Premiere: Whoa Dakota stages magical Tea Time with Tuxedo Wildlife in episode one

The music industry breeds competition, and it’s hard not to become a slave to the oppressive cycle of social numbers and streaming stats, regardless of artistic and critical accomplishment. It’s an unhealthy environment manifesting as a creaky, broken down hamster wheel, and the cheese on a string is swollen and polluted with fuzzy mold. To combat such a toxic system, Nashville staple Whoa Dakota, whose 2018 studio record Patterns was named one of B-Sides & Badlands‘ favorite records of the year, is set to launch a new YouTube series called Tea Time with Whoa Dakota, a casual sofa-side chat with fellow working musicians. In the first episode, premiering today, Dakota picks the brain of guitarist and singer Collin Gundry of Tuxedo Wildlife.

“I wanted to create a platform for artists ⏤ signed as well as independent ⏤ to share their fears and hopes surrounding the industry we are in. I think it’s really easy to get taken hostage by the comparison culture we live in. We can become paralyzed by social media into feeling like we aren’t where we need to be as artists because someone else is always further along,” writes Dakota over email of the series’ intentions. “I wanted to create a place where we could shed those virtual boundaries and just have an authentic conversation about this thing we all do. I find that when I’m out at shows I’m often having these conversations with other artists anyway, so this was an effort to create a more intimate scenario in which to have them and then share the chats so that other artists can be inspired and feel less alone while grappling with similar issues.”

The bite-sized conversation delves into such topics as social media suffocation, choosing music over a medical degree and the pressure to forge ahead in an ever-shifting and rather fickle industry. “A lot of what I’ve touched on in the chats so far has been how to manage health and well-being on the road (whether mental or physical), why artists choose the musical path when there are so many challenges and seeming impossibilities surrounding it, the pressures to create something that makes money and how that can sometimes go against organic self-expression, and how social media can be detrimental to the creative space but also how it can be used to enhance it,” she continues. “What’s been so inspiring to me is the shared hope and vitality that my artist friends have even in the face of some really discouraging hurdles within the musical space. What always remains is this really deep love for music and how it moves us all to keep moving forward. It’s magical.”

Watch below:

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