Downtime is a simple way to connect an artist with causes they believe in and want to support while on or off the road. Jay Harren started the organization just this past March, and PropertyOfZack had the chance to catch up with him to dive into what the organization stands for, what bands they work with, and how they hope to expand. Read up! 

For those who don’t know, can you explain what Downtime is?
I was on tour with a band that I signed two years ago in England and it kind of hit me that these bands work really hard while they’re on the road, but that they did have a lot of downtime on their hands, which is where the name came from. That meant travelling between venues for six to eight hours and sitting in the bus or the van or whatever. Or arriving in the morning and waiting around till night until soundcheck. Most musicians agree that when you’re on the road full time that there are a lot of opportunities to do nothing. I started thinking about what it would look like if these bands started donating a small portion of their time to a cause that they believe in and want to personally get behind. That was two years ago. I started thinking about it and I left Columbia back in March and started working on it full time. The response has been great. We have a good little roster of bands that keeps growing. We ask the bands what causes they want to support, they tell us, and then we connect them and that cause. We ask the bands to make a very lo-fi video on purpose. That video gets placed on the Downtime portion of their Facebook page. Fans can see what the bands are up to. I know it’s not practical for bands to jump into a car once they get to a venue and drive to a house or to a soup kitchen. So the idea is to allow them to use their social networking tools because it’s super easy. Rather then asking them to leave a venue, we ask them to send out tweets or to do an update. Manchester Orchestra just tweeted out about raising money for their cause. This band Group Love is raising awareness for Little Kids Rock. They support that cause in their own way, and if they need help or ideas then we of course help.

Can you discuss your history in the music industry?
I started a band when I was in college in Atlanta and I wanted to get my music heard. I started interning at a radio station with the intent of slipping them my demos. That led to a full time job in the promotions department and then a full time job as the music director of the station. I ended up working there for eight and a half years. I recognized that I definitely should not have been on the singing side of the mic, I should be on the business side. I did radio for eight years during which time I also managed some bands. I got a gig for A&R at Columbia Records in New York. I got a job as the A&R manager at Columbia Records where I worked for five years. I signed Manchester Orchestra and Hey Monday. Both of them are Downtime artists now. I left in March and started doing this full time.

Do you have a team behind you as well, or is it predominately you?
I do have a few partners. It’s predominately me though. I have one guy who has relationships with non-profits who need help. I have another guy who’s a big picture marketing person. We’re going to eventually grow it out of Facebook. Eventually we want to host it out mydowntime.com. On the individual pages you’ll have way more content and opportunities for fans to actually engage in whatever their cause is. We’ll have a mobile app for it as well so fans can check in with their bands. Ultimately, we want it to trickle down to the fans from the bands. We started at Facebook because that’s where the fans exist.

What sort of organizations have you begun working with?
Group Love and Hey Monday are working with Little Kids Rock. They’re basically trying to keep music in schools. We’re involved with the International Justice Mission, which is an organization that is against sex slavery. Kevin Devine isn’t up and running yet, but we’re about to launch him. He’s going to do Food Not Bombs, which is an organization that is anti-war and pro-farming. It’s a really large spectrum of organizations. Mayday Parade came to us out of nowhere with a cause they wanted to support. They really jumped right in. They’re not all household names, but a band like Mayday Parade has 800,000 fans on Facebook. We want bands whose fans are really going to react. We started in the pop-punk world and now we’re going into some older bands like Group Love. We want to grow into actors and actresses as well in all entertainment. Hopefully people in general will latch on as well.
 
Are you looking to expand in terms of these organizations that you’re working with?
It’s completely dependent on the bands. If they come to us with a cause then we just go for it. We by default then grow our cause-base. We do have a list about ten organizations that we have relationships with. Butch Walker has dealt with cancer in his family, so he wanted to do something that involved fundraising for a cancer charity, but he didn’t know which one. We have a relationship with a charity, so we hooked him up with that. He’ll be raising awareness on tour. He had an idea, but not a charity, so we facilitated that.

Are you gradually seeing more bands interested in working with you?
Yeah, it’s been pretty amazing. One day I woke up and checked my email and there was a note from Mayday Parade’s manager. They’re coming to us, which is huge. We’re still pursuing others as well though. We’re just trying to create a place for them to do some good with their time. It’s growing and it’s really impressive for me to see these bands turn it outwards and put the spotlight on something else.

Is there a long term goal for what you’re looking to do, or is it one step at a time?
Some bands do want to do more. Anberlin wants to reinvent the meet and greet. Instead of fans coming to a venue, they want to identify a cause and have fans meet them at say a construction site for Habitat For Humanity or at a soup kitchen. They’ll meet the fans, but they want the fans to help serve besides them as well. That’s really taking it up a notch. Logistically it’s a challenge, but we need to know enough in advance for transportation and such. It’s mind blowing to me though that they want to do that. So we’re going to get it done. We welcome bands doing more. The long term plan is for mydowntime.com to be built out.