Lazy Thinking is a not-for-profit organisation providing free support and resources to independent and emerging Australian musical artists. We believe it is harder than it has ever been to operate, survive and prosper as an independent artist, and there is a real lack of support infrastructure for those artists.

We focus what we do around two things:

1) Aiming to provide some of resources artists tell us they need the most.

In no particular order: a free place to play; dedicated, uninterrupted time and space to produce work; financial support, access to equipment ( particularly for shows), and somewhere to stay when travelling for their work.

2) Finding ways to provide that support by making better use of resources that already exist within our community.

Times are tough. For pretty much everyone.

There are a kazillion competing asks for your money from incredible organisations doing incredible things. Fundraising remains extraordinarily important to us, and a lot of what we provide simply costs money. But particularly in the current economic climate, we think it’s important to get much better at working out what else people can contribute.

Because there is already an enormous amount of useful stuff sitting around in our community. People have spare rooms, empty apartments, PAs, mixing desks, drum kits, guitar amps, studios, spaces, skills, knowledge and time. A lot of those things aren’t being used all of the time. The challenge is working out who has them, who needs them, and how the two can be connected.

That feels especially important right now. There might be less money around for people to donate, but that doesn’t mean there are fewer resources in our community. A spare bedroom can save a touring artist hundreds of dollars. A PA sitting unused in someone’s garage can allow somebody else to put on their first DIY show. A mixing desk temporarily loaned to somebody can be every bit as useful as giving them the money to hire one.

We think one of Lazy Thinking’s jobs is to get increasingly good at finding those resources, organising them and getting them to independent artists who can use them.

Our DIY equipment initiative combines Lazy Thinking’s own fairly extensive collection of equipment with gear made available by people and organisations across the community. We also help source additional equipment when artists and DIY organisers need it.

Our Artist Accommodation Network works on much the same principle, connecting touring, visiting and working artists who need short-term accommodation with people who have somewhere for them to stay.

Our Residency Program provides artists each month with free accommodation across two locations, dedicated studio space, financial support and access to professional recording studios.

We’ll shortly launch our free, open-access education program across two locations in Greater Sydney, while continuing the work of Lazy Thinking Records and our other existing activities. If anything, we’ve sped up, rather than slowed down, while we finalise our new home.

We don’t think all cultural infrastructure needs to come from governments, institutions or large organisations.

Government funding is important, and we’ll continue pursuing it. But it doesn’t need to be the only way this stuff happens. There are resources, skills, spaces and people throughout our community that can make a meaningful difference to independent artists.

We’re going to work really hard at finding better ways of getting those resources to the artists who need them.