What Club?

A conversational zine by Ben McCarthy, Sofie Mikhaylova (Sonja), and Saira Sabri

In October 2020, Ben McCarthy and Sonja were part of a livestreamed event co-presented by Ryerson University and Jack Layton Chair, Musicians During COVID-19: Collaboration, Connection & Cacophany. In preparation, Ben and Sonja started a long email thread, which ended up being filled with more ideas than their alloted 15 minutes of conversation allowed. After the event, they decided the thread was too interesting to waste, and decided to edit it down and immortalize it.

The original idea was to create a physical, risoprinted zine, a tangible email thread, something one could touch, but this proved to be challenging, and the idea was moved back into the digital space.

Brought to life with stunning drawings from Saira Sabri, the zine is now ready to be shown to you as an embedded digital booklet and as a free download for you to keep on your harddrive for as long as you want, to take with you when you move, in a place where it won’t collect dust.

What Club? brings an open and passionate conversation about the future of musicians during and after COVID-19, what the state of the industry is right now, the reality of livestreams, and the oversaturation of creative markets. Ben and Sonja frankly discuss their feelings on virtual events, the bizarre, online-only world we’ve been forced to inhabit, and the multiple roles artists need to take on, especially on social media. Everything is closed, but we’re still making music, we’re still performing, still DJing— for who? Making dance music for who? What club? The venue has been replaced by the bed, the living room. Have we been affected more than we know? The weirdness continues as we live and breathe in digital spaces. The need for consumption has not been erased since COVID— in fact, it’s possible it’s increased. Is even more expected of musicians now? What can be done?

What Club? is a labour of love. Though the event and previously mentioned email thread took place in October 2020, this digital manifestation of months of thought is only here now. It is finally ready.

Download What Club? for free and take a digital dive in. See you on the other site.

Thank you to Ken Moffat, MJ Wright, and the Jack Layton Chair of Social Justice for putting on this event. Thank you to Saira for the endless patience and beautiful artwork. And thank you to the readers, who, we hope, will love this conversation like we did.