"It gives me hope that we're giving other people hope"

Such are the number of challenges and threats to independent artists at the current moment in time that it might seem perverse to highlight the positives - but in this article for Vice, Emma Garland is no naive ostrich burying her head in the sand.

She acknowledges the myriad difficulties faced by musicians who operate outside of the mainstream - but instead prefers to accentuate reasons to be hopeful: the existence of record shops/community hubs like Pop Recs in Sunderland; the energetic campaigning and support of charities such as the Music Venues Trust and the Musicians Union; the success of bands as politically charged as Bob Vylan, whose 2022 album Bob Vylan Presents The Price Of Life - as they proudly noted at Clwb in May - is the first to be written, produced, mixed, released and partially distributed by a band themselves and break into the Top 20.

Some will inevitably see Bob Vylan as the exceptions bucking an overall trend and suggest that Garland and her interviewees are rather clutching at straws. But on the first day of a new year, at least, let's share in that optimistic outlook - because if we don't, and dwell only on the doom and gloom, then we might as well admit defeat.