NATIVE Premiere: The Voodoo Children’s “Tangerines and Daffodils”

Whether you call it the Gig Economy, the Age of the Side Hustle, or dawn of the Freelance Workforce, one thing is certain: the way we work is changing. Gone are the days of punching in at a reliable 9 to 5—one that offers benefits—for thirty years. Half of millennials report having some kind of side job to bring in extra cash, and 1 in 5 adults ages 18 to 36 can’t afford healthcare expenses.

As you could probably guess, musicians are among the least insured professionals in this already precarious economy. A 2013 survey by The Future of Music Coalition reported that, among the 3,402 musicians surveyed, 44 percent did not have insurance (that’s twice the national average). Our point: this isn’t good news for Nashville, where an incredibly large swath of our population is some kind of (likely uninsured) artist or musician.

Inspired by this issue and orgs like MusiCares—which help musicians deal with financial, medical, and personal emergencies—The Voodoo Children bring us “Tangerines and Daffodils.” Given that The Voodoo Children is the  project of JT Daly (front man of hometown heroes Paper Route), it’s maybe not surprising that the track is a slice of pop-rock perfection. There’s a sublime mix of lo-fi swagger and slick pop sensibilities on the track, thanks in no small-part to Daly’s duet partner on the song, Nikki Barber (of Static Trees and The Minks). Plus, you can’t argue with a shout-along chorus like, “Gimme love, gimme love / I can never get enough / Gimme love now.”

For the video, Daly collaborated with animation studio/arthouse Double Trouble Art, and the results are stunning, to say the least.

“Double Trouble reached out to me about making an animated video,” Daly explains. “I told them as long as it had at least a few seconds about mental health or health care, they could do whatever they wanted. Over 1,100 individual drawings later, they sent this. I don’t think they slept for a month.”

We believe him. Enjoy Daly, Barber, and Double Trouble’s hard work, and we encourage you to check out MusiCares. Remember, NATIVEs: Adequate healthcare is a right, not a privilege—even if you’re a musician.

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