Lauren Corzine: Quarantine Opportunism, Country Radio Success and Bias, and Child Abuse Prevention Month
Since the mass quarantine, country music artist Lauren Corzine has kept a steady output of livestream performances that maintain a lot of the essence of her usual live performances. She also played at what is most likely the last festival event in the US before the lockdown. We talk with Corzine about the atmosphere of these concerts, the country radio phenomena in the streaming world, gender bias, how she portrays herself as an artist, and her advocacy for child abuse prevention month.
Wearing yourself as your stage persona and taking your own projects seriously
Raymus Media: You have your own sign-on “I’m Lauren Corzine and I’m a country singer-songwriter” and I feel like your persona is yourself. A lot of musicians have their day job, friends, and family and then on fridays and saturdays here and there they perform a gig as their character and then go right back to normal life. Do you think more people should perform as themselves?
Lauren Corzine: I think people do what they need to do to be likable, whatever that means for them. I want to be as open and kind as possible. That’s how I want to be moving forward. I come from that place when I’m playing. I want to be as transparent as possible. I don’t want to act like something I’m not or pretend to be more famous than I am. That’s really irritating to be around people that think they’re Madonna when they’re not.
RM: I like your Ask-me-something’s on Instagram. You get a lot of responses and it seems to engage your audience pretty well.
LC: When I used to travel and I was gigging I would get bored and wanted to see if people would want to get to know me, and I like to know them.
RM: For some people, their stage image can be shattered by that kind of openness, but for you that’s your brand. Even when it's not a negative thing, they’re offstage presence can shatter that image that they show on stage. There’s this local band I really like called Lazerhog. The singer has some crazy vocals and stage antics, and then I talked to him after and he seems like a cool regular guy.
LC: It’s like Marilyn Manson. He can’t be like that all the time, and I’ve heard he’s super nice and super cool.
RM: I’ve heard him speak in news clips and he’s really well spoken and he’s not being provocative. It’s interesting to me when it comes to a musician’s image, because stage personas make me think about how much their music projects mean to them. When I write reviews, especially bad ones, I sometimes feel bad because I wonder if the album is worth critiquing if the band is only doing it as a weekend hobby and nothing more.
LC: I like the work you do. You give attention that a lot of them don’t get from other outlets. Your vibe is the anonymous guy that’s always lurking.
RM: Yea I want musicians here to always feel that someone out there can be listening and their music can be written about. Part of it might be because they don’t know me, but a lot of the times I feel people don’t take their own projects as seriously as I do because they turn down interviews from me or don’t respond. I interviewed you last year when I only had like 70 Instagram followers but you didn’t care how small or new my website was. You responded right away.
LC: Why would someone say no? People need to take the opportunity. It’s good practice and especially now, there’s time in the day. If someone wants to talk about my work, I would never ignore them.
RM: It is good practice. Pillowsnake was my first podcast guest. He said a lot of profound stuff and we had a good conversation, but he was a bit soft spoken, but then he got invited to RGV Titan radio for their podcast and he spoke more confidently, then he went on the BLASST podcast and it went so smoothly, and I’m glad I gave him a chance to talk publicly before moving up to bigger podcasts.
Playing Borderfest and RGV Livestock Show before the quarantine
RM: How was the atmosphere at Borderfest and the Livestock Show?
LC: I remember specifically on March 8th (Borderfest) we were joking about stores with hand sanitizer being out. They weren’t panic buying other stuff just yet. My dad was telling me about events that might be cancelled but I was like “no dad, no.” I thought everything was going to be fine. No one was wearing masks yet.
RM: So everyone was able to enjoy it?
LC: Yea we all enjoyed it. I played to about 100 people. Nothing had really hit here yet. Everything hit the next week. I was going to play with The Spazmatics at the Livestock Show Sunday the 15th. I also played the day before and everything was business as usual the day before and if you were at the show, you wouldn’t know there was a lot going on.
RM: I think things were barely heating up in New York at the time. I don’t think we had a confirmed case here yet. How was the turnout?
LC: It wasn’t as good as it’s been before, but the people who were there weren’t really talking about the virus. The stock show was the only festival happening in the states because they were banned everywhere. They got some flak for that, but from one day to the next, everything else was cancelled by Monday. In one day I lost thousands of dollars worth of shows. We didn’t have all the information we have now about the virus. At the time everyone was on board with the show and all of this information came in a certain order, and had we had known what we know now, we wouldn’t have gone through with the show. All the vendors and everyone involved took a hit but we know better now.
RM: I would think the city of Mercedes really wanted to go through with it too, because they don’t have much else to depend on. I read in The Monitor that the city is really hurting with their mall being closed because they get 60-80% of their sales tax from there.
LC: It’s like when SXSW was cancelled, that was huge for them up there.
RM: I remember things drastically changed in five minutes. On March 12, within five minutes we got three huge news story. Tom Hanks became the first major celebrity to publicly confirm he got the virus, the nba season was cancelled because of Rudy Gobert, and Trump announced a travel ban from Europe. I remember reading comments about people saying stuff like “I just went to the restroom and came back. What the hell just happened?!”
LC: This is the biggest historical event I’ll probably live through just from how many people are affected.
Live streams and country radio
RM: You just did a live stream on Real Texas Radio’s Facebook. Your livestreams are different because you go all out. The outfits, the stage, the backing tracks, you treat it like you would any other show.
LC: Its a way to keep me sane and give a sense of normalcy. I plan on doing stripped down stuff, but I like to keep it positive and light. You get used to playing three or four shows a week. Its your routine and part of who you are. It was an issue for me when all my shows were cancelled but I had to get over it and realize that everyone is going through this.
RM: Your streams never feel out of place. Tv hosts are doing their shows without their audience to laugh, but they still pause after a joke when they would let the audience laugh, but since there’s just silence, its sad. You keep the noise and the energy going throughout.
LC: Thanks for noticing. I want you feel like you’re at a show.
RM: Last year you did a radio tour. It’s cool to see you still working with a radio station.
LC: The country scene is super close together. Its really cool to be a part of it. Obviously radio tours aren’t happening right now but they’re still opening their platform to help us. Real Texas Radio made me an admin so I can host the livestream from there. It shows how close and helpful everyone in the scene is and how we work together.
RM: I was researching about how country radio is still relevant in the streaming world and I found a Rolling Stone article saying just that. The country community is so tightly knit that the friends you make doing the radio tours really help you. It sounds like a rite of passage. It even mentioned the 2011 American Idol winner (Scotty McCreery) that did a country radio tour after the win, even though he got exposure on a national tv show. I also imagine a lot of the stations in rural areas where the only exposure you can get in those spots is that radio station. It has a really humble vibe to it.
LC: It really has a big family vibe. They play independent artists that don’t have financial backing. I remember I did a gig in Raymondville, and this lady told me she heard me on the radio in Lampasas. It shows the power of radio. These nice country fans take the time to hear our stories and hear the artists. The Texas radio award show was supposed to happen two or three weeks ago, but now it’s rescheduled for August. It’s great to meet all the artists and everyone involved. You really need to take the opportunity to be there.
Gender imbalance in country radio
RM: You recently shared a study about how country music fans are willing to hear more female singers on country radio.
LC: I changed my mind about this. I used to not think there’s no bias, but if you were to look at headlining concerts in Texas and festivals here, it’s all male and I don’t know why that is. I’m questioning things and I want to research, but what I do know is that I want to be where they are. It takes a lot of work but I have to wonder if there is a bias there. Look at the radio charts and it’s all male.
RM: Is there that much more male artists that it would skew the numbers?
LC: I would say its 80% male on radio in Texas, but I can’t confirm.* I don’t know whether it’s a fan thing or a gatekeeper thing, but I want to research and ask questions.
RM: I’m sure people don’t huddle into a room and say “alright guys, don’t play women on the radio.” It must be subconscious.
LC: That’s what I was about to say. I think it’s a subconscious bias. I don’t want to tell someone not to listen to an artist or listen to my music just because I’m a woman. I just hear a lot of women write great music and it doesn’t get the attention. Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert are from Texas and great mainstream artists. They made it. The one thing we can do and focus on as females is unite and support each other. We can help each other grow and play the same bill as the guys. I used to be scared to ask these questions, but I see a difference and I want to know why.
RM: This kind of stuff can be hard. A lot of factors to look at. I remember a few years ago, the gender wage gap was all the rage in the blogosphere. The claim was that women make like 70 cents for every dollar a man makes or something around that, but when we break down all the little factors, it looks so different. Men work more hours, some women drop out of the workforce when they have kids, men are less agreeable when they negotiate salaries so they demand more. A lot of little factors that add up.
LC: I’ve heard Jordan Peterson talk about women being more agreeable but I have to wonder about the pressure women are under to be that way. I’ve been in situations where I feel way more pressure than a man to be more agreeable. I’ve been in rooms with promoters looking up and down my body or they go to pay my father instead of me. I feel pressure not to say what I want to say because I don’t want to be “that bitch.” I’ve heard Jordan Peterson but I have to say maybe it’s just not socially acceptable. Is it worth it to be so agreeable? What’s the alternative? Not say what I want to say? That’s where I’m at right now.
* Click here for a close look at the data
Corzine Effect Podcast and Child Abuse Prevention month
RM: You just started your own podcast. You have one episode so far. Do you have anymore that you’re editing or any guests planned?
LC: I might have some people through discord. I have two lined up in April. They’re both child abuse awareness and prevention guests. A CPS agent and the founder of Blue Sunday which is the organization that I work with and promote. I want to interview people I know Joe Rogan style and talk about what they know and what they have to offer. My dad is a pastor and knows experts that can come on like doctors and lawyers. I love interviewing people. I was a mass comm major so I’m very interested in journalism.
Please listen to the audio clip below to hear Corzine talk about BlueSunday.org and child abuse prevention. Also below is Corzine’s music video for Blue Sunday.
Click here to donate
Fun questions
1. RM: Excluding yourself and people in your live band, if you could form a supergroup of RGV musicians, who would you put on vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and keys or production?
LC: Chris Marshall has this amazing voice and one of the most talented people I know. I would put him on lead guitar and vocals. This is so hard. Andy Gonzalez is a good drummer, he drums for Eddie Saenz, Dusty Salas is from Costello, he would be on bass. Denver Garcia is an amazing guitar player and songwriter, they would make an awesome country band.
RM: You have a violin player in your band. Any others you recommend around here?
LC: Jason Elsworth he’s really really good. He’s a great fiddle player.
RM: I forgot it’s called a fiddle in country music.
2. RM: If you could snap your fingers and make yourself better at something musically, what would it be? Guitar playing? Singing? Studio knowledge?
LC: Songwriting. I wish I wrote better songs faster. I take way too much time to thinking about “it’s okay, but how can I say this differently and better,” and I spend way too much time scrutinizing.
RM: Yea I think lingering on songs can ruin it. I remember Jay-Z wrote the introduction of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and he said the best songs are written in five minutes. I remember they voted Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” as the greatest song of the 2000’s decade. It’s just a spaghetti western sample with a simple bass line and drum pattern with CeeLo Green’s first and only vocal take for that song. It’s just catching lightning in a bottle. It happens so fast. I’m glad they didn’t dwell on it and overcomplicate that song.
LC: KT Tunstall talked about the Neil Young method which is writing the first thing in your head and not overcomplicate it. There’s a reason it’s there. You’re intuition is leading you somewhere.
3. RM: A lot of musicians joke about only getting paid in exposure, but how big would the crowd need to be for you to agree that it’s actually worth the exposure to play for free?
LC: I played a sold out show with Midland. I thought we were breaking fire code with so many people there. Some girl fainted. I don’t focus on the number of people, I play the same no matter how many are there.
RM: I think it deals more with local promoters that don’t pay the bands at local bar venues.
LC: At first that’s understandable, but when you’ve been doing it for a while you should be paid, it weakens your brand if you don’t. I remember playing at farmers markets for free with a lot of people there when I was 16. You have to gauge that, at what point you shouldn’t play for free, especially when you know you’re efficient as an artist. You got great social media presence, your own PA, sound, and a following. When you can guarantee that you can bring in people to that bar or restaurant. I’ve been through all that stuff and there’s no textbook milestone.
RM: I can’t wait to ask this question to smaller bands that are still young. I’d like to know what they feel their worth is. Thanks for answering these fun questions. I think we covered a lot just now. Thanks for speaking with me.
LC: Thanks so much for having me on.
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