Compliance sucks

Every phone call I make these days begins with a cheerful little voice telling me:

“This call may be recorded for compliance and training purposes.”

This is usually after I’ve already entered the rabbit-hole labyrinth of:

“If you know your party’s extension…”

“Press 14 for Lithuanian…”

Until eventually I’m yelling “AGENT!” into my phone seven or eight times, hoping to reach a human being who is apparently working from a base camp on one of Jupiter’s darker moons.

But that word always sticks in my craw.

Compliance.

The act of obeying.

Now, I understand compliance. Really.

We’re renting a rehearsal space in London before the tour, and I have just finished putting together, I kid you not, 117 pages of Health & Safety documentation for them.

I don’t want anyone tripping over a cable.

I don’t want anyone falling off a ladder.

And under absolutely no circumstances will Pascal be plugging in his guitar amp while standing in a bucket of water.

We are VERY compliant about that stuff.

But somewhere along the way, I think we’ve started confusing being safe with being safe.

Because art isn’t supposed to be safe.

Art is supposed to take chances.

It should occasionally make you uncomfortable. Surprise you. Challenge you. Make you laugh when you weren’t expecting to. Make you feel something you weren’t planning on feeling.

Art should poke you a little.

And that’s where we become considerably less compliant.

When you come see Vox Lumiere perform Metropolis, Pascal will NOT be standing in a bucket of water.

There will be properly secured cables, risk assessments, PAT-tested equipment and enough documentation to stun a medium-sized farm animal.

But what happens after the lights go down?

No guarantees.

We’re not interested in giving you something you’ve already seen.

We want to make something interesting. Provocative. Beautiful. Loud. Strange.

Maybe even a little dangerous.

Emotionally dangerous, Health & Safety people. Emotionally.

So yes, we will comply with every safety regulation required of us.

But creatively?

Not a chance.

You’ve got phone calls for that.

That’s it. I’m not gonna get all mushy.

See ya,

Kevin