventually acquiesced when my Dad reminded me that most of my songs were several years old by now, and that they had ‘done what they could do’ financially. This offer may give them a new life.
Well, in some ways it did! When visiting Edmonton I noticed some comments on a youtube page for my song “Haven’t Thought of You in So Long”. These comments all said similar things:
“The movie DFITW brought me here too. Good song...I hear they're making a part two to the film. I wanna' be in it!”
“lol yea the film brought me here. Not the kinda stuff i normally listen to. but i like it. Good song.”
“Heard this song on Dont fuck in the woods! :) Great song to bad I cant say the same for the film.....”
This last comment I asked what ‘Dont Fuck in the Woods’ was; they replied:
“some horror movie that sucked ass! they used your song in there. Was it without permission?! Your song was the best part of the movie in my opinion! even if it only played for a few sec because now I found this song and discovered you! I think your great man. I'm going to share with my friends and family”
…weird, eh?
It turns out that this film used that licensing company. Do I regret licensing my music to them over this? Honestly no, I find it pretty funny. Not what I had imagined but humorous nevertheless. And to counter, I later received a message from a painter that makes stop-frame videos of her painting process and used some of my songs to compliment them. Things like that seem to balance the emotional spreadsheet. And again, it helped contribute to my current career as a Registered Hearing Aid Practitioner. But it’s a reminder that when you put yourself and your work out there, you’ll never know who will be paying attention.
— — —
Back to my birthday. I realized earlier this week that 1 year ago I had written a song called “Getting Older”, which ended up being the title track on my latest album (which came out in November, I wanted to drop it before baby D arrived). While I was making my breakfast I realized that I hadn’t written a ‘Doug Hoyer’ song since that one: I had been focused on finishing the record, preparing to move to PEI, working, and then having a baby. Learning how to be a father. Working in a new community. Omicron hitting the island. Throughout all of this, I hadn’t written a song for myself, other than some instrumental ideas and noodles. (Although I had written some commissioned projects). Frankly, I found this kinda depressing.
I’ve always believed that songwriting was a process that I routinely focused on, but that it would take the effort of starting. If someone sits down and wants to write a song, I generally believe that they can do it. It might not be good! It might not even be worth showing to anyone. But it might be a subconscious reflection of where the writer is, or something of the moment in our collective effervescence, possibly intangible. The air is all around us, but it is only useful if we take a breath; much like writing, inspiration surrounds us, but its gift does take some action on the writer's part. So how can I believe in that and find myself not having written a song in 1 year? Honestly, I don’t know. I suppose some of my creative juices have been spent trying to problem solve at my day job, helping people hear the world around them, counsel them when they have questions, troubleshooting and assisting.
But that’s a bit of a cop out.
I pledge to write more this next year. Frankly, not for you, not for the streaming service algorithms that give and take, but for myself. A reminder not to cut off this vestigial trait, this muscle that used to write (songs? prose? Comics? stories?), but to flex it and see what kind of surprises it can bring me.
Doug Hoyer
April 30, 2022
