Music for Art’s Sake
Without artists we may find ourselves living in a binary world, zero’s and ones dripping from weeping willows, pouring from public faucets, wearing underwear not named, but numbered. We might open our closet to a sea of black and white or buy crayons in shades of gray. Without music, without the toot of a horn or the strum of a guitar, without song, voice, or sound, how different our lives would be.
Photo by Steven Bailey
But we drift, don’t we? As humans. Swayed by those ones and fives, those 20’s and 100’s, those smiles and swipes. Swooned by the ring of the register, the admiration of success. Forgetting what we need is not more––more money, more ideas, more opinions, more music, but less. Less distractions, less input, less influence, less music for money’s sake and more music for music’s sake. But we’re tired, we’re broken, we’re stretched and worn, sliced thinner and thinner by a world that asks for only more, never less, until we’re light as lace, in an empty room, no audience or microphones, just the sounds of that primordial beat. That quiet knocking of our soul. And then, oh, and then…we will never forget again.
Indie Folk Artist, RIVVRS, has garnered more than 100 million streams and 100 features across film and TV yet he says his fifth album, Sunlight of the Spirit––which launched October 3rd––feels like his debut. “This is the only music I have ever made for the sake of being a vessel to a higher power,” says Brandon Zahursky, known publicly as RIVVRS, who drifted, battling an addiction to alcohol after spending a decade on the road between Nashville and Los Angeles. “Until this record, music felt like business. I never felt like I was able to make music just for the sake of making art. There was always a voice in my head that doubted I was any good, or that I deserved to be successful. At a certain point, I convinced myself I wasn’t actually an artist, but was just some dude who got lucky licensing his songs for TV shows.”
Through his journey to recovery, Brandon relocated to Nevada County with his wife in 2019, setting up roots on a homestead in Grass Valley. “This album is the story of an artist who lost his way and found God. It’s the arc of a man who had to lose everything in order to understand he needs nothing more than what he has. I’m incredibly grateful for this vibrant community, and for the warm welcome I’ve received since we moved to Nevada County. This feels like home.”
RIVVRS recently performed at The Center for the Arts in Grass Valley on October 19, 2024.
