The club where everyone knows your name

In 2011 my friend Scott created a Facebook group for music lovers with eclectic taste, and invited a hundred or so friends to join. I was one of those friends.

It operated on a simple premise. Share a link to song you enjoy, that you think other people might also enjoy. At it’s most simplistic level the group is still that; a place where people share youtube links to songs they like.

What we soon discovered was if you share something on social media, you tend to say something about the thing you are sharing, And what happens when you share music is you talk about it in an emotional way - eg I love this song, this song reminds of that time my heart was broken, this album was the soundtrack to my divorce, this song takes me back to a special time in my life - that sort of thing. And when people bare themselves in this way, in a trusted environment, it allows deep connections to be made.

Those deep connections can lead to many wonderful things. In my case it has led to treasured friendships and important support networks. These are mostly sustained online.

In 2014 or so, I had an idea. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to meet some of these people in real life?

So I dreamed and I planned, and I started to make it happen.

First, I went to the Netherlands, to meet the group’s most active and prolific member. That went well, so I dreamed and planned some more, and I learned how to shoot video for social media. That led me to another idea. What if I filmed interviews with people about the music they love?

So that’s what I have done, on my last few big holidays. I have traveled around seeking out members of this group, to meet, to drink, to talk and to film an interview, so that other members of the group can see them and hear them and get to know them a little bit better.

So far I have interviewed people in (USA) San Francisco, New York, Boston, Cleveland, Montgomery Village, and Portage, (UK) Bath (Northern Ireland) Belfast and Den Haag in the Netherlands.

Tomorrow, I’m off to the USA again, to meet some people for the first time (yay!) and to spend time once more with beautiful friends I have already met along the way.

See you soon my Club Eclectica family.