I'm a busker/songwriter. I sing and play guitar in the streets of Calgary, Montreal, Kingston and elsewhere. I really enjoy the immediacy of it. When I put out good energy, people usually respond. When I have none left, more often than not, some good soul comes around and charges me up! Busking is how I make a living. It's also one way that I stand up for democracy by exercising my constitutionally-protected right to freedom of expression in public space.
I don't really hear how they influence what I sound like, but I enjoy the music of Bruce Cockburn, Todd Rundgren, Billy Joel, the Kinks, Toad the Wet Sprocket/Glen Phillips, the Cryan Shames and Jean Leloup.
I have mixed feelings about using Soundclick, Microsoft, the internet, etc. It does serve as a means of communicating and sharing, but we ought not lose sight of the extent to which the use of these technologies and systems taxes the earth's ecosystems, and, as usual, tends to funnel money and power into organizations that are really just about accumulating money and power, and thus about dominating people and the natural world. Use technologies wisely.
