LOCAL STORY Highline had years of experience organizing large-scale events like the Winter X Games, Super Bowl Half Time Shows, Vail Snow Days, and Deighan saw this as a great way to parlay that experience into a different type of enterprise. In the early fall of 2020, Deighan began applying for requests for proposals from the state of Colorado to manage and staff COVID testing sites. Highline Medical Solutions, a new wing of the Highline events business, was born. “I was so excited,” Deighan said. “We kind of put the word out across the country, to the Highline family, to anyone that didn’t have work, to apply their very strong skill sets and help address a serious need in fighting the pandemic.” OPPORTUNITIES FOR PAID WORK Deighan wasn’t the only individual in the music business excited to have paid work in a new industry “We lost not only our jobs but our identity this past year,” Stacy Wiseman said. “Not only are we working now, but we are helping the country open back up.” A tour manager for A-list comedians and bands, Wiseman spent 14 years traveling around the world before the pandemic hit. She learned about the job opportunities with Highline through a Facebook group for music industry professionals. At the vaccine sites, Wiseman helps manage the administration side of the vaccination sites. Wiseman said Highline has managed the sites extremely well because they applied the same efficiencies as those they used to produce events. “This is a mini-festival,” Wiseman said. “We set it up like a tour production office because it works. We say put us in charge because we know how to do this work.” Before working for Highline, Wiseman lived on $167 a week from unemployment. Her unemployment was interrupted on two different occasions because she was a victim of fraudulent claims. “I’ve talked with friends [in the music industry] around the country who are really floored that this is what Denver is doing, hiring industry people,” Wiseman said. “Other individuals around the country haven’t had this option, haven’t been this lucky.” WHATEVER COMES NEXT After Sarah Slaton joined the Highline Medical Solutions team in late December, she got right to work in her new role. In no time, she was donning N95 respirators and face shields, traveling to rural communities, and conducting COVID tests. Slaton learned quickly, despite having little medical experience in her background. She said the biggest demand on her team was helping to calm nerves for people scared of a virus they didn’t fully understand. She was also nervous about getting the virus and spreading it to the people she cared about. “I wasn’t vaccinated the first couple of months that I was doing it,” Slaton said. “There were hundreds of people coming Your Own Medicine plays a streamed show at The Armory Denver. “We were the fi rst to close and may be the last to open because you can’t really book a national tour.” Credit: Giles Clasen to the sites every day for tests, and quite a few people were positive. I’m not going to lie and tell you that I wasn’t anxious, but I knew that we were doing good work.” To cope with the anxiety of the ever-present threat of the virus, Slaton was meticulous about cleanliness. She never went anywhere in public without a mask and used copious amounts of hand sanitizer. Being on the road and living out of hotels as part of the COVID response felt a little like traveling as a musician, too. She even brought her guitar and a mobile recording studio to continue writing music. “I have written a lot of music in the past year,” Slaton said. “I don’t have a full album’s worth by any means, but I definitely have been writing a lot of music, and I’m figuring out what way I’m going to release it. I’m figuring out how I’m going to afford to get it all recorded.” Sam Krentzman said he has seen a lot of resiliency in the creative community this year. Krentzman, the founder of The Armory Denver, a music and recording venue, has been working on “When the Music Stops,” a documentary about the pandemic’s impact on the Colorado music scene. “I actually think that’s the thing about the creative community. It’s not like they’re only able to be creative in a particular scenario,” Krentzman said. “Their creative energy transcends difficult scenarios. We actually saw a lot of people who couldn’t tour or play for audiences go to the studio and start recording. There are a lot of people getting ready for whatever comes next.” REBUILDING THE INDUSTRY But the damage to the Colorado music scene may be lasting and has gone beyond hurting musicians and companies that organize shows. Krentzman said thousands of tradespeople lost their incomes due to COVID. Great shows require skilled sound board operators, lighting technicians, riggers, stage builders — even bartenders — to ensure they run smoothly. Some of these tradespeople left the industry completely in 2020, looking for other work. Some moved away from Colorado during the pandemic. “I know steelworkers and riggers who moved to Florida and Apdiela Pulido receives her second dose of the Pfizer vaccine from Laura Vanston. Highline Medical Solutions. Credit: Giles Clasen Texas building stadiums and stages,” Krentzman said. “Those states had fewer restrictions, so production moved. But [those workers] had to expose themselves to additional risks of COVID in those spaces, leaving the regulations of their home state for work elsewhere.” Krentzman said The Armory Denver struggled to survive. The business only survived because of a grant, virtual shows, the support and generosity from the building’s owner, and Krentzman using his unemployment income to pay the business’s bills. “This is a family affair,” Krentzman said. “It is a group of artists who built this place, and it took a lot of people to keep it going this past year.” There is a chance that Colorado will have a lot of work rebuilding the music scene here. But the music industry is important to Colorado’s economic success. A recent study by Economists, Inc., an economic consulting firm, found that for every dollar generated by music activities, an additional 50 cents is created for adjacent businesses. The music industry supports 2.4 million jobs nationally. The total economy does well when the music industry is thriving. “Everyone benefits from every stage of a musician’s development,” Krentzman said. “I just wish there were more direct investments in the creative arts in Colorado, both in industry development and also artistic development.” Krentzman also said he thinks the live music industry will come back slower than other parts of the economy. “We were the first to close and may be the last to open because you can’t really book a national tour,” Krentzman said. “Every state has different restrictions, so it is very difficult to book right now.” The Colorado Music Relief Fund, managed by Redline Contemporary Art Center, has helped support individuals who work in the Colorado music industry, but the biggest thing someone can do to help bring live shows back to Colorado is to get vaccinated, Krentzman said. “In my personal opinion, the vaccines are very important,” said Krentzman, who was vaccinated. “I feel a sense of personal responsibility for my own health and who I’m obligated to care for in my own life and business. There needs to be a sense of social responsibility to prevent the transmission of the disease and the development of new variants. We need to do as much as we can to keep people safe. The more that people get vaccinated, the fewer [number of] people will die of COVID. I think that that’s a very good goal.” If music events are attended by a mix of individuals who are both vaccinated and unvaccinated, concerts could become hotspots for the spread of the virus. Krentzman said that would likely lead to another shutdown of live music. A second shutdown could be a more devastating injury to the music industry and could be even more difficult to recover from. CREATING MOMENTUM Slaton has already given up hope of reviving her national tour that had been scheduled for 2020. She was vaccinated due to her high risk of exposure while working for Highline and now, she feels safe playing live shows. But she will limit any touring to Colorado this year. She is hoping that the U.S. continues to open safely throughout 2021 and she can have momentum leading into 2022. “I create momentum,” Slaton said. “That’s the reason I am where I am. Everything that I’ve ever done, anything that I’m super proud of, it because I worked at it. I’ll create momentum whatever year it is or whatever day it is.” Slaton released two new songs in 2020, “Time to Go,” and “Get Up.” She has received a strong reception to both and is excited about the following she now has and hopes to expand it significantly over the next year. “I feel like I’m still just trying to keep going and keep getting up each day and just loving the present moment as much as I can,” Slaton said. “I don’t know what I’m going to be doing in two or three months; I don’t know when this is going to end or when I can go back to playing music full-time. I just have to remember that I’ll find my way eventually.” ■ June 2021 DENVER VOICE 7
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