HUMANWINE [Recycled Movement]

HUMANWINE [Recycled Movement]

Recycled Movement
HUMANWINE plans a Perpetual Tour

In June 2005 M@ McNiss and Holly Brewer first introduced Boston to the music of HUMANWINE by settling into a little home where they trained a revolving cast of players handpicked from various local music circles. After two years the wind has changed and it is time for the husband and wife team to move on...

When initially our hearts and minds came together on the idea of moving it was in the conventional sense of the word "move". We were going to get rid of all that we do not use, pack up what's left into easily destroyed cardboard boxes, play a life-size game of tetris in the back of some expensive rental vehicle, drive across the country and plop ourselves into another living situation of dependency.

That WAS the "plan". The more we got into putting this "plan" into action the more we realized it didn't fit with our actual life goals. In fact it countered our art's message and purpose. How could we possibly claim the right to show the world our art and not mold our lives into an actualization and example of solutions to the issues we do our best to raise? We decided we could not.

This has been a long evolving lesson for us, one which has posed many questions. For instance how do two musicians without todays standard issue credit card get themselves about on a tour? You NEED a credit card for van and hotel rentals. These are the two biggest practical factors to a tour. Transportation and shelter.

Transportation has a few subdivided practical issues. The base element is the vehicle itself. With the proper vehicle choice, a whole slew of these problems are solved. The last tour we did we along with aid of a credit card sponsor rented a 16-passenger van and also rented hotels when we couldn't find a place to stay for the night. These are the absolute stupidest things a band could ever do. We spent $8,560.00 in van rental fees alone and another $1,000.00 for ten nights in hotels along the tour. For that amount of money we could have bought our own vehicle not to mention a larger one which would allow us to sleep and eat in it solving the issues of both shelter and transportation. The answer was staring us in the face, HUMANWINE needs a traveling shelter from which we can spring and play our music for any who want to watch and listen. This is a great idea but it still doesn't quite pose a solution to taking off the shackles of society's corporate machine. By purchasing a bus we run into issues like increased fuel use multiplied by the outrageous cost established by the blood lusting oil industry and their investors. We would be yet another beacon of pollution cruising around the country asking folks to wake up to the corruption while we in essence would be also supporting that same corruption.

So with one problem of transportation solved we gain two more. One...fuel cost. Two...pollution. The most wonderful thing about these two issues is that there is ONE solution. WVO or Waste Vegetable Oil. Today one can purchase a conversion kit for diesel engines (designed originally to run off off peanut oil) which enables the engine to run entirely off of Waste Vegetable oil with the exception of a small amount of diesel gas to get it started in colder temperatures. WVO burns clean because it is just that, vegetable oil which has been used and will be going to waste. Where does one get this used vegetable oil? Where else? From countless fast food and other fry-o-lator using establishments all over North America and beyond.

With transportation taken care we still have the issue of shelter which to a touring band is more than just a roof. Preferred shelter for a touring band would involve a way to prepare food, a safe place to sleep with enough bunks (for whoever is in the band at the time), a healthful environment to make sure you don't sing with a stuffy nose, electricity, and an Internet connection to allow for administrative and communication purposes. With a large enough vehicle the necessary conversion can be made to install bunks and equipment storage bays. The electricity issue is very easily solved with solar collectors and adequate battery storage. But how mush do we need? We set aside a some time and figured out how many watts we use per hour on average given that we would need to run our computers, phone chargers, amplification, etc. The other huge benefit to a solar powered touring vehicle is that the tour no longer needs to be limited corporate venues. We would be able to pull up to any coordinate point, open our doors and play even if there was no electricity. This would enable an entire other world of possibilities in terms of venue and audience as a whole. No age restrictions no Clear Channel politics.

We will be documenting the entire conversion experience as a learning tool for those interested. as we come up with new footage we will post it online at http://www.nervousrelatives.com/recycled_movement. Once all is said and done we will be compiling all our footage into one long documentary to be released online for free & on DVD for a reasonable fee.

To sum up our goal has shifted from a "plan" (that perpetuates a system of dependency which would only enslave & hide us) to a PLAN which allows HUMANWINE to speak to as many people as possible in the most independent, clean and self-sustainable way our current technology allows. Folks can donate to RECYCLED MOVEMENT at http://www.nervousrelatives.com/recycled_movement.

HUMANWINE.org